Cider and Perry Month

Pears 

Pears originated in the Caucasus around 4,000 years ago with over 3,000 varieties. Perry pears, however, are only 400 years old, bred in England’s West country. There are only around 120 varieties, many of which are very rare. These trees, unlike apples, are very long-lived and equally take a long time to mature. It is said that you can plant an apple tree for your kids and a perry pear tree for your grandchildren.

Variety 

Depending on your source of reference, there are over 7,500 different apple varieties, and around 450 are used in cider making. Only a few, around 25, are used regularly. Similarly, there are only a handful of perry pears in common use. Technically you can make cider or perry from any variety, including eaters. Whether or not you want to drink it is another matter.

Alchemy 

Unlike beer where you can experiment making a new recipe as fast as your equipment allows, cider and perry makers, particularly craft makers, get one shot a year. As most fruit isn’t ready until the end of autumn or early winter, even the cold weather plays its part, making the process very much a labour of love for the cider and perry makers.

Luck 

Some time ago, an experiment was conducted to try and scientifically predict the quality of an apple crop, and therefore the cider, in any given year. They measured everything they could, even the type of insects visiting the flowers. It failed. There are just too many variables affecting the pollination and growth of fruit. Then there’s the weather where luck plays no small part. Cidermakers hold their breath to see what the season brings.

Skill 

One way round the alchemy and luck issues, mentioned yesterday, is the skill of blending. Historically, anything up to seven apple varieties were used, dictated by what was locally available. Year replication (like Strongbow’s) wasn’t easy until the modern era, even now it is only realistically available in industrial cider.

Style 

Neither cider or perry is just dry, medium, sweet or fizzy. Nor is it simply East or West country or somewhere in between. At some CAMRA festivals you’ll find them described as acidic (sharp), tannin and sweet. Some makers only use local apples, often their own. Others use all sorts. If you see PetNat on the label, it means it’s naturally slightly fizzy. There’s only one way to discover your preference – so get tasting.

Tannin 

For some, tannin is essential in cider as it gives it a more rounded mouth feel, typically associated with West Country cider. Perry pears can be full of it. Technically, it’s an immensely complicated chemistry more often associated with dryer offerings. Put simply, if you like tea, you’ll probably prefer a tannin lead perry, be it dry or sweet. In cider, the tannin element comes from cider apples grown for cider making. There’s simply more of them in the West Country than the East, where cookers and eaters dominate orchards.

International 

The UK is currently the world’s largest market for cider. The US is catching up fast. North-west Spain has a long tradition of cider making (protected by law), as does north-west France. Many other countries, as diverse as Norway and South Africa, have the terroir to grow apples, but their cider markets are yet to fully flourish.

Cider Duty 

Unfortunately tax and most alcoholic drinks are inseparable. In the UK, to be taxed as cider or perry, the product needs to be 8.4% or less ABV. Stronger ciders do exist, but they can be expensive as they are taxed as wine. Ice cider in particular, made using one of several special cold processes, produces a very fine drink at around 12%.

Cider Riots 

In 1763, a tax of 4 shillings per hogshead of cider was levied (£52 on 432 pints in today’s money). This resulted in riots, particularly in Wales and the West Country (where there were lots of MPs) the tax was dropped within three years.

Smashing 

Once the fruit has been washed (a bit of brown often doesn’t matter) here comes for many, especially children, the fun part, where you get to smash the fruit up, or more technically, mill or mash them. All sorts of wonderful gadgets have been created to help do this. Obviously scale matters, as does the mess if playing at home! One device often used is called a scratter, it’s got lots of teeth! It grinds the apple up into small pea sized pieces (pulp) that makes pressing easier to extract the juice.

Squashing 

Once the fruit has been smashed up into a pulp (or pomace) it needs to be squashed to get the juice out. On a smaller scale there are many ways to do this, usually involving layering the pulp up in a press. The resultant assemblies being known as a cheese of pulp wrapped in cloth. This starts a well-known culinary combination even before it’s finished. Once done with the cheese (pulp) it is often fed to the farm animals.

Yeast 

Yeast is clever stuff but it’s temperamental. There are several ways of starting fermentation, from natural with wild yeasts and an open barrel in a barn to adding specific industrial cultures into large vats. Like all living things, yeast requires good conditions to thrive (warmth and food). However, it can become what’s called stuck (not enough to eat). Modern techniques have resolved this issue.

Maturation 

Specifically Malolactic Fermentation (MLF). Once the early fermentation has calmed down a period of maturation is required. Good hygiene (sterilising vessels and keeping air out) is necessary as there’s a new bunch of faults that can occur. The cider maker can still alter the final product in this stage. There’s a fault that isn’t actually one – if so desired – malic acid, the sour flavour of green apples and apple sour sweets, can be converted by lactic acid bacteria to make lactic acid, a softer flavour. This softening process is common in the wine industry, cider makers are far more selective.

Blending 

The real art in cider and perry making is in the blending. The skill and knowledge of being able to taste an apple or pear in its raw state and predict how it turns out, and then the ability to balance it with other flavours to create a saleable, possibly award-winning product year on year is no small endeavour.

Storing 

Oxygen is both cider and perry’s worst enemy, particularly in a live craft product. If it gets in, it creates all sorts of havoc, usually resulting in vinegar (acetic acid). Storing in anything but a glass bottle has an inherent risk (even metal is permeable to a level), so once it’s open, drink it! Oddly good quality cider vinegar is often more expensive by volume than cider. Real cider and perry, unlike wine, can’t be kept indefinitely. Small subtle changes in its chemistry invariably leads to the release of oxygen and its eventual deterioration. Cider makers will use airlocks (bubblers) to ensure the fermenting gas can escape but air does not get in.

Pasteurisation and filtration 

Unlike real cider, industrially pasteurised and filtered cider can be kept for as long as it says on the container. The use of these processes or not (there’s more than one) can stir up emotions in craft industry. But the reality is if you want to keep it for any length of time you need to clobber it with tech. Keeping it real means drink it. Like keg beer, the stuff out of a fountain is dead.

Cider production 

Like many industries, cider is dominated by just a few large businesses. These produce the vast majority of the 700 million litres made annually, supporting 65,000 jobs and a lot of infrastructure (orchards and more). But, thankfully, there are around 500 cider makers in the UK, mostly small business. That’s a lot of ciders to try!

Keeving 

This process is centuries old, and, although in modern times has been more associated with French cider, it is happily making a comeback in the UK. It involves starving the yeast of nutrition by stopping the fermentation before all the natural sugars are used up, resulting in a light, often sparking, sweet cider. It is a more involved process but well worth doing.

Labelling 

This is a massive, complex, international, subject. The food you eat has to be labelled with all sorts of content and origin information. Alcoholic beverages don’t, but they go the same way! Many manufacturers don’t want to admit what they do. Most craft makers don’t mind, many are proud of their content and actively promote it. CAMRA actively supports consumer transparency.

Fine cider and perry 

Fine cider is most commonly associated with a 750ml glass bottle, also known as wine bottle. To some this is an anathema being just cider, and potentially not even that good of a cider, marketed as wine. Make it fizzy and put it in a champagne bottle, even better. But few can argue that these products are opening new and exciting markets for real cider and perry, and there are some truly excellent fine dining pairings supported by top chefs.

Bottles 

Most historians agree that bottles thick enough to withstand fizz pressures, along with corks from Portugal, were developed in England by Sir Kenelm Digby in the early 17th century (1630). This process, now known as ‘méthode champenoise’, was used decades before being adopted in France, to make sparkling cider. And it still is.

Packaging 

How your cider or perry is packaged, and correspondingly processed, can have a profound effect on the product you drink. It can be available in a variety of containers such as cans, crown cap bottles, corked bottles (champagne style), jugs with stoppers, key kegs, bag in box, through a handpull, dropped from a barrel, gas assisted from typically an aluminium firkin through a fountain (industrial pub stuff). All ideally need to be served at the right temperature (0-20 degree Celsius) for the product, which can depend greatly on the fizz and alcohol content.

Orchards are protected habitats 

A study by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species revealed that 90% of traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s. The Coppy perry pear variety was extinct until one singular tree was discovered. Traditional orchards grow taller trees than commercial orchards, with high levels of biodiversity – providing a home for a variety of wildlife and cider apple and perry pear varieties. Orchards are vital to our landscape, our humanity, and for the production of real ciders and perries loved by many.