'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! (and other cider news)

The May Day bank holiday weekend is rapidly turning into 'National 1st Beer Festival of the Year Weekend' for many pubs. The promise of early Summer sunshine makes this one of our favourite weekends for kicking back with a beer or three, and who knows, maybe this year we'll get some proper holiday weather to go with the ales.

The Crown Inn, in the pretty Cambridgeshire village of Elton, has a well established May Bank Holiday Beer Festival (30th April - 1st May) which features a pretty decent range of ciders and perrys too. We enjoyed our day out in Elton so much last year, that we've decided to make a return visit. This time we're taking along a couple of close friends, a barrel each of our Rockingham Forest Cider and Blakeney Red Perry. The festival features live music and a BBQ, with a Hog Roast and Village Fete on the Monday.

The following weekend we'll be sending a similar range of cider and perry to the Waendel Walk Beer Festival (7th - 8th May) in Wellingborough. All beers and ciders have been sourced within 30 miles of the festival, making it a truly Locale and LocApple festival.

Closer to home, we're pleased to announce that the long wait is finally over, with Rockingham Forest Cider now available at our local outlet the Red Lion, Middleton. This cider is made from a blend of Yarlington Mill and Vilberie cider apples, with the dual purpose variety Blenheim Orange giving a dash of balancing acidity. This slightly hazy cider has an attractive deep golden colour, rich tannins and a clean fruity flavour. Alcohol levels have been boosted by the 'vintage' year we experienced in 2009. The Yarlington Mill cider apples in particular have contributed to a higher abv of 7.2%. Please note that our ciders and perrys contain no added sugars, so this represents the natural alcohol level achieved from the fruit alone.