Harvest-Ho

It's been unexpectedly busy this weekend at Rockingham Forest Cider. The business of picking and pressing for the 2011 vintage is well and truly upon us, and once again, it's come a little earlier than we'd have liked.

There's no excuses really. It's been widely reported that the cider apple harvest is up to a month earlier than ususal. But in our case, it's not cider apples that have kept us busy all weekend, it's perry pears, Malvern Hills perry pears to be precise. Somehow we'd assumed that venerable old trees like these are rather more set in their ways than feckless faddy young cider apple trees. We were wrong!



We've come to expect the Malvern Hills pears (more correctly known as Moorcroft, or indeed Stinking Bishop) to ripen around the third weekend of September, which is a very convenient weekend to be in the Three Counties area as it coincides with the Hartpury Perry Pear Day in Gloucestershire. I'd pencilled in the weekend just gone for final preperations in the ciderhouse, in readiness for the Malvern Hills harvest next weekend. It therefore came as a bit of a shock when John contacted me to say the pears were already falling, and since we know that Malvern Hills pears rot within days of ripening, we were going to have to drop everything and high-tail it to the orchard or miss the lot. Worse still, the pears would need pressing immediately  we got home! Bye-bye relaxing weekend, hello hard orchard graft!



It was an eventful and exhausting day in the orchard. We managed to harvest around twice as many pears as last year, this despite several major Panking Pole failures and a couple of broken branches along the way. John had already warned us that quite a few branches had come down in the orchard recently, probably down to the very dry conditions making the wood less flexible in the wind. These Malvern Hills trees are very old indeed, and it grieves me to damage them in any way, but this variety of pear simply must be shaken from the tree, so no matter how careful we are with the Panking Pole, some damage seems inevitable.

So that was the Friday of what has now become known as Malvern Hills Weekend. More on the new, and innovative (for us) Saturday processing later...

Some Gift Ideas for Christmas... Please!

All the signs are indicating that Summer has now definitely departed these shores. We're going to be far too busy during Autumn to think about anything but cider and perry making, so I feel that now is an opportune time to get my 2011 Christmas wish list out there in the public domain, giving you all plenty of time to 'peruse and choose' in time for the big day...

There's something here for all depths of pocket, but please don't feel any obligation to choose a cheaper item from the list if you can think of something else of a greater value that we might like. We're nothing if not flexible, and aim to make your shopping experience as stress free as possible. Please bare in mind that hard cash is an acceptable alternative if the gift of your choice has already been taken. So Yo-Ho-Ho, and on with the list:

• Voran Apple Washer & Elevator - In buying us this fantastic piece of Austrian precision engineering, you'll not only be making it very difficult for us to get to sleep on Christmas Eve ('Is it Washer-Elevator Day yet Karen?'... 'No, go to sleep'), but also helping us prevent further injury to Knees, Back and Elbows during the 2012 cidermaking season. We want one of these beasts more than life itself, and would be more than happy to take delivery right now if it makes things easier for the purchaser. The price may seem high, but we'll be getting an awful lot of food-grade steel for your money, so it's a bargain really...
• Ex-Rum Distillery Cask - Just the one required. Full would be best, but we're prepared to take and empty one if that's all you can get. No other spirits please.
• 'Owler - This might take some tracking down, but I think we're worth it. 'Owler is the latest quality project from Charles Martell, he of Stinking Bishop cheese fame. Not content with making world-class cheeses, he's now distilling perry at his farmhouse in Gloucestershire to produce a very limited quantity of smooth, clear Pear Spirit. I want some, and don't for one moment think that a bottle of Poire Williams will do instead.
• Croft Gold - You may have to go all the way to Shropshire to find a truckle of this rare-as-Hens-Teeth cheese. Croft Gold is produced in the foody capital of Ludlow. A pungent rind-washed cheese, which benefits from a daily wash in the very finest Herefordshire Cider Brandy (I'm guessing this is done by flaxen haired Shropshire Dairy Maids in the dewy morning... or something similar). Like all good cheese it's probably quite expensive, but please don't be mean. A measly slice won't go far on the Christmas Cheese Board, Man-Up and buy a full round. Catch me in the right mood over Christmas and you may even get a nibble yourself... Ho-Ho-Ho!
• Return Tickets to Oviedo - All right, I know I'm pushing it a bit with this one, but we're desperate for a holiday...
• 4 Acres of Good Pasture Land - Much less affordable than you'd imagine, but hey, if you don't ask, you don't get. A gently sloping, south facing field is ideal, vehicular access and a water source would be handy, but I'd be happy with pretty much anything within 10 miles of home to be honest. Throw in a hundred or so cider apple saplings and I'll name a cider after you.
• 1 x Barnevelder Pullet - Karen has said (repeatedly) that the Rockingham Forest Cider Flock is quite large enough and I can't have any more hens, but if someone were to buy me one....
• A Monkey - Yes that's right, a real live Monkey. Preferably a nimble, sure-footed, curly-tailed cheeky climbing Monkey. A Monkey capable of training in the essential task of shaking perry pears out of very tall trees. Easier to look after than small children, and not (as far as I'm aware) subject to the same onerous health and safety legislation. Do make it a cute Monkey though, not one of those primates with a gross looking bottom.
• Socks - Ha-ha! For all those hanging on for the 'Budget Option', here it is. Big, woolly, Welly-socks are what we're talking about. All the better to insulate my toes against the chill of Autumn cidermaking. But feel free to pop one of the above items inside before hanging them on the bedstead. A few Oranges wouldn't go amiss too...

Ciderhouse News - Late-Late August

It's the last knockings of the August Bank Holiday weekend, and it really feels like the Summer is drawing to a damp and chilly close. Cidermaking starts up again in a couple of weeks time, maybe earlier if Hurricane Irene makes it to the UK with any great force. The current cider season is anything but over though:

• The Hangar One Beer Festival (2nd - 4th September) is a new one on us, and indeed everyone else since it's the very first one. There seems to be a firm focus on beers from local breweries at this event, and we've been asked to supply a few barrels of cider and perry to give fruit lovers some local choice too.
• Local CAMRA festivals on the horizon include Hinckley (15th - 17th Sept)  and Melton (16th - 17th Sept). We're sending cider and perry to both, but will probably have to toss a coin to decide which one to visit...

• I'm sure that like us you've been having sleepless nights over our recent disastrous perry blending experiment. You haven't! Oh well, whatever. I'm pleased to report that all that clumpy cloudiness has done the reasonable thing and floated to the top, leaving lovely clear perry underneath ready to rack off for yours and our drinking pleasure.

• In marked contrast to the blending experiment, our Perry Vinegar seems to be going in the right direction, ie. vinegary. In the image you can see two sheets of 'Mother' which would have originally formed a film over the surface of the vinegar. I've disturbed them so they've sunk into the vinegar, but another has formed on the surface, helping to keep the aerobic bacteria responsible for vinageriness in contact with the air. It may be that this also helps prevent the perry vinegar from oxidising, so I'll try not to disturb its formation in future batches.
• A plug for our friend and un-payed artistic director Diana Fegredo, who's exhibiting her stylish work, this weekend and next, at the Artwave Festival in Lewes, Sussex. As if Lewes wasn't attractive enough already...

Festive Season

I've been to a good few beer festivals over the years. Less than some folk I know, quite a few more than most I'd imagine. Possibly enough to consider myself an 'experienced' festival-goer, which is not that big a deal in itself, but perhaps surprising when I tell you that actually (and I'm going to whisper this) I'm not actually that big a fan of beer festivals!

Shocking I know, particularly when you consider that a fair bit of our own cider and perry is consumed at festivals, and many of our friends are involved in running, working at, and indeed spend a good deal of their time drinking at them. So why the antipathy?

Put simply, it's not so much that I find beer festivals necessarily bad (though some inevitably can be), more the fact that by and large they're not located in pubs (though some naturally are). For my taste, I've always found that drinking is a social experience best enjoyed in the atmospheric environs of the pub. For the most part, beer festivals resemble a pub only in the fact that beer and cider are served into glasses by friendly bar staff, and with the best will in the world, it's just not the same.

The busy Cider Bar

At their best, beer festivals are busy, bustling social events, with the added attraction of music, good food, friendly faces and, well... Beer. Some, can quite literally be the highlight of the local social scene, with a wide mix of clientele, there for the buzz as much as the beer. Sadly, this isn't always the case, and there's no getting away from it, at worst a beer festival can be nothing more exciting than a big hall full of barrels and (ahem!) beer enthusiasts. Alright if you like that kind of thing, but in my opinion, that's not a festival, it's a Conference. I need something more or I really might as well be in a good pub.


So what for me makes a beer festival worth travelling for? Well, to use a well-worn cliche, Location, Location, and for me at least, a really good range of ciders and perries. A well located stillage makes a hell of a difference to a beer festival, and I'm not just talking aesthetically. Leicester CAMRA Beer Festival is, on the face of it, a hall full of barrels, but what makes it a destination is that the hall is located within a top quality Indian Restaurant. Our local Welland Valley Beer Festival has a head start by being spread out around several rural pubs, connected by a truly unique vintage bus service. The recent Rutland CAMRA Beer Festival has as its backdrop the County Museum, which is eye-candy of sorts and helps to give the festival a unique character. The Derby Winter Beer Festival is located in the similarly eye-catching location of the Roundhouse.



Which one would you vote for...?



A cider-gut, yesterday

I must say at this point, that the old fashioned 'hall full of barrels' style of beer festival is getting much harder to find now. Festival organisers are only too aware that if they want to attract more fringe custom (arguably the whole point of a beer festival, particularly a CAMRA organised one), they have to raise their game a little and offer something more than a very well stocked beer cellar.



Perhaps the best example of this is the well-established, and extremely popular Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival. Located under canvas on the edge of the town centre, and probably attracting more 'non-enthusiast' drinkers than any comparable festival in the country. Live music plays a very important role in the success of this festival, along with a wide range of good quality food, English Wine bar, funfair, brewery bars, and an all-round proper 'festival' feel. The fact that well-supervised children and dogs are welcome on site during the daytime sessions, is I feel a crucial factor in the ownership Peterborough folk obviously feel for the festival. It's a big social day out for many, the beer just one of several attractions to locals and visitors alike.

Cyderman (aka Ray Blockley of Torkard Cider)
almost ready for lift-off

I went to the festival yesterday, met up with friends, chatted, drank a little too much perry, and came home fully satisfied and slightly envious of those staying for the evening entertainment. Congratulations to the organisers on another great event, and thanks also to the hard working volunteers who kept filling my glass throughout the day.

A Tale of Two Perries

It's getting close to End of Season Report time. We've still got cider and perry available for sale and there's stock put aside for a few important events going into October, but the ciderhouse is little more than a storage area for empty fermenters now. It is of course, little more than two weeks until we start pressing again, assuming the Malvern Hills perry pears haven't dropped much earlier than we expect.

On the subject of Perry, it's been a generally good year for us here at Rockingham Forest Cider, although not without a few difficulties. Getting them all to ferment in the sub-zero temperatures of Winter 2010 was perhaps our biggest problem, although on the up-side, this did lead to most of our perries finishing naturally sweet and relatively low in alcohol, which is no bad thing from a commercial perspective.

The Malvern Hills pears continue to produce a high alcohol, high tannin perry. As perries go it's quite a refined flavour, but the tannin is astringent and mouth drying, and not likely to be to everyones taste. With this in mind I've been experimenting with a new blend, not entirely successfully it has to be said.

It's often stated (without too much in the way of qualification) that some perries simply don't blend well. I've never fully understood the reasoning behind this to be honest. Is it a flavour clash, or maybe just a bit of reverse logic since a fair few perry pears can make a good single variety perry. I think I may now know at least part of the answer...

The thinking behind my experimental blend was to take a low acid, high tannin perry (Malvern Hills), and blend 50/50 with a low tannin, high acid perry (Green Horse), thereby achieving a balance of sorts, toning down the tannin, and perhaps even giving a more complex and interesting flavour. Simple. What could possibly go wrong? Well the blending went well enough, and the flavour was indeed better than the sum of its parts. The tannin is still there, but more restrained, and the acidity of the Green Horse makes for a more drinkable perry. Everything was looking good so I barreled up a couple ready for delivery to a local festival. The problem with this blend became apparent a few days later on the eve of delivery. Apparently, and unbeknownst to me, if you mix a crystal clear Malvern Hills perry with an opaque Green Horse perry, what you get is a typically odd bit of perry chemistry, and an unacceptably cloudy perry. The fact that this doesn't become apparent immediately is no help at all. Oh dear!

Polymeric Perry Tannins

Unfortunately, by the time the blend was ready for sale at the festival, it had gone from quite cloudy to quite clumpy, which is not an attractive look in any drink I think you'll agree. I've reason to believe this is down to Polymeric Perry Tannins, a common occurence in perries, and not usually a problem so long as they sink to the bottom, or float to the top as shown in this image of a Blakeney Red ferment. The only thing we could do was apologise to the organisers, remove the offending barrels from the invoice, and chalk the whole sorry tale down to experience.

This simple blending experiment may not be a complete loss though. Another 70 litres of the blend is now sitting in the ciderhouse clearing nicely. Unsightly clumps of rubbery tannin like this are bad news if they're floating around in the perry, but thankfully they have a tendency to sink to the bottom of the fermenter out of harms way. Given a little more time, this blend looks like it will come good after all. The moral of this tale is, be careful when blending perries with very different characteristics, and always blend well ahead of the time you'll need it, rather than the week before!!!

On a much brighter note, I finally got round to racking off this years 'Mystery Perry', the one we make from a late pressing of unidentified perry pears. I have to say, this fermenter has been shamefully neglected. The quantity of gelatinous sediment left behind (see pic) suggests that it may not have been racked before. Even worse, there was a good 4 inches of head space above the perry, which by luck was filled with a blanket of CO2 due to a continuing slow fermentation. I wasn't holding out much hope for this one, but to my surprise and delight, it's probably the best perry we've ever made. Vive Neglect!

Mystery Perry 2010

It's always a difficult task trying to describe the taste of traditional perry. Yes, there's citrus, grapefruit, melon, maybe pear, but perry has a unique flavour all of its own which can only really be described as... well, perry! This years Mystery Perry is 'all perry', and I'm very tempted to say 'all mine'. But no, this stunner had always been earmarked for the East Midlands section of the Cider & Perry Bar at Nottingham Beer Festival. All except for a few precious litres destined for Champagne bottles, which will be staying at home with us here at Rockingham Forest Cider (& Perry).