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Cider Digest #1038
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Subject: Cider Digest #1038, 27 April 2003
Cider Digest #1038 27 April 2003
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Some Thoughts on Defining Vintage and Traditional (Michael Kiley)
Bulmer and Aston Manor (Cider Digest)
Gloucestershire Orchard Group (Andrew Lea)
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Subject: Some Thoughts on Defining Vintage and Traditional
From: Michael Kiley <michael@beeherenow.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 10:15:03 -0400
This has been percolating for a while, triggered by the discussion of
definitions for 'vintage' and 'traditional'. Sorry it's slightly
long-winded.
It's something about this site that I enjoy; the care, thought and
curiousity that are on evidence and not just about cider, but on tangential
arcana. The interest in words and their agreed definitions for instance.
At first I thought that this was typical clique behavior, agreeing on what's
good and what's not, who's in and not. Writing by-laws and tri-laws.
Then I looked at it from a different angle. This is not a hobby, these
people actually believe that this is a commercial product with a future, a
re-awakening of a near forgotten aspect of rural culture that will have a
significant part in the agronomy of post industrial society. Thus the
commercial and legal ramifications of words and definitions. If giant
consumer product manufacturers were able to mass produce apple spritzer and
call it 'vintage' or 'traditional' cider that would affect artisanal
producers. While one can recognize that these are only about hyping a
product, not enjoying it, the effort has value.
Consider how the dairy industry fought for the value of the meaning of
'cream'. There are states, I believe, where cream or 'creamer' for coffee
must be something that comes essentially from cows and others where it may
be a powder of unknown origin or a palm oil simulacrum of dilute butterfat.
As we invent, if only in the privacy of our own minds, a commercial
juggernaut of 'vintage traditional cider' we must define it or it will be
done for us. And it will be made in factories.
Which brings us to Tradition. I suppose it is because I came up in New
England that the idea of making English cider was never a real goal, one
made cider like one's neighbors and the only difference was the mix of
apples one used, the barrels one used, one's cellar conditions, when you
pressed, whether you added yeast, honey, sugar, raisins, molasses,
beefsteak.....well I guess there were a lot of differences between ciders.
Nonetheless cider as a tradition was still present, if only in memory, in
northern New England and certainly many of the trees are still there. Thus
making cider in Maine, where I live, is a matter of hunting out the trees
that have the flavor characteristics one wants, more than planting English
cultivars and waiting, though now I'm doing that too. My older neighbors
made and drank cider and tell stories of local cider making heroes or of
heroic consumers of the stuff. Here's one:
Mr. B, of East Pittston, was known as a good man to cut your timber. He had
strong, hard working sons and would get the job done. Being in demand he
could pick his clients and having a farm of his own always had plenty to do
when not logging. Now Mr. W had a woodlot that needed cutting and had a
good use for the money that would come from it. He went to see Mr. B and
told him he'd like him to cut the wood and would pay him a fair price. "Too
busy, can't do it," says Mr. B. Mr. W returned home and thought. The next
week he returned to Mr. B and told him he'd like him to cut the wood and
would pay him a fair price and a barrel of cider. Mr. B turned and hollered
to his boys, "Hitch the oxen boys, there's work to be done."
In rural economies of those days there wasn't much cash, and what there was
wouldn't buy much because there wasn't much to buy, but cider now, that was
something of value, the trump in many a negotiation.
What that cider was like I can only guess because there were two generations
that didn't make it and the old folks that I like to hear talk about cider
mostly don't do any squeezing now. They like mine, though they think it a
little strong, which it certainly is. I think of it as American cider and
to me it is preferable to any scrumpy or commercial British product I've
had. I remember one cider bar over there where the choices were "Rough",
"Old Rough" and "Diesel". I want a fresher apple taste, a cleaner ferment
and a lighter body than I've found in England. I have no doubt that home
cider makers there make terrific products ( I wouldn't want anybody judging
the beer I make by tasting a Budweiser ), the more so because of the
availability of bred for cider apples, but there is a very distinct American
cider tradition that need not bend the knee to any foreign sovereign.
Dick very well might be right that Russets have something to do with it. In
my part of Maine it is the only single variety cider with legendary
character and while I've never made a pure Russet cider I always use all I
can get in my blends. The Golden Russet is a very fine apple.
Because I have bee yards spread around on old farms I see lots of old apple
trees and I sample them all when I'm pulling honey in early September, and
then again when I go around readying the bees for their trip south. This is
what I would recommend to any home cider maker, making that mental inventory
of local trees and knocking on doors if necessary. Once you admit that
commercial orchards can only provide some limited percentage of the fruit
you need it's time to go searching. The seed apples that have the tannins
and sharps you want have no value to people buying Macs from the grocery.
Even when folks want some of the apples they will sometimes let you pick
their trees if you leave them a bushel or two. That's how I get Black
Oxfords for my blend, another fine old Maine apple. Every year is different
with those old apples, they get pollinated haphazardly, ( my bees are on
blueberries during apple bloom ), and neglect has many effects but I can
usually find the bitters, sharps and tannins I need for a mix. And because
few of them have names there's little chance of falling into the trap of
obeisance to restrictive Old World styles.
Commercial producers face other issues, consistancy for instance, and must
do what Mr. Laird describes, finding out through trial what they can do on
their own ground. As for his "nascent rivival of agrarian cider" ,well,
it's the first I've heard of it but it's a great idea! And throwing off old
world orthodoxies is what California has always been about hasn't it? It is
truly a worthy goal, a new American cider tradition, incorporating the
wealth of pomological genetic diversity we have, the history of
experimentation and, er, research, and the cultural importance cider has had
into a delicious modern drink. I salute all who are working so hard on it.
Michael Kiley
- --
Gourmet honey direct from the beekeeper....<http://www.beeherenow.com>
------------------------------
Subject: Bulmer and Aston Manor
From: cider@talisman.com (Cider Digest)
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 17:03:45 -0600 (MDT)
The following short article from the UK trade press was brought to my
attention. Thought you folks might find it interesting.
_________________________________________________________________________
22/04/03 - Times are hard for UK cider maker HP Bulmer, with profits
tumbling and the number of disposals growing. But they could have been
even harder had a recently uncovered plot to contaminate the company's
brands been carried out.
Last week, businessman Michael Hancocks pleaded guilty to masterminding a
plot to pour yeast-based contaminants into Bulmers' Woodpecker, Strongbow
and Scrumpy Jack brands, thereby prompting a recall which would benefit
his own company, Birmingham-based Aston Manor Brewery, maker of Frosty
Jack cider.
A court in Bristol heard that Hancocks had contacted a former employee
and chemical scientist, Richard Gay, to create the yeasts which would
spoil the cider and cause diarrhoea and vomiting. These yeasts were
then transported to Bulmers by Paul Harris, the partner of Hancocks'
daughter, who also recruited an employee at Bulmers plant to introduce
them to the production line.
But Russell Jordan, a forklift driver for HP Bulmer, revealed the plot to
the police, who discovered that three separate loads of the yeast-based
contaminant had been delivered to Bulmers' plant, although none were
ever introduced to the product line.
All three men pleaded guilty, and are expected to be sentenced next
month.
------------------------------
Subject: Gloucestershire Orchard Group
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 21:24:11 +0100
I just came across a new (to me) website of the Gloucestershire Orchard
Group. Their list of local apple varieties include some real cider
rarities which are being saved and propagated. (Also includes Ashmeads
which is not so rare). The apple URL is
http://www.orchard-group.uklinux.net/glos/apples/index.html There is
also a listing for plums and pears.
One of the cider apples listed is Hagloe Crab which had a good
reputation in the 18th century in the UK and appears to have been grown
for cider also in the US in the 18th and 19th century (according to
William Coxe's 1817 book). Not sure why this cultivar has passed from
our view - it's not in the Morgan and Richards (Brogdale) list and it
never seemed to have made it onto any of the Long Ashton lists in the
20th century.
Does anyone know of Hagloe Crab being used anywhere on either side of
the Atlantic? In the US, Coxe speaks of it in similar terms to the
Harrison, the Winesap and the Hewes Crab. I wonder how widely it was
actually grown?
Andrew Lea
- ----------------------------------
Visit the Wittenham Hill Cider Page at
http://www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #1038
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