Cider Digest #1220

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Cider Digest

 · 7 months ago

Subject: Cider Digest #1220, 7 May 2005 
From: cider-request@talisman.com 

 
Cider Digest #1220                                         7 May 2005 

                 Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues 
                      Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor 

Contents: 
  RE: Moorcroft ("McGonegal, Charles") 
  cider in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and more (Ben Bachelor) 

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Subject: RE: Moorcroft 
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <Charles.McGonegal@uop.com> 
Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 16:48:11 -0500 

Dick, 

As far as I can tell, there are _no_ traditional perry pears available 
in the States that are not in the National Germplasm Repository system. 
That makes for about 18, including the several Swiss-Austrian 
"mostbirnen". 

Various conversations I've had give hints to the possibility that some 
more made it into the country by non-official routes, probably early in 
theis century, or with immigrants - but no one has mentioned having 
honest to Goddess cultivars in hand.  It's just rumors as far as I know. 

Moorcroft is in the quarantine database - entered in 2001.  The person 
who administers the program has told me that many of the English perry 
pears imported in the last 5 year have been so virally loaded that they 
may not be salvagable.  Moorcroft is flagged as having been 
provisionally released (like the French ones I now have in hand) - 
hopefully that means that it has a good chance of making it through the 
system in a timely fashion.  I've heard that all the perry pears 
currently in the system have been requested by the Corvallis repository. 
 Mine will end up there, too, if the Repository asks. 

So we may see Moorcroft someday. 

The person who got the provisional release (likely the importing 
researcher) can't share scionwood until full clearance has happened. 
But they may be able to tell us about their experience with Moorcroft to 
date. 

Charles McGonegal 
AEppelTreow Winery 

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Subject: cider in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and more 
From: Ben Bachelor <ben.bachelor@gmail.com> 
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 08:14:05 -0400 

I live in Ann Arbor, and there are several places with a large 
commercial cider selection in town.  Between the beer castle, bella 
vino, and that liquor store on the corner of Ann(I think)&Main, I have 
managed to find: 

wyders (pear, raspberry, and peach I think) 
woodchuck (amber, dark&dry, granny smith, pear, raspberry) 
K 
Hard Core 
Strongbow 
Ace (pear, apple) 
Blackthorn 
Hornsby 
Cider Jack (raspberry) 

and several (5-6)  different brands of apple and pear ciders/wines 
sold in wine bottles whose names unfortunately elude me for the 
moment. 

I've been told that Connor O'Neils (a local bar) serves woodpecker, 
but I haven't had the opportunity to check it out yet. 

I've met quite a few cider brewers in the area.  Check out the local 
home-brew organizations, especially the Prison City (Jackson) brewers 
guild. 

Oh a related note, I just found this digest about a month ago.  I've 
been slowly sifting through all of the archives, and have found them 
very helpful.  I happened upon this list by chance while surfing the 
web one day.  I'm not a beer brewer.  I know how, but I just don't 
like beer.  However, I've been doing the homebrew group/guild/mailing 
list thing because I didn't know that there was anything specifically 
for cider makers.  This list really needs to advertise itself more 
through the local homebrew organizations because that's where a lot of 
(potential) cider makers - like me - have gone and gotten stuck 
because they were simply unaware of this inavluable resource. 

I guess I should introduce myself.  I'm relatively new to cider 
making, as I only have 1 season and 4 ciders under my belt.  I prefer 
sweet ciders with low alcohol, but my fiancee likes them dry.  Thus, 
from the many commercial varieties that I have tasted, I "learned" 
that I preferred perries.  Since tasting several other people's 
wonderful home-made ciders, I have come to question whether or not 
that is true. 

I'd like to try and make a few perries, but, there appears to be no 
discussion on this list of how to make perry beyond the occasional 
pear variety question, or questions about trees, or comments about 
pressings, or the occasional comment about the relative level of acids 
and tannins in pears (as a whole, not individual varieties).  Every 
time I ask someone on a mailing list about perry, they say simply 
"Check out Gillian Grafton's 'real cider and perry' page".  While this 
is a valuable resource, imagine if all of your apple cider questions 
were met with "check out Andrew Lea's cider page". (another invaluable 
cider resource, and a must read for all cider making enthusiasts). 

So, I guess that my question is: 
What differences, if any, are there between apple cider making methods 
and pear cider making methods. 

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End of Cider Digest #1220 
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