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Cider Digest #1704
Subject: Cider Digest #1704, 11 April 2012
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1704 11 April 2012
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
bottle colour ("Jeremy Kent")
Clear Glass bottles (Andrew Lea)
Pruning/shaping a new orchard (Andrew Lea)
Winners of the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition ("Gary ...)
An Urgent Call for Discussion (Bill Barton)
NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to cider@talisman.com.
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: bottle colour
From: "Jeremy Kent" <sheep@kent9999.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 20:23:42 +0100
Hi,
Here is a link about bottle colours and how different colours reduce
Light wavelengths from spoiling the contents. Amber being the best
colour to keep cider from spoiling.
regards
Jeremy Kent
Hereford.
http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/UV_information_sheet_FINAL.4abfe0ce.6089.pdf
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Subject: Clear Glass bottles
From: Andrew Lea <andrew@harphill.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:11:12 +0100
On 03/04/2012 05:33, Dick wrote:
> Arguments against clear glass seem to end up as "just in case". But there
> doesn't seem to be a "case". Does anybody know of a sound reason to use
> colored bottles?
There is no chemical reason known to me why clear glass should not be
used for cider under normal circumstances. Unlike beer and some wines,
cider does not contain components that are prone to photochemistry,
neither from visible light nor from the UVA range (400 - 330 nm) which
is all that passes through a normal flint bottle. If you bottled in
UV-transparent laboratory silica, that might be a different matter! Many
ciders in the UK are routinely presented on the supermarket shelf in
clear glass. If there were a problem the industry would know about it.
Charles made the point that the strawberry anthocyanin is adversely
affected by light - indeed it is - but the base cider itself isn't.
Andrew Lea, nr Oxford UK
www.cider.org.uk
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Subject: Pruning/shaping a new orchard
From: Andrew Lea <andrew@harphill.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:20:06 +0100
On 03/04/2012 05:33, Richard Reeves wrote:
> I have a 60-tree cider variety order arriving approx. one year from now
> (very exiting!) and need to make a decision regarding tree shaping. Most
> online literature that I am finding seems to be presumptive of Central
> Leader management for apples, with little mention of Goblet, which I am
> very fond of visually.
>
> As I am not an orchardist I can only guess at the reasons Central Leader
> gets the nod (reduced future pruning labor or disease pressure? ease of
> spray applications or harvesting? improved yields or flavor or
> ripeness?) and would really appreciate any advice as to which pruning
> method might be preferable,
I can only speak for the UK but when bush cider trees were introduced
here in the 1960's, centre leader was the norm and still is. That is
partly to do with the labour costs that would be incurred by goblet
pruning, and the fact that large fruit size is not required for cider so
it would be a waste of time - it doesn't matter if you get a large
number of small apples (in fact there is one school of thought that says
it's better because more of the flavour is concentrated in the skin.
I'll pass on that!). Also here the trees are not hand harvested but the
fruit is shaken to the ground and collected from the orchard floor. So
there is no advantage to an-easy-to-pick shape. Centre leader is much
better adapted to orchard mechanisation so that's why it's used.
Andrew Lea nr Oxford, UK
www.cider.org.uk
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Subject: Winners of the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition
From: "Gary Awdey" <gawdey@comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:12:17 -0500
The Great Lakes Cider & Perry Association is pleased to announce winners
of the 7th Annual Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition
held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on March 31, 2012. There are 20
categories of entry and three divisions, two commercial and one
noncommercial.
Entries came from 21 US states and 2 Canadian provinces in wide swaths
from Washington to Maine and from Quebec to Texas. The competition
extended its international reach as producers in Scotland and the
English counties of Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Suffolk submitted a
variety of ciders and perries.
Best of Show awards were made in all three divisions.
In the Commercial Standard/Specialty/Unlimited Cider & Perry Division
the Best of Show award went to Hogan's Cider Ltd. of Warwickshire,
England, for its "Medium English Cider." This was the second
consecutive year Hogan's took the top honor. In 2011 Hogan's took Best
of Show with its "Dry English Cider" entry.
Best of Show Honorable Mention went to Left Foot Charley of Traverse
City, Michigan, for its "Relic Hard Cider" in the standard cider
category.
In the Commercial Intensified/Distilled Division the Best of Show award
went to Eden Ice Cider Company of West Charleston, Vermont, for its
"Eden Barrel Aged Northern Spy."
Best of Show Honorable Mention went to Uncle John's Fruit House Winery
in St. Johns, Michigan, for its apple brandy.
In the Noncommercial Division the Best of Show award went to a standard
cider, "Westwood Irish," submitted jointly by Daryl and Royce Lerwick of
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Complete competition results may be found at www.greatlakescider.com .
This year there was another notable increase in participation of
commercial producers in the judging, especially from outside the region.
This increase was reflected participation in the expanded judges'
workshop held the evening before the judging. Interest in the
competition has grown and judging panels filled to full capacity earlier
than ever, weeks before the posted cut-off time. There is already
substantial indication is that this trend will continue and the
competition will continue to grow next year.
The Great Lakes Cider & Perry Association is a not-for-profit
organization incorporated in 2008 with a mission of promoting cider and
perry and of providing related educational opportunities for producers
and consumers. Its core membership is comprised of commercial and
noncommercial cidermakers in the states and province bordering on the
Great Lakes. Additional information about the Association may be found
at www.greatlakescider.com.
Congratulations to all!
Gary Awdey
President, Great Lakes Cider & Perry Association
gawdey@comcast.net
------------------------------
Subject: An Urgent Call for Discussion
From: Bill Barton <info@cidery.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:50:28 -0400
An important meeting took place in Chicago in February and we are
somewhat surprised that Cider Digest hasn't seen a constant stream of
comments, discussion, and controversy since then. Rather, there has been
virtually nothing. This concerns us because if we all don't weigh in, the
few will decide for the many. For those of you who weren't in attendance,
the big topic of discussion was how to get a new definition of
"Cider/Hard Cider" into federal law/regulation. Everyone agrees that the
current definition is too restrictive. It was disturbing to realize how
many of our products are out of compliance with the current
definition. It was even more disturbing to ponder the consequences of
coming into compliance, in terms of excise taxes, packaging, and
labeling implications. Strict enforcement of the current regulations
would dramatically change the way we do business and could do real harm
to what finally seems to be a true revival in the U.S. cider industry.
So we all agreed a change was needed. After a day of hashing out the
issues, a smaller advisory group was formed and apparently came to the
conclusion that copying the EU standards was a good road to go
down. Specifically, two fundamental changes would be proposed to the
current definition -- 1) increasing the allowable alcohol content (up to
8.5% from the current 7%) and 2) increasing the allowable level of
forced carbonation (up to about 3.5 volumes). Notice that
bottle-conditioned ciders aren't included. Use of other non-pomme fruits
also aren't included (such as for use as sweet reserve
flavorings). Forget about spices, raisins, honey, etc. Some felt that we
should focus on alcohol and carbonation and save these other issues for
a later round of petitioning.
No real mechanism is in place for continuing this discussion so Cider
Digest, at least for now, may be our only chance to debate these issues.
The bigger producers (Woodchuck, etc.) feel that there is a need for
quick action and have efforts in motion. They apparently favor going with
the EU standards now without consideration of things like
bottle-conditioning, higher alcohol, non-pomme flavorings, etc. Would it
make more sense to seek a comprehensive definition of cider that
accurately reflects the range of ciders we now make (what the market
understands cider to be) but also has the flexibility to include the
ciders we can reasonably imagine making in the future?
What do you all think about this? How will it impact your business if
excise taxes go up an order of magnitude on some or all of your
products? What if you can't label your products "Cider" or "Hard
Cider"? Maybe this will change who can distribute and sell your
products. Maybe your current bottle choices will no longer be allowed.
Despite the reassurances coming from some at the meeting, these and many
other questions have not been definitively answered. We got the distinct
impression that if the majority of us silently sit on our hands the
bigger producers are going to proceed without us. Once the train leaves
the station, it will be hard to change the direction of the
effort. Perhaps worse, we may end up destroying the fragile cohesion that
we started to build in Chicago. If we all aren't pulling together, we
could pull ourselves apart.
Whatever definition we come up with needs to work for all of us, large
and small, in all regions of the country, in order to facilitate and
augment the growth of this industry. Have we really achieved anything
useful if we end up with a definition that is only slightly less
limiting than the current definition? Will an incomplete solution to
the problem today force us to mount another effort in the not too
distant future? Would a better strategy be to fix it once, fix it
right? Please start the discussion right here in Cider Digest....What do
_you_ think?
Bill Barton, Bellwether Hard Cider
Autumn Stoscheck & Ezra Sherman, Eve's Cidery
Eric Shatt, Redbyrd Orchard Cider
Dan Wilson, Slyboro Cider House
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End of Cider Digest #1704
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