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Cider Digest #1957
Subject: Cider Digest #1957, 19 April 2015
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1957 19 April 2015
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: Article on Colonial Cider originally published on President's Day ("R...)
Whiskey Barrels (paul rasch)
CAMRA rank-and-file reject real cider (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Re: Article on Colonial Cider originally published on President's Day
From: "Rosalind Rogoff" <contact@sanramonobserver.org>
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2015 22:19:44 -0700
Here's an article I wrote for the San Ramon Express on President's Day
Cider not Tea
By Rosalind Rogoff
Republished from San Ramon Express dated Feb 16, 2015
Our founding fathers and mothers were not tea drinkers like their English
cousins. Most of the early, pre-revolutionary colonists in America drank
good old fashioned home brewed cider. This wasn't your Grandmother's
Martinelli's. This was hard cider brewed like beer with about 6% alcohol.
German immigrants in the late 18th Century brought beer brewing methods to
the New World, but cider was a more popular beverage. Cider apples are not
the same as eating apples, and cider apple trees had to be imported from
Europe.
Tea was not consumed as much as cider and whisky because clean water was
needed to make tea and it was not easily available. Water in cities was
frequently polluted. Clean water had to be brought in from the country side
in kegs.
The alcohol in Cider made it safer to drink because it was less likely to
spread disease. Folks living in the 17th and 18th Centuries didn't know
about germs or how diseases were spread. They only knew that drinking bad
water could be deadly. Cider and whiskey were safer to drink and locally
made and sold. This set the colonies apart from England, so they did not
have to import beverages from Europe.
The activists who threw tea into Boston Harbor were not protesting the tax
on tea. Tea had been taxed for over five years. They were protesting
cronyism, because King George III granted the East India Tea Company a
monopoly to sell tea in the American Colonies that they couldn't sell in
Britain. You can read more about the Boston Tea Party on the website linked
to above. The patriotic beverage of choice in the Colonies was cider.
I've been drinking hard cider as an alternative to beer for almost 50 years.
Cider is very popular in Europe. I toured England, Scotland, Germany, and
France for two weeks in 1966. Everywhere I went I could buy the local cider.
Even the trains through German and France sold cider by the bottle.
When I came back to the USA, it was not easy to find hard cider here. I was
still living in New Rochelle, NY with my parents, but I tried to find
imported cider at Buffalo Bob's liquor store. I usually had to make do with
New York State wines.
When I moved to California I was able to find French cider at Whole Foods
and English, German or occasionally California cider at Trader Joes. Then
Woodchuck Cider from Vermont started selling in California. It is one of my
favorites now. There's a long list of Ciders on Wikipedia. I've probably
tried about a dozen so far.
Cider is catching on more and more now. Some is this is due to the constant
need for big corporations to expand their product lines. Beer companies
first expanded to include flavored ales. Cider is the next product for
growth. Nob Hill Market had a display of ciders including Ace Perry pear
cider from Sebastopol, Crispin from Colfax, and Possmann Pure Cider from
Germany.
So on this President's Day drink a bottle of cider for Washington and
Jefferson. That's what our Founding Fathers and Mothers drank back in
Colonial times to get them through hard winters during and after the
Revolution. Nobody wants to drink stale tea
------------------------------
Subject: Whiskey Barrels
From: paul rasch <paulsara@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2015 23:10:44 +0000 (UTC)
Re Whiskey Barrels. I have had good luck with the Barrel Broker, near
Milwaukee, WI. Good Guy, reliable. Contacts: 10520 North
Baehr Rd, Ste "I", Mequon, WI 53092 * Office 262 236 9189 * Cell 415 218 2890
PaulFox Ridge Farm
------------------------------
Subject: CAMRA rank-and-file reject real cider
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:42:28 -0600
Realizing that the Cider Digest readership is strongly biased toward North
America, here's a bit of curious news from across the puddle: At the most
recent CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) annual general meeting this past
weekend, the following "Motion 19" was approved:
"This conference recognises and accepts that there is clear and unequivocal
evidence, as documented in "Vinetum Brittanicum A Treatise on Cider", that
the addition of various fruits, herbs, spices, etc., to cider has been a
tradition dating back as far as 1676. It therefore instructs the National
Executive to amend that the part of the definition of real cider and perry
which states that "no added flavourings to be used" to include the phrase
"except pure fruits, vegetables, honey, hops, herbs and spices, yet no
concentrates, cordials or essences^."
Perhaps to us sidreros norteamericanos this seems unremarkable, as we've
got ciders with all manner of additives. But the British tradition and
heritage is quite different. To nearly all craft British cidermakers, their
cider is made from apples, full-stop.
That the motion passed is remarkable on (at least) two counts.
First, the reference to Worlidge's "Vinetum Brittanicum" is a deception,
pure and simple. Worlidge notes that the various additives mentioned above
occur in two situations, (1) to make medications, supplements, etc., more
palatable than if taken alone, and (2) to disguise the faults of poor
ciders. Elsewhere in Worlidge, as Andrew noted on the Cider Workshop, you
can find:
"There is not any liquor that hath less need of mixtures than cider,
being of itself so excellent that any addition whatsoever maketh it
less pleasant".
Doesn't that make Worlidge's view on additives in cider fairly clear?
Second, even by British law, a cider with added fruits, vegetables, (etc.!)
is not a "cider". It is called a "made wine" and taxed at a much higher
rate than cider. CAMRA have been overly strict for a long time on the
ingredients and processes expected of a "real cider". Now it seems they
may throw the door open to all manner of adulterants, even to the extent of
defining "real cider" beyond what their laws regard as cider.
CAMRA's work in helping preserve "real ale" and pub traditions in the UK
is noteworthy. But they've been confused about cider for more than two
decades, and it doesn't look like they're going to get it right any time
soon.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1957
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