Eh... where has it all gone???

Last year, when 146 Cider started, I made 800 litres or so of a single blend of cider. It lasted through to about October, with orders for a couple of festivals that enabled me to supply through to the New Year.

For this year, to make my life easier, I thought I would make 2500 litres of three blends. Surely it would last longer, ensure a more continual supply to those regular outlets that buy my cider. Pah. What-a-mistaka-to-make-a!!

I am sorry to say that orders for the 2010 cider are done. There is no more available I am afraid. Hampshire Heritage sold out recently, with the Great British Beer Festival taking 70 odd litres. And now, with a couple of final orders for Wild West, that has gone too.

Its not all glum though, as I have got orders for cider going right the way through to next March. I will make sure that the events calander is up to scratch, and there are a number of festivals in there. In fact, if you look in the cider garage, there is still 3-400 litres of cider. Its just that it is all committed.

Next year, there are plans afoot to produce 5000 litres plus. But more on that closer to the pressing season.

A lot of cider to 'bag up'...

The end of this week sees the Guildford Cricket Club Festival in full swing - with a good dose of all three 146 Ciders on tap. Whilst its great that drinkers will be able to try all of the range, I believe there is going to be more than just 146 and Mr Whitehears this year - so the variety is going to be good.

To add to that, 146 Cider is now supplying cider for the Concorde Club Jazz and Ale Festival. As its less than 5 miles from 146, its a great venue to be supplying - and as a posh private members club it can only be good for the ciders image. Maybe I need a posher label:-)

Apart from these events, things are going steadily at the moment. Yet another retailer in Southwick (a hat-trick?) has expressed an interest in selling the bottles, so watch this space. Lets hope all three can order at the same time!!

Finally, and its a little early doors for this still, watch out for the Fruitwise Apple Day event in October this year. Its going to be a bit folksy - not to mention appley and cidery! I have offered to run the bar for it, so there will be stacks of 146 Cider present - and we will certainly have the odd beer or two to sit alongside it. One for the diaries I think.

Calling time on Eastern Delight for 2011...

I knew this would happen sooner or later. However, things seem to have happened rather more quickly than I had expected for Eastern Delight. As a fully eastern style cider, I thought it may take a bit of 'getting used to' on people.

Anyway, apart from those festivals who have already ordered some Eastern Delight, I cannot take any further orders for it for this year. Having said that, as it has been recieved so well it will become a permanent feature in the 146 Cider line up and will be more freely available in 2012.

The festivals where you can get it will be:

July - Guildford Cricket Club Festival
September - Colden Common Beer Festival
September - Wickham Beer Festival
October - Nottinhgam 'Robin Hood' Beer and Cider Festival
October - Woolston Beer and Cider Festival
Early 2012 - Winchester Beer Festival (when they decide to order some:-)

There will also continue to be a reasonably limited amount of bottle conditioned Eastern Delight available through Bitter Virtue in Southampton.

Sorry about that. There is plenty of Hampshire Heritage and Wild West left though:-)

Coming up...

There are a few additions to the events pages to report:

The Junction Inn Festival, St Denys, Southampton - Both Hampshire Heritage and Wild West ciders will be apearing at this event on 9th - 12th June. Click here for more information

The Boarhunt Beer Festival, Boarhunt Social Club - Hampshire Heritage and Wild West ciders will be present at this annual real ale and cider festival. It runs on 18th and 19th June. Click here for more information

The Hyde Tavern Festival, Winchester - All three ciders - Hampshire Heritage, Wild West and Eastern Delight will be featured at this festival. It runs on 18th -19th June.

The Bath and West photographic proof...

Thanks to Cider Workshop member Rich (Hoody) for taking this photo:

Highly Commended for 146 Cider Company...

I am very pleased to announce (and I hope not too prematurely) that 146 Cider has been awarded 'Highly Commended' for its dry farmhouse cider at this years Bath and West Show - one of the premier competitions in the UK for cider and perry.

OK, its not 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Rose Grant - mentor, friend and double winner at Bath and West took 3rd in the dry Farmhouse class (well done to her). However, the fact that it ranked so highly is a very pleasing feat in only my second year of commercial cidermaking... though my 7th or 8th at making cider!

I ought to mention that my comrade Hampshire cidermaker Barry and John Topp of New Forest Cider won Champion Farmhouse Cider for their sweet cider - a great achievement and I am a big fan of theirs.

I entered two classes - Dry Farmhouse and Dry bottled - there really aren't that many dry cider categories and many entries from across the UK. I have no idea how the bottled got on. I could increase my chances by enterintg more classes, but I just don't like sweetening my cider!

Let me rephrase that: when I am able to stop my cider fermenting through to dry I will probably do a medium dry. But at the moment, with the technology available to me, it is difficult. In any case, I make cider that I enjoy drinking - that is what I started off with aiming at, and it still is. Furthermore, I like my dry cider - it isn't that dry after all (OK - my strict definition it is very dry as it finishes at an SG of about .995). So, 146 Ciders are dry - full juice and naturally fermented...

I guess I should never say never, but for the moment I think it is doing quite well enough au naturale:-)

Well done to all the winners this year - I understand there were vast amounts of entries for all classes. And well done to the judges for working through them all!!!

146 Expansion...

Making 2500 litres this year was an effort to make sure that the usual outlets can keep a stock of 146 Cider further throughout the year, but also so that I could start to grow the distribution chain a little. I then mixed this up a bit by producing 2 new type of cider - admittedly it has always been planned to produce both an Eastern and Western style to sit alongside the 'Hampshire' style of the main '146' blend. However, it was more due to having too many really good desert apples for the ratio, plus a new supply of apples from Dorset which I wanted to check out on its own (as well as keeping the Hampshire cider from Hampshire!!)

This is both a good and a bad thing. Good because now there are other ciders to try. Bad, because it means that while the overall stock of cider is up collectively, each blend is more limited. And so the need to be careful about spreading things too thinly becomes a factor to supply.

This coming week, the three blends will start to be sold to the usual outlets - both in draught and bottle conditioned forms. It also is the week of the Southampton Beer Festival, which falls just as the cider reaches maturity properly.

Having said that, all three blends have been present this weekend at the Rowbarge Ale Festival in Guildford, as well as a trial quantity of Hampshire Heritage being available at the Flowerpots for the first time. The Flowerpots also makes its own beer - so is an ideal pub to supply full juice cider too. Lets hope both of these pubs want to continue with it (although I am still missing a regular pub to supply in Southampton itself!!)

On the retail side, I hope to add one more to the mix which would mean that the bottles can be found in Fareham as well as Southampton and Gosport. Again, while an expression of interest has been made, I will have to feed back later this week on the outcome.

Overall, the two main blends of Hampshire Heritage and Wild West cider should start to be seen in more places - just ever so slightly. A controlled expansion is always better than a quick one which leaves no more cider!

Oh, and one more thing. Next month I hope to be retailing my own cider at the Windsor Royal Racecourse Cider Festival. I should have my Personal Licence in place by then so it will be the first time I have got to do this for myself. If it goes well then I may do a few more...

A bit of a correction...

OK, so even a super dooper professional hydrometer can be a little bit out eh... don't blame the user or his eyesight! I have now had the ciders properly tested and can confirm final ABV's as:

Hampshire Heritage Cider - 6.7%
Wild West Cider - 6.8%
Eastern Delight Cider - 7.1%

OK, so not sufficient difference to worry about - even Eastern, which was some .6% out is OK legally... but it is nice to be able to put a proper and accurate figure to it.

Moving on with the business, yesterday I sat the APLH - a qualification that is required in order to apply for a Personal Licence. I won't find out for a week or two whether I passed (I should hope I do though!!), but it will mean I can start to do more retail sales without needing anyone elses permission or authority. So, as long as I don't get caught streaking in the meantime I ought to be a Personal Licence holder in a few weeks.

These courses are run by CPL Training who run them all over the coumtry. You can find out more on the Cider Workshop website if you think its for you... but make sure you take your own coffee!!

Finally... a proper website!

Okay, so its been up for getting on for a month. But it has been a busy month... honest! Never mind. I would like to introduce you to the new web portal for the 146 Cider Company - www.146cider.co.uk.

It links back to this blog, but provides a more professional means of letting people know who 146 is, what 146 does and how. The blog will still remain the main focus for any web activity (heavens knows, I have enough other things to do!)

In terms of the 2010 season so far, the website does give a list of all the events I am supplying so far this year. The list is growing but (hopefully in time order they are)

• Reading Beer and Cider Festival (now!)
• Chesterfield 'Rail Ale Festival' (early May)
• Southampton Beer and Cider Festival (beginning of June)
• Newbury Racecourse Cider Festival (end of June)
• Colden Common Beer Festival (September)
• Wickham Charity Beer Festival (September)
• The Fruitwise Apple Event (October)
• Woolston Beer Festival (October)
• Nottingham 'Robin Hood' Festival (October)

Clearly, there are lots to add to this as we go - keep an eye on the website for details. I will be pulling down the pages on the blog that double up with the website for simplicity (and be putting a big fat link back to the website just as soon as I can).

Its all go go go:-)

Introducing the 2010 range...

The 2010 season cider is currently being bottled, stored and checked to make sure it has really finished fermenting!. So its about time to introduce the new range for 2010. There are three very different ciders this year. They are:

• Hampshire Heritage Cider
• Wild West Cider
• Eastern Pomace Cider

The names have changes a few times over the last couple of months - starting with just '146 East and West' and developing to their current state. I guess the proof is in the feedback from punters!

Hampshire Heritage is the same blend as the 146 Cider from last year. This season, however, there were a lot less Egremont Russett available, and a lot more Laxtons Epicure and Lord Lambourne. Egremont is a very distinctive apple which comes through in a cider - Laxtons and Lambourne are a lot sweeter and have less charisma. So it is no surprise that this has allowed the cider fruit to appear a little more robustly in the flavour. There is a good measure of acid too, although quite in the same way as last year.

I will publish a list of the varieties used and general percentages soon, but for now its roughly a 50% cider, 40% desert, 10% sharp blend of about 20 varieties of apple. As usual, all this fruit came from the Fruitwise orchards, giving it a food mileage (orchard to bottle) of approximately 10 miles.

Wild West is the first new cider I wanted to try. And I am very glad I have. Made from 5 varieties of cider fruit, it has a slight emphasis of the bittersweet, Chisel Jersey, backed up very solidly with Yarlington Mill and sweetened with Sweet Alford. This fruit came a little further, from the Bridport area of Dorset... so a few more food miles to report.

Its a fruity cider, backed up with a good measure of tannin and a tiny amount of acid whose job is mostly to help preserve the cider rather than impact the taste. Again, more detail will follow but its about 90% cider and 10% sharp.

Eastern Delight is a fairly limited eastern counties style cider. No cider fruit used at all, just well stored and prime desert apples from the Fruitwise orchards. These were generally picked by Fruitwise for market and then rejected as either too small, knobbly, or over ripe. In all honesty, the number of varieties is unknown although there is a good dose of Orleans Reinette - a very high quality desert apple.

Eastern style cider produces a light, fairly sharp cider - and with no or very little tannin to give it body it can be an acquired taste. To reduce acid, this style of cider is often left to mature for longer and even to go through a malolactic fermentation (MLF). This is a very slight process, not a fermentation as such, that reduces the acid profile of the cider more.

Eastern Delight is actually not as acidic as had been expected, but even though, it will not be available until the Southampton Beer Festival in June. The other ciders will be available from the beginning of May.

More information about each ciders provenance to follow...

Whadda ya know!

While waiting to start racking the Hampshire Heritage, it seems I am back in production mode once again. Fruitwise, the orchard that provides the ingredients for both Hampshire heritage and the small amount of eastern style cider I made during the 2010 season have finished their markets for the year and have boxes of apples left over.

Instead of throwing them out for the birds they asked if I wanted them. I am not worried about the birds; I expect they are happily munching their way through all the spent pomace we mulched at the base of about 50-60 trees during pressing last year.

So, this weekend I milled and pressed 260kg of quality, well bletted desert apples. This added another 190 litres to the total and brings the 2010 total to 523 gallons. Not just double the previous year (which has always been the plan) but about 3 times as much.

It also means that the Eastern style of cider is now much more respectable and should be available for more festivals. I may even take 60 litres aside and let it mature for 12 months to see if that improves things... gotta keep moving forward!!

1 - 1001, 2 - 1003, 3 - 1012... Jump!

Fermentations are steadily drawing to a conclusion here at the 146 Cider Company. So, if I am going to stand a chance of bottle conditioning some of the cider, then I am going to have a busy weekend.

The Hampshire Heritage has slowed right down now, and is sat at 1001. If last year was any kind of marker, this cider dries out to about 998 (which is nice and dry), so by getting it into the bottles now there should be a nice sparkle to it. Last year it was achieved more by accident than judgement, but there you go. I also want to bottle some as still cider too, but that is a good couple of months away.

It has cleared really nicely and tastes not that disimilar from last years blend... though it is still very young and will definitely benefit from maturing a bit (to drop the acid a touch).

I also want to bottle condition some of the 146 Western too, but that is stubbornly dropping slowly and is 1012 (a drop of about 8 since this time last month!). This is the first year for this blend for me, and I have been worried about having sufficient acid content (it was just slightly less than 10%). However, it tastes very good (if a bit sweet at the moment) and there is definitely some acid in it - so maybe the 146 Eastern blend will not succumb to being an acid blend for the Western cider.

146 Eastern is only going to be a festival special this year. Not a bad way of trying it out as it is distinctly different and much higher in acid than the other two. Its currently 1003, so nearly ready for storage – and this is not a bad thing. Like the other two it has cleared nicely, but will need to settle down a bit before it is a nice pint. Made up from quality desert apples though, I am expecting it to be a light and sharp drink – very nice in the summer!

Bring on the barrel cleaning!!!

February Catch Up...

The headlines:

- Pruning the 146 micro orchard and adding to its small number

- Fermentations – slow and slower

- 7 year old makes ginger wine (with a hint of chilli)

- And finally, don't forget the Gosport Winterfest!

Okay – I should have warned you not to get too excited by it! Well, it is winter after all!

Pruning the 146 micro orchard and adding to its small number

Winter is the time for tree management. This is essential for tons of reasons, for which I am probably not the best reference. Take a look at Stephen Hayes Youtube site to see what I mean. As the trees in the micro orchard are only 3 years old, pruning helps form a decent tree shape – a good form will optimise the amount of fruit a tree bears as well as making future maintenance easier.

At the moment, there are 6 trees in the orchard. These include a high quality desert apple (Ashmeads Kernel) and a very mildly acid cooking apple (James Grieve). These will ultimately form a base for a special ‘limited’ cider that I want to make in a few years. To build on this, there are currently four lesser known cider apple trees; a full bittersharp, two full bittersweets, and a medium and mild bittersweet. My hope is that these rare varieties will bring something extra to the cider that cannot be found elsewhere.

To this, I have a couple of Dabinetts that I want to plant shortly. Many cider makers are happy to make Dabinett single variety cider; and its not bad. However, for my purpose it is a good variety to provide a quality bulk to the blend.

It is also another variety to play around with.

Fermentations – Slow and slower

February is turning out to be warmer than last year, so although the cider got off to a slow start, the fermentation tanks are keeping busy. A friend from the Cider Workshop has a live webcam linked to his tanks, so you can witness in real time the wonders of fermentation! To be honest, cider fermentation is really not that much of an event in itself.

The Hampshire Heritage is just about finished (I am cleaning the storage tanks as I write) and the 146 Eastern is just nudging below 1010 (that will take about 14 days to finish). Only the 146 Western seems to be stubbornly stuck in the 1020’s. This is the batch that concerned me the most when planning the blend of sharp/sweet and bitter – there is less than 10% sharps (as per a traditional west country cider) so it was always going to be the most unpredictable fermentation this year.

7 year old makes ginger wine (with a hint of chilli)

So, its not all cider here! Following a successful batch of ginger wine (which was given mostly as Christmas presents for my daughters nurses and friends) we decided to give it another go. The recipe is simple and (loosely) based on a 1968 recipe in “Home Wine and Beer Making” – although we took some liberties with the recipe to produce something a little more special. I will post separately (although, lets face it, this is a cider website/blog!)

And finally - dont forget the Gosport Winterfest

Order is in and the cider is... well... still sat in storage for the moment. However, the Gosport Winterfest starts on Friday 25th February at the Thorngate Halls in Gosport. See the South East Hampshire CAMRA website for details.

Southampton man gets visit from EHO... And lives!

I had anticipated the latest visit by Southampton’s finest to be a bit of a challenge – the proper thing this time. I had previously written up a HACCP plan to identify parts of the business that we a ‘risk’, and also made sure that I had a copy of the NACM guidelines – to which I adhere to (as far as it is applicable).

So, the Environmental Health man came to see me and was really very human indeed. None of the anticipated “you need to do this, this and this”, no pound symbols came rushing past my eyes and not even a glimmer of the vast amounts of paperwork I had expected!

OK. In reality I have to write up a bit more ‘meat’ on the HACCP, and need to think about adopting a tracking document for the cleaning process... but this is more common sense than red-tape, and I had been doing something kind of a bit like it before. And, of course, I will need to wait for the letter that is bound to turn up sooner or later. But I don’t have that sense of foreboding that I have seen from others around the country!

As the winter progresses and the cider simply ‘does its stuff’, 146 Cider has been improving things to make 2011 easier to manage. A new ‘super’ hydrometer has been purchased – a foot long (thanks for the recommendation Mark Shirley of Rockingham Forest Cider)... OK, I did have a really useful (but slightly smaller) hydrometer but managed to smash it. I wish they were a bit more robust:-( A new scale is on order for the bag in boxes – no, its not that things have been any less accurate in 2010... its just that this one is designed for the boxes so should make things a lot quicker (once I have got Trading Standards to stamp it!!) Finally, I am waiting to get the 2011 labels test sheet. All very exciting.

So, how is the cider coming along? Very nicely, thank you very much for asking!

Cider report...

This ought to have been called the case of the missing cider maker ‘cos its been ages since I did any ‘blogging’. However, this hasn’t been for lack of activity in the Cider Garage!

My main job, the one that pays the mortgage, has had a couple of important months. Autumn is not just the appling season, its the exhibition season for the bus industry. The company I work for are the largest supplier of software into the UK bus industry and are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. To mark this occasion, a Routemaster which belongs to one of the staff was refurbished and was the centrepiece of the stand at the Eurobus Exhibition at the NEC at the beginning of November. Now, buses are all well and good – I appreciate them but mainly as a means to an end. However, I have to say that by the time I got to the show, I had a fondness for the old bus. And it looked very graceful on the stand (and a great place to hide away when standing up talking to people wore my legs out!


OK, enough of that. What is there to report from the cider front?

Despite early predictions that the apple crop from the Fruitwise Orchards was going to be very poor, the late spell of rain worked wonders and, although things were generally later than they normally are the crop was generous. With the workload I had on in September and October, this delay in collecting fruit was actually pretty good. Another benefit was that the fruit had longer to develop flavours – albeit the sugar levels have not been as high as some have predicted.

One of the predictable things about making cider is that each year is going to be unpredictable! This year, as far as the fruit is concerned, has proven that to me time and time again! Each year of pressing detailed records have been kept about the quantity of apples, potential alcohol and blending; this is mainly for posterity and learning the craft. It also serves to show how the blend should be made up. This year I aim to produce a cider that tastes similar to the 2009 blend – not least of all because lots of people have tried it and liked it. Makes sense, eh?!

Consistency in cider is a myth – especially for craft ciders, but even the larger companies have to play and fiddly with their ingredients to ensure that each and every bottle tastes the same. So, as much as I strive to ensure a consistent product by blending to exact percentages, I know its not going to happen. Why? A good example is the Egremont Russet. Last year there was a glut of it in the cider; not so much was available this year, so it will play a lesser role. Lord Lambourne, however, was a total no show last year whereas there is a good amount in this year.

Tricky innit!

So, I am over 1500 litres of cider so far with another 1.5 tons of fruit left to press. The IBC’s are coming in handy and its been very satisfying to watch them fill up with juice. The pressing kit is getting worked hard and its starting to look like it could do with a rest (and a good service!). Its not that it is not clean, just tired – the reconditioned Goodnature press is coping well although the hydraulic ram needs emptying and refilling with hydraulic fluid. If I can get a chance whilst its raining, I shall get it done.

The exciting thing is that 146 Cider is expanding from its single offering, with a major new blend (well, major being 1000 litres) and another limited blend. There are also going to be a couple of ‘styles’ that I have been playing about with for a while, like a bottle conditioned cider and possibly even a ‘medium dry’!

And thats all I have to say about that... for now:-)

Apple Days...

As well as being the cider making season, its worth remembering that it is the apple season too. Yeah, I know this may seem like the bleedin' obvious, but its a neat way to get on to think about visiting an apple day somewhere.

The best list of apple days around the country can be found on the Common Ground website, which each year gives details of more and more apple day events. An apple day event will generally have a display of apples of various kinds - sometimes focussing on 'local' heritage verieties, as well as selling fruit and juice. Invariably there will be pressing demonstrations, and likely cider ad apple juice on sale too. On the fun side, expect anything from apple bobbing to competitions to peel apples in order to get the longest peel!

New Forest Cider's 'Steam Pressing weekend turns the apple day on its head by concentrating more on the cider side of things - its more like a festival in som respects. As well as a number of groups pressing juice, there are plenty of other traditional crafts being demonstrated... and you can get your cider hot or cold. Truly recommmended!

Although the plan is to attend New Forest Ciders event (as a punter - no 146 on sale there... yet), 146 will be found at the Fruitwise Apple Day, at Durley Village Hall on Saturday 25th September. From a cider point of view, this is still quite early in the pressing season - though I plan to take the kit along and do a demo - please don't hold me to it though! However, thanks to the hall having a licence I can sell a few glasses and folk are welcome to a complimentary taster!

The Fruitwise Apple Day takes place on Saturday 25th September at the Memorial Hall in Durley (SO32 2AR). Full details can be found on their website.

Bletting apples...

I just realised that in my last post I wrote about apple bletting, and put a notation next to it - leading to the belief that I would actually explain myself.

Well, this is marketing Will, but not as we know it. I forgot! So, to put things straight I have a post just about bletting:-)

In my dictionary, it says:

–noun

the ripening of fruit, esp. of fruit stored until the desired degree of softness is attained.

...which is pretty good for a dictionary! Bletting is exactly that. Pressing unripe apples is a big fat no no for making cider - the juice is acidic, sufficient starch has not changed to sugar, etc.

Bletted apples, however, are often soft (some insist that they are black before pressing, but I have yet to go that far!) Early apples generally don't blet very well. They don't keep and go mouldy (which is different from going soft!) However, the later cider apples can sit for anything from a week to a month before they are ready to press.

So there you go.

Revving up to the new season...

So, the pressing season is nearly upon us!! - I like 146 to capture the whole of the season, so although the early fruit neither contributes a lot to the taste of the cider (early apples tend to be thin and low in sugars) they provide a good starting fermentation to 'share' with the later pressings. Also, because of the dry year we have had so far, I do expect to encounter problems with high sugar levels in the main crop. High sugars mean high abv, and anything about 8.5% is liable for duty at a high level (the cider effectively becomes classed as 'made wine'). So the early fruit may help temper this a bit.

So, the plan this year? The plan is to produce 2-2500 litres of full juice cider. Plus I have a hope to produce a new product too - although Fruitwise has suffered some setbacks with bugs that have lowered the expected crop levels which may affect this. I have no wish to change this blend which I like (and many others do to, as it is proving!), but if needs must...

As I do have a full time job, and ironically one of the busy periods of the year is during the cider season, I don't expect to get much more time to collect and press apples than last year. Pressing for longer, into November and towards Christmas, is the main answer and should also give the apples more time to ripen properly. Don't believe the 'straight from the orchard to the press' rubbish that some advertisers would have you believe! It may work like that for some 'brands' but to craft a full juice cider, the fruit is left to fully ripen first... some Somerset farmers would say its not ready till some are black!

The other tactic has been to buy a second press. Producing volume on your own is all about optimising time - but the tricky bit is not to cut corners in the process! Using two presses in tandem should deliver 300 litres in a full day of pressing, whereas this was 150 litres last year. The other press is a proper, Goodnature press, which uses a manually operated hydraulic ram. Its still a rack and cloth set up, just like the 'Raypress' and it will press roughly the same amount of pomace too. Once it has finished going through its overhaul, that is!

To go along with the planned increase in production, there are now two 1000 litre IBC's embedded at the back of the Cider Garage. These will help blend and mature the cider in bulk with a lot less moving about.

So, thanks to all those who have spent money on 146 cider - its all going back into making more cider and improving practices! All the best:-)