Ready, Steady...

So its nearly time to start selling cider once again. And I guess its that moment to formally let people know what is in the 146 Cider arsenal this year. Having spent some time racking and bottling (and tasting) the ciders I am happy that all of them are good enough to release - and I am personally very, very pleased with one or two of them.

As a first, I am also gearing up (girding my loins, you might say) to sell Wild West as a medium dry. I know, its not a big step from dry but it is currently all I am prepared to do. To do this I intend to sweeten with sucralose. OK, its an artificial sweetener but I have spent quite a long time procrastinating and investigating what the best method is. Sure, sugar and apple juice are 'more' natural - but the pay off is that you then have to pasteurise to stabilise (and both affect the taste more than you might believe)... Have you ever tried a Westons that tasted of apple juice? Then you will understand the problem.

Aspartame and Saccharin are the other options. These are both much better established. However, they leave a taste and, in the case of aspartame, are not sufficiently stable for my liking. Sucralose is used in sugar free pop drinks and is the main agent in 'splenda'. It is stable and it doesn't compromise the flavour of the cider too much. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to sweetening. Well, there is - get the cider to stop earlier. However, this is much easier said than done without the use of champagne bottles or (again) pasteurisation.

Anyway. Here is the line up for 2012:

The 146 Cider Co. bottled cider range for 2012

Hampshire Heritage – Dry – 7%

The original 146 Cider, this is a blend of 50% desert and 50% cider apples sourced from the Fruitwise Heritage Orchards in Southampton. It has a good tannin and a mild acid this year as I have ceased using Bramley as a sharp. I think it is the best Heritage blend I have produced.

  
Wild West – Dry or Medium Dry – 6.8%

A western style of cider made from 100% cider fruit (this years coming from Dorset and Somerset). I have increased the amount of bittersharps for this year which means I don’t have to use Bramley to balance it. As a result there is a very good dose of fruity tannin and an underlying acid that doesn’t interfere.

For the first time, I am prepared to offer this as a medium dry cider. No, it doesn’t mean I will sweeten everything, but the tannin in Wild West bears some sweetening without compromising its taste. Any sweetening will be done using ‘Sucralose’ – a non fermentable artificial sweetener which is far less intrusive than aspartame and does not require pasteurisation (as would be needed using sugar or apple juice).

  
Eastern Delight – Dry – 7.1%

This was the trial of the 2010 season and is now a full part of the 146 Cider line up. Made from 100% quality desert apples sourced from Fruitwise and Hill Farm (both Hampshire Orchards), Eastern Delight is a proper eastern counties cider. By only using desert apples with character (such as Orleans Reinette and several forms of Russet) this cider has a flavour as well as acid. No Bramleys were harmed in its production, which has balanced the flavour better than the trial.

‘Batch '#15’ – Dry – 6.7% – limited to 100 x 500ml bottles only

This is a blend of three varieties of apple, Blenheim Orange, Harry Masters Jersey and Taylors Gold. It was a single pressing where the juice tasted outstanding and was kept back for competition entry. It is similar to Wild West in style, although with more acid notes, and it has a different character to Hampshire Heritage (which has over 25 varieties of apple as opposed to 3). Because Hampshire Heritage is going to be used for some competitions, this can be released on a very limited basis as it contains a different character to the other three ciders.

The three main blends are already ordered for several festivals (I will update the events page of the website and keep the blog up to date regularly). The bottles will start to be delivered early in May... with Batch #15 following once matured fully.

Hampshire Heritage... Naked!

Exclusive. Well, not really - but this is what Hampshire Heritage looks like before the hard work takes place. Its all about the apples you see, and after Fruitwise have done all the hard graft in taking care of the trees and nurturing the fruit I get it and squish it!

Actually, in the picture there is some fruit for Eastern Delight too. This is all now bubbling away albeit as the weather has remained stubbornly mild its maybe not quite as slowly as I would like. As I write this, these bags have been replaced by wooden crates with the last half a ton of Heritage cider fruit from Fruitwise and the first ton of cider fruit from Dorset for Wild West.

I can report that the fruit has been very good this year, and the speed of the season has slowed a bit due to the damp weather.

Late in October I was joined for an afternoon by a number of CAMRA members who were celebrating CAMRA's October 'cider' month. After a quick tour of the business (it lasts about 30 seconds!) they rolled up their sleeves, opened some cider and helped press fruit - now you don't get that experience everywhere! It was actually very enjoyable and if I can persuade them to send me some pictures I will post them up on here or on the website.

Finally, what has changed this year so far? Well, Fruitwise have all but abandoned Bramley as a variety and have been grafting them over to cider fruit. This will help me expand and develop Hampshire Heritage in the coming years so I am very happy about this indeed. The risk for this year though is because I do not add other orchards fruit to Heritage, so there is very little Bramley to give the acid kick. This is no bad thing and I am very keen to see how the milder desert acid works - I suspect the tannin will be slightly deeper too.

Wild West, whilst good in 2010 (and Highly Commended at Bath and West!) suffered a little from the acidic afterthought. This year it is planned and will be of the desert variety too. You could say that as a cidermaker I am trying to abandon Bramley too. I think a slightly greater percentage of milder desert fruit will still do the job of protecting the cider and also mellow the Chisel Jersey's heavy tannins.

Eastern Delight is the biggest change though. With over half a ton of Fruitwise desert fruit, it is joined this year by Russets and Cox's from Hill Farm Orchards (known for their juicing apples). This is kind of an unknown until it is ready, although it is going to be a nutty cider next year as there is a lot of Egremont Russet in it. I am looking forward to trying it.

And that is that. I had better get on and finish pressing eh!

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...