Competitions and Festivals...

OK – first off, an apology. Lots has (and is) happening with 146. However, over all that, the disabled facilities at home have just been completed and, following a forced move for a month due to dust playing havoc with my daughters’ health, I have yet to have any real quality time with my laptop!

The first major thing to announce (although if you’re a member of the Cider Workshop you will already have had me posting about it) 146 came 11th out of 40 dry ciders at the Putley Blossomtime Trials in Herefordshire. As a first shot, this is a good standing – beating a number of already commercial ciders is always a good thing if you want to sell cider:-) It was a pretty great day in actual fact, and I encourage producers to have a go next year – if for nothing other than the fun of talking with other producers.

And the other thing to mention? Southampton Beer (and Cider) Festival. Yep, I should have mentioned this before the event, and did indeed plan to. Oh well. I went along yesterday to give 146 a bit of encouragement, and ended up pretty much trying all other 15 of the ciders on sale. A few were extremely sweet, and really not my preference. However, one or two (the Dan Y Draig Medium Dry, and the New Forest Dry) were really very good indeed. I supplied 10 gallons, although they were (unfortunately) in polypins, which doesn’t do much to protect the cider once opened. However, seeing almost an entire 5 gallon disappear over the course of the evening was very encouraging.

Being naturally paranoid about my baby 146 Cider, I kept asking how it was going down (apologies to any of the bar staff reading this!!!) and the general tone was very good. “Most people love it, some hate it – but they are Magners drinkers”. Hmmm. It would seem I have come a long way. Having started out trying to make cider like Magners (I was a staunch ‘Friday night’ Magners man) it would seem I have learnt something over the last 5 – 6 years then!

I am still aiming to have a retail supplier in Southampton soon. As I am not personally licenced, I can only sell 146 to licenced premises – however, once a retailer has been ‘signed up’, I can always point folk to them for the stuff.

All Change at 146!

Well, in truth I haven’t started selling anything yet. Not having heard anything from the council yet, plus the variability of the 2008 blend of cider and the need to actually get to the 2009 batch, I have been busy preparing the ground.

So, last weekend I finally blended the 2009 cider – not before time as only have of it has been racked from its initial fermentation tanks. I am very pleased to say that its probably the most professionally made cider I have ever produced – a nice mixture of tannin and a little sharpness from the early apples which usually lack in body and make up for it in acid! However, this is not overpowering. Its also tasting a little yeasty, which is not really my preference but having bottled a bit I can see this dropping out fairly quickly so I am hopeful.

Given my concerns over the 2008 blend, I decided to rack a percentage into the new blend – both to balance the acid more but also to deal with any problem of H2S. This is simply over production from the yeast and as the new blend is still finishing (one of the advantages of a natural fermentation is that its all still active) it should take care of things nicely.

What has changed then? Most noticeably, the label! Having sat and stared at half a dozen bottles with the label in situ for the last week, I came to the conclusion that it was misleading. The bubbles just make me think that it is a sparkling product... and what is the heart all about? It harks back to pre-company mucking about, when I had planned to call my little enterprise ‘Love Cider’. This got itself ruled out in favour of 146 Cider, but I still liked the graphic. Ho hum!

The label (mark 2) involved blocky type text (‘Earwig Factory’ for those who know about these things). As soon as the 4th person told me it looked like an alcopop advert, or something aimed at kids, I decided not to roll with that – although it was a simple design.

So, we now have arrived at version 3 – one that I am particularly happy with. Its amazing what happens through the process of being unhappy with something, and subjecting ideas to the scrutiny of others!!

Now all I have to do is to find a regular supplier, bottle my cider properly and sell it!

Oh, and there are no prizes if anyone happens to spot that I have got the 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols the wrong way round on the label!

Herefordshire Cider Trip... Part 3

This isn’t meant to be a ‘book on Herefordshire cider’, although there was so much to say about it it had to be split up to save any readers from boredom!

One of the purposes of making the visits was to try the cider that I would be up against come the Putley Cider Trials. Not that I think I stand a hope of taking a rosette, but it was very worthwhile finding out how others styled their products and went about crafting their ciders. A bonus was a definite introduction to the world of perry which I hadn’t bargained for, but will now make sure I look out for them. Incidentally, I believe that the new use of the term ‘Pear Cider’ gives a distinction between the real thing and the carbonated, flavoured and mass market stuff... I wish we could get the larger producers to start calling their cider ‘Apple Cider’! Westons even make Raspberry Cider...

However, having bought bottles from Westons, Greggs Pit, Once Upon a Tree and Lyne Down Cider I also wanted others that I hadn’t had time to visit (apologies to Tom Oliver!!!) In order to get a full range, we bought some Gwynt y Ddraig and Dunkertons from a local Waitrose and found some others at Truffles Deli in Ross on Wye (a great place to buy Herefordshire cider, by the way!). I added a bottle of Gwatkins, Amazing Cider Company and Ross on Wye Cider Co to make up a decent representation.

Come our final night, I figured I would get my friends to blind taste several ciders including my own. A bit ambitious, I figured that mine would stand a chance! So I opened 3 other bottles alongside one of mine and dished out the glasses. What a mistake! Mine had the aroma of egg and was really quite foul! I am not even sure why, as we had consumed two other bottles of mine which were fine (I am now doubting whether I can sell the 2008 vintage). This aside, the Dunkertons Black Fox unanimously came out on top of the 4 ciders we tried (Roaring Meg from Lyne Down came second, with the Gwent y Ddraig and Westons Extra Dry following up... mine was firmly last!) I have brought the others home to go through them at more leisure.

Was there a lesson in all of this? I think there might be, coming from the visits this week. The 2008 cider was played around with – I back-blended another cider blend into my main blend once it had finished, which at the time I had hoped wouldn’t be a mistake. On the whole it hasn’t been. However, there have been several bottles with a eggy problem now, so I shall have to take a decision whether to bin it or keep it for personal use only.

Ho hum!!