Mine's a Pint - Autumn 2019

Cider Month
CAMRA’s real cider and perry months are in
October and May. May is more focused on
getting people to try new or a wider range of
ciders, whereas October is directed at getting
people in to the pubs in the first place.
from Turkey were growing wild in England
in Neolithic times. The first written mention
of cider was in 1204AD, when it was used as
payment. However the Celts made crab apple
cider before this. The Romans continued to
make cider, engineering equipment to press
the apples. The Normans began to introduce
a wider range of apples. Throughout the 17th
Century the number of orchards increased and
cider became a more popular tipple. In the
18th century cider was used to pay the farm
workers. The 19th century saw development of
the importance of the quality of cider.
Apples – the raw material for cider making
CAMRA’s definition of real cider requires it to be
“made from the freshly pressed juice of apples,
not syrup, and not to have been pasteurised or
artificially carbonated.” Although there are a
lot of ‘ciders’ that do not meet this criteria, real
cider has become far more readily available in
pubs.
Although many pubs are tied to what beers and
ciders they can stock, bag in box real ciders are
widely available. It might be worth asking in
your local if they have access to bag in boxes.
They can keep for over one month once opened,
unlike a barrel of beer that needs to be drunk
within a few days.
Look out for our Cider Pub of the Year judging
next year. All the information is on the Reading
CAMRA website but the main things to note are
the quality and condition of the cider or perry,
the promotion and knowledge of the product
from the staff as well as the welcome and
service, the atmosphere of the pub, the focus on
community, the sympathy with CAMRA aims
and the value for money.
Real cider is a traditional drink with a long
history in Britain and pre-dates pubs by a
long way. Apples that probably originated
An example of a cider press
Traditionally cider making has not changed
much in all these years. First apples are washed
and then pulped and pressed. The extracted
juice is then left to ferment. Yeast does not
need to be added to trigger fermentation as it
is naturally present on the skin of the apple.
After the cider has fermented, it is quite often
blended with the previous year’s product to
finalise the process.
There are now more than 600 types of apple
grown in the UK. It is estimated that about 450
of these are cider varieties. These apples have
been developed to have special strains which
gives different ciders their unique taste. Apples
fall into four categories; Bittersweets which
have a low acidity but high tannins, Sweets
which have low acidity and low tannin, Sharps
which have a high acidity and low tannin and
finally Bittersharps which have a high acidity
and high tannin. Most apple varieties contain
Mine’s A Pint
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