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Farmhouse Cider
There was real concern
last year that most of the county’s remaining
traditional orchards would be grubbed up as a result of
reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies that
would have excluded these orchards form the new Single
Farm Payments Scheme. Following a campaign led by
Somerset cider maker Julian Temperley a reprieve has
come with the publication of the Central Science
Laboratory’s report that redefines Traditional Orchards
in a way that makes them eligible for the Single Farm
Payments.
Yet even before this
latest threat the number of hectares of orchards in
Somerset had fallen from over 10,000 a hundred years ago
to around 1000 now.
CAMRA (Campaign for
Real Ale) recognised that real cider was in a position
similar to that which had led to the original setting up
of their campaign for real ale some 25 years ago. The
situation regarding Perry (made in the same way as cider
but with Perry pears) was even worse. In 2002 they set
up a cider and perry committee and now produce a Good
Cider Guide. Their definition of real draught cider and
perry is:
A. INGREDIENTS
1. The liquid content before fermentation must consist
entirely of non-pasteurized cider apple or perry pear
juice.
2. No apple or pear juice concentrates may be used.
3. Normally only the sugar naturally available in the
fruit should be used to cause fermentation, but in years
when the level of natural sugar in the fruit is low the
addition of extraneous sugar to aid fermentation is
acceptable.
B. PROCESS
1. No pasteurization to take place during the production
process in relation to the cask product.
2. No added colouring to be used.
3. No added flavouring to be used.
4. There must be no artificial carbonation for draught
products.
5. Sweetener may be added to fully fermented Cider/Perry
to make it sweet or medium.
6. The addition of water is permitted to bring the
alcoholic content down to the level required by the
producer. Ideally however the minimum juice content
should not be lower than 90% volume.
7. No micro filtration allowed (this takes all the yeast
leaving a “dead” product)
All of our recommended
ciders conform to this definition.
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