Second Home
Until the pandemic I wouldn’t say I felt part of the wider beer community, I felt like I was just a bartender. My interest in the industry grew through education. I’m lucky to have colleagues who are encouraging when it comes to the sharing of knowledge, learning about the product, the history, tastings and the diversity of styles. My beer community was, and for the most part still is, the ten people I work with at the bar.
My experience with cider has been very different. Before starting Burum Collective I had a quiet and tentative interest in cider, I stood watching the industry from afar, buying a few bottles from Scrattings every now and then but that was as far as it went.
After getting the opportunity to visit Ross on Wye Cider and Perry company, where myself and co-editor Rachel Hendy spent an afternoon sorting, cleaning and pressing apples, as well as blending single varieties, I went home and jabbered on about cider to my wife for the next several months. I knew immediately this was an industry that I wanted to celebrate and see succeed.
It’s been over twelve months since I started putting the building blocks of Burum Collective together, and I knew I wanted to include cider as part of our work. The first few cider pieces from Ben Thompson immediately caught the attention of those active in the #rethinkcider movement, and the rest is history. We were welcomed into cider with open arms. In fact we weren’t just welcomed - it was like being pulled into the cider community head first.
Through the encouragement of those at Manchester Cider Club, namely Dick Withecombe and Cath Potter, the team at Neutral Cider Hotel, Cider Women, Adam Wells and James Finch of Cider Review, the team at Little Pomona and a multitude of other cider makers, myself and Rachel went from not really knowing anyone in our separate industries to being actively included in the conversation about cider.
And this is the story of pretty much anyone coming into cider right now. The energy and warmth radiating from those who want cider to succeed and reach new audiences is astonishing. It has a welcome like no other.
This year, through the kindness of Simon Day (TCCPA) and Michelle McGrath (ACA), we were invited to attend CraftCon and CiderCon respectively. The events were both run over a couple of days on the virtual events app Hop In, with full schedules of talks and demos from a wide range of speakers.
This piece is about what I have learnt from and about cider through both running Burum Collective and attending the 2021 virtual pomme cons.
Cider Breathes
Cider is alive, and is only made once a year. My experience in the drinks industry thus far has been with coffee and beer, which are products that can be made weekly, even daily. They are also products that can be pretty much replicated each time they are made, with the use of technology and science. Similarly to natural wine, small batch cider does not have the ability to replicate time and time again in the same way that coffee and beer can.
The variables in cider are huge. Both the apples and the trees are affected by the weather, which in turn will affect how the cider will taste. Meaning that I could make a cider with the same apple varieties and to the best of my ability in the same conditions, but it would be different every year, sometimes even drastically so.
For the past nine months we at Burum Collective have been encouraging the celebration of similarities between beer, wine and cider, but we also want to encourage the celebration of the differences. It is important if cider is to succeed that others in the drinks industry understand that low intervention cider isn’t always going to taste the same each time it is presented to consumers. This is something that should be conveyed to both bar owners and the customer, and not in a hush hush kind of embarrassed way but in a loud and proud fashion, because quite frankly it’s really cool.
In a world where we have essentially been cloning our food and drink, to the detriment of our planet, isn’t it time we celebrate natural processes where we can find them? I hate to get poetic about it but to me cider and perry are magic. This train of thought leads me onto my next cider revelation - the fruit.
Varieties are the Key
Not everyone is fond of the advertisement of apple or pear varieties on labels, there is a concern that people will be put off with words they don’t understand. This is a fair concern, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the discussion. From my perspective, as a new drinker and fan, I love knowing what apples or pears have gone into my cider and perry.
It’s not just about giving the tools to the sellers of cider to help it progress, but those tools should also be given to the consumer. For this reason none of you will be surprised to know that I am very pro single variety cider, and it was joyful to watch sessions at both CiderCon and CraftCon on single varieties and to find others who shared the same sentiment.
There is also an argument against single variety ciders - I’m beginning to realise that there are camps for and against all topics in cider but bear with me. This argument being that not all of these single varieties “taste good” meaning that makers would prefer to blend those ciders.
My rebuttal being that single variety ciders showcase the sheer diversity of the cider apple.
They are also a fantastic educational tool into understanding cider apples, your own palette and the building of a blend. When I first started drinking single varieties the apple that stood out to me was Foxwhelp. To some, Foxwhelp is used to help lift or balance a blend, not to be drunk as a single variety, but I adore Foxwhelp, because my palate is swayed towards more acidic flavours. Single variety ciders also showcase the diversity of people.
Not all makers are able to produce single varieties, the conversation at CiderCon in the US centred around the issues with makers only having access to certain apples, and again managing consumer expectations with how different those varieties might taste year on year. The talk at CiderCon was with Dan Pucci, Philippe Bishop, Courtney Mailey, who were all pro single variety ciders, even with some of the challenges that might arise.
As part of their presentation Blue Bee said that their goal with SV ciders is to “broaden the flavours experienced by cider drinkers based on apples alone, particularly those that grow well with minimal intervention and therefore diversify the apple crop in our state” and Courtney Mailey from Blue Bee added that “there is a whole world of experience just within the fruit, and so we definitely want to help people who want to learn more about that [apple] with the single varietal ciders so that they have a point of comparison… it’s educational”.
At CraftCon in the UK, Ross on Wye Cider and Perry Company talked about their range of SV ciders (which is extensive and is how I first got interested in apple varieties) that take you across bitter, sweet, acidic and tannic flavour profiles.
In the talk Mike Johnson of Ross Cider said “I think it's the most exciting part of cider making for me these days, when we have a new variety that we have never done before… I don’t know if I’ll like them but it makes everything interesting”.
Albert Johnson of Ross Cider presented a new community based data collecting project for apple and pear varieties called Our Pomona which will not just help consumers understand the differences in flavour profiles, but will help the industry understand the differences between the vintages with regards to apple growth and how the weather has affected the cider. This is fundamentally a large project but from what has been shown of the website so far, the actual inputting of information is user friendly, as will be accessing that information.
(I would also highly recommend taking a look at Cider Review’s breakdown of apple and pear varieties by taste, a work in progress document that is mostly UK based fruit however they are accepting submissions for varietals of other origins).
I truly believe that if the cider community can get people to engage with the apple varieties, those people will care about the apples themselves, the orchards, the makers and the care going into the products. A lot could be achieved for cider from just popping the varieties used in the cider on the back of the label - whether those ciders are single varieties or blended.
Kegged Conditioned Cider and Perry is Lit
In September 2020 I went to the Yew Tree in Ross on Wye where on draft they had a perry, in a KeyKeg, that was being conditioned INSIDE THE KEYKEG. What that essentially means is, in the similar way to bottle conditioning where you allow the beverage to ferment within the bottle, the product in the keg is alive and naturally fermenting. This to some might not be anything new, but my mind was genuinely blown. This is something I have seen before with cask kegs, but never with a KeyKeg, and certainly not with cider or perry.
In my opinion, the idea that someone could have a third, a half, two thirds or a pint of a cider that is often served in a 750ml bottle is going to help push cider sales even further. Especially with bars who encourage the giving out of tasters before purchasing, kegs bring a level of accessibility that bottles don’t. Not a lot of makers are currently keg conditioning their ciders or perries in this way, so I was really pleased to see discussions being held on the subject at CiderCon 2021.
An argument that has been made before against Keg Conditioned cider is that ‘it’s too hard a sell’. I don’t work in distribution, nor am I a cidermaker, but I am a bartender and I understand how to sell a good product that people haven’t heard of before. Yes, sometimes it can be challenging, but that’s part of your job. In the same way that if you’re a distributor, your job is to sell that cider to the bar/pub/bottle shop. Plus KeyKeg ciders will have more stability than your Bag in Box cider.
At CiderCon when talking about customers being faced with the choice of mass produced cider and small batch cider, Ed Calvert from Crafty Nectar said “it comes upon the producer to educate the bar managers and staff, to make sure that they are clearly aware, and have a quick roll off the tongue difference or statement that identifies the difference to the consumer”.
The key word I would like to pull from Ed's quote is “educate”. Cider education is not in the same place that beer education is. The knowledge about cider needs to be made far more accessible to ensure that the people selling the cider to the consumer actually have the tools in which to do so. As discussed previously cider is a different product to beer, it’s alive and moves with nature, and unless that information is available at all stages between the producer and the consumer then it’s going to be a much harder job overall.
Craft beer has already carved its path into pubs and bars, and it wasn’t easy but it was definitely worth it. It’s about engaging distributors and bar managers in cider, and getting them excited about the product. Being creative and hosting tasting events for both the staff and consumer will only increase engagement within the industry.
nothing but joy for keg conditioned perry
Cider Has an Opportunity
Cider is diverse in so many ways, diverse in style, diverse in flavour, diverse in presentation, diverse in marketing methods, diverse in service. Cider as an industry however is not diverse.
As I mentioned before, the cider industry has so far for me been incredibly welcoming, much more so than the beer industry. That doesn’t mean it’s been without its issues, I’ve seen some particularly foul reactions across social media to the discussions of inclusion and accessibility. Much like beer, there is unfortunately an entire forum on Facebook for cider that I steer well clear of.
Why? They make me feel like cider isn’t for people like me.
Which doesn’t exactly paint a picture of an inclusive environment does it? Thankfully I had already become relatively involved in cider before stumbling upon this group of over 2.5 thousand members. My exploration into cider would have been short lived if this group had been my entry way into the industry.
I have also witnessed a few unsavoury incidents from those inside what I would regard as the more forward thinking cider community.
We need more people standing up for women, queer people and people of colour within cider. Actively doing more to make cider a supportive space. Not mocking each other's work, arguing over fermentation methods, the use of 750ml bottles or getting angry because someone dared to discuss the similarities between cider and wine.
I was invited to speak at this year's CraftCon on Diversity, Inclusion and Equality. With the event being virtual I took the opportunity to invite Ren Navarro to speak with me. At the event we discussed why cider in the UK might not be so diverse, specifically with regards to both age and race, and the answer to me goes back to cider's accessibility problem.
Cider is a rurally made and often consumed drink. Looking at the 2011 census results for the three counties (Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) an average of 96.4% of residents were white. Plus from the outside, cider seems like something that only landowners can make. Now, I don’t know a lot of people my age who can afford to buy houses, they certainly aren’t going to be buying land. One of the solutions to this could be the encouragement of urban cideries.
Anyone with the money to access apples, the knowledge and with a reasonable amount of space can theoretically make cider, even if you do live in the city. And yet every year there are articles discussing apple wastage in orchards, which means there is clearly a communication breakdown somewhere. If the industry can make information and education about cider more accessible, and orchard owners can find a way to communicate with communities in nearby cities, maybe we can help solve both problems.
The other question I think cider needs to ask is; what is it that cider is currently putting out there?
At CraftCon 2021, Ren Navarro said “if I don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter if you’re a wonderful person, it doesn’t matter if you’re inclusive, and it doesn’t matter if you’re welcoming because I don’t know you’re there”.
When marketing your business or when working on campaigns, the question needs to be asked “who will be able to engage with this?”. Which is where the utilisation of social media to engage with new audiences is really important. Especially now, with the drinks industry being in a position where on trade, and even off trade, sales can be stopped at any time.
The #rethinkcider movement is all about making cider accessible to new audiences. A lot of the ways in which the industry can make cider more accessible are the same ways in which cider can become more diverse. In order to make the cider an equitable place however, work needs to be done to ensure inclusivity is integrated into all plans moving forward.
At CiderCon 2021, when talking about equity, inclusion and justice, Dr J Jackson-Beckham said “doing a one time initiative to drive diversity is great, but what we really need to see to move industries forward, is to change the way that we do other things to make them more inclusive, equitable and just. It needs to be built into the everyday processes around your organisation”.
Cider has an opportunity, which I hope it takes. It’s time to share the magic.
