October is CAMRA's National Cider & Perry Month & the Blue Bell Inn, Halkyn celebrated as we did last year with a range of ciders & perries starting on the 6th of Oct with a Cheese Cider & Perry night and ending with our Apple Pressing Day - we plan to make our own cider for the 2nd year with Rosie's Cloch Las Seidr (Rosie's Blue Bell Cider) which will be ready for our April 2008 Cheese, Cider & Ale Night.

Last year we started the process with an apple pressing event, bringing several cwt of apples to squash them in a vintage tractor driven cider scratter and cider press for apple juice which became our cider. We were very lucky as our apple pressing was performed by local Llandegla man Steve Hughes seen below with his vintage tractor. Steve was the CAMRA Bottled Cider Champion in 2006 and his ciders have been winning awards ever since.

This year saw Steve here again with his cider making kit but we've added some fun with a Midlist Farm organised a Hog Roast & Barbeque (the apple pulp went to MidList's pigs again this year too) and we're going to make available (to order) Welsh variety apple trees for you to grow in your own gardens.

If you would like to find out more about apple and pear growing in general and the welsh varieties of pears and apples in particular, check out the Welsh Perry & Cider Society. There are some Orchard Information Sheets that have been produced by the Orchard Doctors in Powys. Go to www.glasu.org.uk , click on 'Reports', and scroll down to find (bilingual) reports on: Varieties, Rootstocks, Planting and Staking, Picking and Storing and Pruning.

(Press read more for more information and to see the pictures).

October is a very active time for cider and perry producers, especially for those who make only a small amount of cider. Harvest time for cider fruit is roughly from September to November & by October production is in full flow.

CAMRA already have the month of May set aside as Mild Month (we had an 8 week mild month!) & following on the success of the Mild campaign, CAMRA has now set October aside as Cider & Perry Month.

Unlike real ale production, which can happen at any time of the year, real cider & perry can only be made when the fruit is ripe. Great skill goes into producing both products. Great store is placed by the Craft Brewer in the quality of ingredients & variety of flavours created by the malt, hops, yeast and water used to brew the beer.

It is a Producer rather than a Brewer that makes cider & perry. They may use a mixture of bittersweet and bittersharp cider apples or sweet dessert apples, or a mixture of the two to make cider; but perry can only be made from specialized perry pears, which are high in natural tannin.

The choosing, pressing and blending of the fruit to make cider is just as much of a craft as making beer and produces a vast range of tastes, styles and aromas, similar to those produced in fine wine. Like wine, each year’s fruit produces a unique vintage, so much so that cider and perry have been sometimes called ‘The Wine of the West’.

We will be pressing apples using Herefordshire farm cider equipment and a vintage tractor provided by Steve Hughes of Llandgla, Wrexham who recently won a major cider making title at CAMRA with the National Bottled Cider & Perry Award 2006 and his ciders have been winning awards ever since. Our brew will be called Rosie's Cloch Las Seidr and should be ready for April 2008.
Many thanks to the CAMRA Cider & Perry site for the words above.