The increase in duty was announced by Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling in the UK Government’s latest Budget, and looks to increase a pint of Cider by 20p in the pubs.

Is This Fair?

The reasoning behind the increase is to bring cider into the same taxation level as Beer and to redefine some types of strong scrumpys as fortified wines.

Although this will apparently not affect many smaller producers in the UK, it represents perhaps a move by the Government to strangle the last of the country’s best known traditions.

What do you think?

Many Perth locals turned up to the festival and although it was a tight squeeze, it was great to see so many families interacting with local producers and learning about what it is to be Bio Dynamic and what makes their beef or wines so unique.

After the event we went to Kalamunda to the farmers market to a bit of food shopping before the market closed (Kalamunda farmers market runs every Sunday from 8am to 1pm).  The market had a real buzz from people coming from the Bio Dynamic Festival and seeking out more local, organic produce.

Bio Dynamic Festival, Highvale Pickering Brook

Our favourite this year was the Pizzas made by the chefs from Slow Food Perth.  We ordered a fresh Aldersyde Asparagus & Pumkin pizza which was wonderfully fresh and tasted soooooo good!

We cant wait until next year when we can taste the same foods but wash it down with some of High Vale’s own Cider!

My highlight of this year’s Royal Perth show wasn’t a stuffed show bag, or a stomach churning ride down side show alley; but a modest fruit liqueur stand run by the Birdwood Park Fruit Winery…Sounds crazy that amongst all the rides and shows; the animals and the food demonstrations - that I should come away from the show raving on about the wines and ports I sampled from their corner of the show.

Growing up in Somerset (UK) an agricultural show was more about the rides, the carnival and show bags - and less about the celebration of farming and small holding in the region.  Sure it was great to see some of the animal’s parade and sneak away samples of cider and locally made wine - but all I was interested was when the monster trucks were on or when we were heading off to the fair.

Now a little bit older, I wasn’t expecting to ride a waltzer or get as sick on show bag chocolate; I went to to see what the region had to show off and to see what the noise was about.

For me the Royal Perth Show was about seeing the passion behind WA’s agriculture and meeting  producers such as the guys from Birdwood Park Fruit Winery and hearing how they are making world class wines and liqueurs from the region’s fruits.

Talking to them (and sampling a few of their different ports) it was amazing to hear that they were as passionate about making wine from fruit grown in Balingup, as we are about producing cider from locally made apples in Perth.  Our favourites were their award winning Sloshed Apple Port and equally amazing Wild Cherry Port - both Bronze Medal winners at this year’s show.

In fact the winery, which was established in 1992 and based just outside of Balingup, have won awards at the Royal Perth Show since they started exhibiting there and we can see why.  We took a bottle of the Cherry Port home (there was a fight between Corrina and I for which we should take home: Sloshed Apple or Wild Cherry…and she won), and started on it straight away. The port is a rich with really strong cherry flavours.  It has a really smooth taste to it to begin with then you are hit with really strong wild cherry favours as it melts away.  I had to admit it, she was right (although the apple port was my favourite!).

The Birdwood Park Fruit Winery is based near the corner of South Western Highway and the Balingup-Nannup Road.  We will probably make the journey to see them again next month and let you know what it is like to visit.

We can now announce that our ciders are now ready to drink, and we are celebrating the launch of our brew with a special tasting with expert cider drinker and seasoned taster - Steve Murray!

We will bring you the results of the tasting, including tasting notes and new pictures to our site soon!

Find out how we made our cider at home by watching our online video!

James and I brought cider scrumpy to the listeners of Radio Fremantle on the 22nd of July when Kate Pearson from the WA WA show invited us in to talk about what scrumpy cider is and how we trying to encourage everyone in Western Australia to start making their own home brew!

Radio Fremantle is based just outside of Freo’s town centre, and not only broadcasts to the people of Fremantle but also to Perth (and the world if you listen to it online). James and I were both incredibly nervous about the interview; I had just made it to the studio after picking up a case of cider from Re Store in Leederville; and James was still in his suit from work.

Kate had a lot of problems trying to play the music she had queued up for the show, so James and I were given free reign to ramble on about Cider, making it from home, and what are our favourite ciders. Bringing in a few of our favourite ciders into the studio for Kate to try was brilliant. We were able to talk about how different ciders taste, how they are made and what divides true srumpy ciders and fizzy perrys and apple ciders.

Anyway! I have posted the audio of the interview below - comments are (as always) greatly received!!!!

Radio Fremantle BrayOak Segment

If you want to get involved in the BrayOak Cider community - why not join our Facebook group?

The group shares their favourite ciders and reviews up coming events, in Australia and in the UK.

Join now and also see new, free guides on home brewing written by James and Charles Oakham.

To join, visit our group NOW!!!

]]> http://www.brayoakcider.com/join-our-facebook-group/feed/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/mercury-sweet-cider-review/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/mercury-sweet-cider-review/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:02:20 +0000 admin http://www.brayoakcider.com/?p=127

Mercury Cider

We have always have a six pack of Mecury sweet in our fridge, not because its a special drink and we cant get enough of it - but because its an everyday(ish) cider.

Mercury sweet is medium weight cider, which is fairly sweet and very easy to drink.

We infact prefer to drink a 6pack of Mercury over a six pack of larger beer because it is so easy to drink.  The cider has a vibrant fruity flavour with a rounded apple aftertaste.

The only problem with this cider is that it is brewed in Tasmania and not in Western Australia - SO WE CANT GO AND VISIT!!!

Everyday cider, sweet in taste: 5/10

]]> http://www.brayoakcider.com/mercury-sweet-cider-review/feed/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/little-creatures-pipsqueak/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/little-creatures-pipsqueak/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:55:56 +0000 admin http://www.brayoakcider.com/?p=122

Refreshing Pipsqueak Cider

Pipsqueak cider is Little Creature’s only cider amongst all of its beer brews.  The cider is made using local eating apples and yeast taken from wine.  The result is a crisp fizzy cider that has a champagne consistancy, but has a deep, rich apple taste.

Pipsqueak is brewed the same way as we make our BrayOak cider using the same kinds of apples,  except with the addition of wine yeast and tonnes more apples!

The cider they have on tap in the brewery tastes completely different to the Pipsqueak you buy in the bottles.  The draught cider has a fuller taste and is smoother than the bottled cider, which in our opinion tastes a little weaker and is much more fizzier!

Our girlfriends also loved this cider, making it a great all round cider that can be enjoyed by a bunch of blokes and sheila’s alike!  We give it 7/10

]]> http://www.brayoakcider.com/little-creatures-pipsqueak/feed/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/madmonk-brewery-kitchen/ http://www.brayoakcider.com/madmonk-brewery-kitchen/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:26:06 +0000 admin http://www.brayoakcider.com/?p=118

Their Website is coming soon

Stone Madmonk Rauchbier

in Madmonk’s tasting notes they suggest that the beer is great with chorizo sausage (particuarly on one of their pizzas!) - they weren’t fibbing!!!

The beer had a suttle malt taste supporting a beautiful smoked flavour, which made for a great pint with our Pizzas (yes chorizo…).  The beer had a beautiful amber colour to it and wasnt too heavy - like many dark malt beers.

We both liked this one and give it a cracking 8/10!

Aus MadMonk Pale Ale

I am sorry, but apart from Cider I have a love for Pale Ales - who hasn’t?: fresh, crisp and an amazing change to drinking fizzy larger beers.

Although I had beer envy over James’ second Rauchbier, I found this beer a little more smooth and easier to drink than his smokey pint.  I loved the Pale Ale’s  blend of bitter flavours and found that it really enhanced the taste of hops that come through after the first mouth full (well, first burp!!).

This was a great beer to eat food by: 7/10

MadMonk Brewery

The Brewery and kitchen are situated on Freo’s South Terrace.  We stumbled upon MadMonk after looking for somewhere to eat during the La Fête de la Musique in Fremantle.

The inside of the bar was a mix of reclaimed wood panelling and brushed metals.  The staff were really friendly and even though the place was busy, the beer and food came out really quick.

The food choice was great (though not for veggies) and was very reasonably priced.

We’d love to go back again (even for the beer), especially for live bands.  The place had a fantastic atmosphere and makes a welcome change to the packed and crammed Little Creatures!

Some say that they are the same thing - cider made with only pears; others say that it is a mix of both cider apples and pears.  So to decide once and for all, we decided to put it to the test!

We thought that it would also be a good time to test the new upgrades to the Mule - now named Mule II, and press both pears and cider apples together to make pear cider!

We decided to go with both pears and apples for one main reason: we know that the apples we used in our three cider brews contain a lot of natural yeasts, so if the pears we buy for our pear cider/perry doesn’t produce enough yeast, we could rely on our apples.  We are still not convinced by adding yeasts, like adding champagne yeast to our brews, but prefer natural yeasts in our fruit.

Making perry is just as easy as making cider.  We took twenty varieties of three different apples, and thirty green pears. You are supposed to use red pears, but these pears were juicy and very sweet - perfect for our perry.

Like with our apple brews, we diced and mulched the pears and apples and then pressed the cheese through a hesain cloth, collecting the juices in a bucket underneath.

Because the apples and pears aready contain natural sugars and yeast, we only have to leave the brew to stand for a few days.  Once the perry is giving off the right smells (sweet alcohol smells), we’ll then strain it through a musin cloth and an in-line funnel filter, into a five litre demijon.  We might add a little extra sugar, just to give it an extra poke - other than that everything in this will be kept natural!

We’ll keep you updated when we bottle it, but in the meantime you can see the video of it been made here, or on YouTube.com