Rocland Estate’s Sitting Ducks Peary is my bold introducktion into the Australian Perry scene. It’s a showcase for Adelaide Hills finest pears.
After the great cider boom (which is still booming) pears wanting in on the alcoholic action. On the back of cider branding came Pear Cider. Now I challenge anyone to give me a good definition of what a pear cider is. A cider is made from apples and maybe a little yeast and preservatives is you real must. Unless of course your from Sweden and then anything goes, but that’s a rant for another day. A Perry is a cider made from a special type of pears call Perry Pears. These have wonderful names like Arlingham Squash, Moorcroft, Blakeney Red, Winnal’s Longdon and Judge Amphlett. Pears are hard to grow. The fermentation is prone to infections. Perry can be hard to master but some say though that a good perry is better than a fine champagne. Now a Pear Cider, what is that? My best guess is: it’s a marketing idea to through another “flavour” out there and see if it works. Pears, once fermented are sweeter than fermented apples because of a sugar, sorbitol, can not be converted to alcohol. This might be an attempt to appeal to the alcopop crowd.
My opion is a Cider is made from apples, a Perry is made from perry pears and a Pear Cider is cheating at best and at worst a chemical filled fruit wine alcopop.If it only contains pear and apple juice what is the ratio?
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Since starting this blog I’ve been amazed at how many different Aussie ciders are out there. Do a search on Twitter for cider makers and you will be amazed at how many you will find. Quite a few of the Australian cider are at the on the sweeter end of the spectrum. Sitting Duck Apple Cider stands out from the crowd being the driest Aussie cider I’ve tasted. Free from concentrate and only using local Adelaide Hills apples, It’s easy to see why its won awards at the Perth and Sydney Royal Shows.
Over a couple emails Nick Penprase, Sales Manager at Rocland Estate (Sitting Duck’s parent company) told me about Sitting Duck Cider.
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Until today I thought that terrior could only come from the soil type, the annual rainfall, the things that make your orchard unique. Today my perception of Terrior changed, I realised it was more ethereal than what flavours the sunlight hours and soil provide. The extra element is the regionality and Young Henry’s Cloud Cider could be any Newtown if it tried
On what feels like Sydney’s wettest day in 2014, I find myself in a industrial unit, in the back streets of Newtown, where inside is just as wet. They guys were hard at work cleaning out the fermentation tanks ready for the next batch. I sat down with Owen from Young Henry’s to talk about making cider in Sydney’s Inner West. Read More
There are some interesting things happening on the South Australian Cider scene at the moment. The brothers at The Barossa Valley Cider Co. with their Squashed Apple Cider are a great example of this, going from strength to strength in the market.
Cold winters and the bright sunshine in Spring and Summer are the key to growing good apples. A little town of Batlow in southern New South Wales has these two essential conditions in abundance. Batlow is an old company by Australian standards, producing apples since the 1920’s and cider since the 1930’s. Today Batlow produce both a clear cider and a cloudy cider. Today I take a look at the Batlow Cloudy Cider.
Back in 2010 two mates set themselves with a simple goal – to make Australia’s best cider! By keeping it local and keeping it simple, the Hills Cider Company has come up with a cider that is hard to beat and gives you every bang for your buck. Read More
I’m here to chop wood and drink cider, and I’m all out of wood. The Golden Axe Cider is here, but I think this lumberjack has been cutting hay.
Golden Axe Cider caught my eye with some great graphic artistry on the label. Featuring a computer generated caricature of a lumberjack, the Golden Axe really stands out on the shelf. That’s only superficial. The geeks behind the cider sound like my type of people. Read More
I have to be honest I wasn’t expecting much from this Lucky Duck Cider when I picked it up in the shop. I first heard about it on social media. This coupled with a trendy label, I thought it was going to be all show and no go. Boy was I wrong.