105: Tom Oliver on Making Perry | UK

Reserve you spot today for the Totally Cider Tour to the UK! We will be visiting Tom Oliver an award winning cidermaker and this week's guest on Cider Chat. This cider tour begins in Bristol, UK on April 25, 2018, then after that evening's dinner at The Stable for the "Ultimate Cider" dinner we head out to tour around Somerset and then Herefordshire through May 2nd. Sign up for a trip of a lifetime and come along with Ria, the host of Cider Chat and fellow cider travels.

This week's chat was recorded during Tom's presentation at CiderDays 2017.

Making Perry tips from Tom

• No surprise that Tom says you are reliant upon the fruit
• Don’t work with culinary pears or apples
• All about minimum intervention
• Ferments with wild yeast - does not pitch yeast.
• Doesn’t use sulfite prior to fermentation
• No yeast nutrient
• Use a little bit of SO2 - about 80 ppm

Tom’s favorite Pear varieties for making Perry, hopefully from old trees

• Moorcroft
• Thorn
• Blakeney Red
• Hendre Huffcap
• Winnal’s Longdon

More pears mentions in this chat:

• Coppy
• Rock
• Gin
• Oldfield
• Christmas Pear
• Cypress Pear
• Ferret Custard
• Cows slip
• Dead Boy

Go to this UK link to find out more about Perry Pears

The Challenge of Perry Pears:

• They all ripen at different times
• They don’t come off the tree
• They engage in bletting
• If the pear is brown in side is it bad or rotten - no it is not - it is fermenting.

Blet - means overripe pear...it is fermenting

Rot - is decomposing.

• And Tom does use pears that are bletting from the inside out - "It is how far you will let it go. (blet).
• Tom washes the pears beforehand and referenced Mike Beck and how he uses saline solution to wash the pears in because pears sink, unlike apples that float.
• Maceration - leaving the pears to break down the sugars before you press them
  • Tom does at least 24 hours to 48 hours for a pressing.

Contact for Oliver's Cider and Perry

Ask for the following 9 #ciderGoingUP Campaign sponsors - By supporting these cider makers, you in turn help Cider Chat

1. Kurant Cider - Pennsylvania : listen to Joe Getz on episode 14
2. Big Apple Hard Cider - NYC : listen to Danielle von Scheiner on episode 35
3. Oliver’s Cider and Perry - Herefordshire/UK ; listen to Tom Oliver on episode 29
4. Santa Cruz Cider Company - California : listen to Nicole Todd on episode 60
5. The Cider Project aka EthicCider- California
6. Albermale CiderWorks : listen to Chuck Shelton on episode 56
7. Cider Summit : listen to Alan Shapiro founder of this cider fest on episode 75.
8. Ramborn Cider Co. Luxembourg.
9. Big Fish Cider Co. Virginia

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