Buffalo Cider in the heart of Cardiff

 
 An 11-day cider festival is currently taking place in the city centre of Cardiff at the Buffalo Bar in Windsor Place, ending on Sunday 24th June.

Buffalo's garden will be transformed including a fully stocked outdoor cider bar, Miniature Music Press acoustic garden stage, bunting, live music, DJs, Kooki Two Bit t-shirt exhibit, afternoon tea/fresh coffee, all day real Sunday roasts, BBQ & loads more!

Their garden draught Cider & Perry bar will showcase home grown, organic, locally sourced cider & perry from Wales & beyond, including:

- Gwynt Y Ddraig
- Blaengawney Farm
- Llanblethian Orchards

Plus a massive selection of bottled cider & perry at the indoor bars from:

- Thatchers
- Brothers
- Westons
- Green Goblin
- Addlestones

Not seen the full list yet but almost the entire stock of Llanblethian Orchards Cider and Perry will be on sale during the festival.
That's our Yarlington Mill/Crab apple blend, another blend of sharp and bittersweet and our Hendre Huffcap perry.

Did not mange to get this festival last year so looking forward to visiting this year.
On Wednesday 20th July there will be a CIDER SOCIAL
According to their FB site this will be a Meet up with us at Buffalo and try / discuss / taste and experience all the cider & perry we have on offer.
Open til 3am £free entry.


Buffalo Bar
11 Windsor Place, Cardiff CF10 3BY Tel: 029 2031 0312.

Fresh food served 12pm-9pm. Open until 4am
Facebook Site
Facebook event page


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First perry making of the year

First perry making trip of the season and the Blakeney Red tree looked good as usual. An old farm in Monmouthshire where the owners allow us to collect the fruit. Not saying the exact location but it is in the Devonian Old Red Sandstone series, an excellent strata for perry and cider trees which stretches from Newport to Herefordshire. The thick, heavy iron-rich soil is excellent for growing cider apples and perry trees and even stretches as far as Denis Gwatkin's farm in Abbey Dore.

 

The red blush on the Blakeney Red's can clearly be seen in the photo above. 

Second tree of the day was the Tainton Squash, a tree well over 100ft tall - the panking poles were called for this one.
Last year we at Llanblethian Orchards fermented the fruit of the Hendre Huffcap pear together with that from the Potato Pear - pictured below - and won a Gold Medal for the best dry perry at the Welsh Perry and Cider Competition at the Clytha Arms.

Above: the Potato Pear

Last pear to be picked was the Hendre Huffcap - a good bounty of fruit on the tree again this year.

Below the Hendre Huffcap tree:

A quick visit to orchard in Llanblethian was made to see the orchard planted a few years ago before off to mill and press the fruit.

A couple of shots of Alex with his home made press tipping the last of the pressings out:

Above: The juice from the pears

Above: Checking the specific gravity

All in all a good start to the season.

Welsh Perry and cider Championships 2010

Above: Cidermakers await the results

Despite the rain there was a good turnout for the annual cider and perry championships at the Clytha Arms last weekend. The weather improved on the Sunday and by all accounts it was another successful weekend, organised by the Welsh Perry & Cider Society

Welsh Perry & Cider Championships 2010

Dry Draught Cider

Gold: Palmer's Upland Cyder Cheeky Jackdaw Cyder

Silver: Des Devlin Drunk Dragon Dry

Bronze: Blaengawney Heartbreaker

Medium Draught Cider

Gold: Seidr Dai Knotted Kernal

Silver: Rosie's Triple D Medium

Bronze: Ty-Bryn Cider, Oak Barrel Medium Sweet

Sweet Draught Cider

Gold: Springfield Dabinett

Silver: Seidr O Sir Cantref

Bronze: Rosie's Triple D Black Bart

Spirit Cask Cider

Gold: Rosie's Triple D Wicked Wasp

Silver: Berriew Bettws

Bronze: Troggi Penallt

Bottled Still Cider

Gold: Springfield Dabinett

Silver: Rosie's Triple D Rampant Ram

Bronze: Blaengawney Heartbreaker

Bottled Sparkling Cider

Gold: Ty-Bryn Cider

Silver: Blaengawney Dabinett

Bronze: Ty Gwyn Medium

Champion Cider

Gold: Springfield Dabinett

Silver: TyBryn Medium-Sweet

Bronze: Rosie's Triple D Wicked Wasp

Perry

Dry Draught Perry

Gold: Llanblethian Orchards Pick 'n Mix

Silver: Three Saints Burgundy

Bronze: Bragdy Penywern Dry

Medium Draught Perry

Gold: Ty-Bryn Blakeney Red Medium Sweet

Silver: Seidr Dai Hellen's Early

Bronze: Bragdy Brodyr Silver Lady

Sweet Draught Perry

Gold: Raglan Cider Mill Old Vicarage

Silver: Troggi Llansoy

Bronze: Gwynt Y Ddraig Two Trees

Bottled Still Perry

Gold: Blaengawney Perry

Silver: Three Saints Divine

Bronze: Rosie's Triple D Perfect Pear

Bottled Sparkling Perry

Gold: Troggi 2008-EP

Silver: Ty-Bryn Medium Sweet

Bronze: Palmer's Upland Cyder Blakeney Red

Champion Perry

Gold: Ty-Bryn Blakeney Red Medium Sweet

Silver: Raglan Cider Mill Old Vicarage

Bronze: Troggi 2008-EP

Best Newcomer: Des Devlin

Above: Alex Simmonds of Llanblethian Orchards and his award for best dry perry, the Pick n'Mix

Now regular readers of this blog know that I make some cider and perry myself, both with Seidr Dai and Llanblethian Orchards and so it was fantastic news that the Pick n' Mix Perry, a blend of Hendre Huffcap and Potato pears won the best dry perry award. Especially as it had been pointed out to us that you cannot make a good perry with Hendre Huffcap pears. Rather than blend seperate perries after fermentation, the two types of pears were fermented together to produce this award-winning perry. If you wish to try some get down to the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival next week in Cardiff. The secret ingredient to the perry winning was of course that it was picked and pressed on my birthday last year by myself and Alex and John. A truly bio-dynamic perry!

Artisan Cider Making

You can tell you are an artisan cider maker when the press is set up in the rear room of a terraced house. After a day spent picking different varieties of apples and pears, the fruit is washed, then cut up in a scratter, before being built up in cheeses and pressed to release the juices. The picture above shows Alex from Llanblethian Orchards using his self-built press, made from Monmouthshire oak, to extract the sugar-rich juices of the Blakeney Red perry pear. The juice will now ferment for a few months and be ready to drink in the new year. Another pear pressed today was called Tainton Squash, a sweet-tasting pear which will ferment out, hopefully by the new year. More apples and pears to pick and press over the weekend, may even have a beer if we have time!

Cidermaking in Monmouthshire

It's apple-picking time again so the entire staff of Llanblethian Orchards - well okay Alex, his flatmate John and myself 'cos I knew where the orchard was - all headed off to the wilds of Monmouthshire on sunday for some scrumping.


Alex shows us above how to get the apples from the tree - a process known as "Panking".
And of course a suitable tribute must be paid to the goddess of the orcahrd, using cider made from from the harvest last year.

This is to ensure a good crop for next year.

Thanks to Ben Jones from the Kings Arms in Abergavenny for letting us use his orchard for the second year running.