Welcome to the 2012 Ciders and Perries Page
Until we are able to bring you updates - the 2011 page is reprised for you information:
Real Cider and Real Perry at Nottingham Robin Hood Festival 2011
The Nottingham Robin Hood Festival continues to grow in popularity and as Nottingham CAMRA were the originators of the concept of “LocAle” the festival has become a showcase for local brewers that fall within the 20 mile door-to-door limit. This has benefitted micro-brewers and small independent brewers centred around Nottingham that fall within the LocAle limit.
The showcasing of locally made ciders has not fared so well at Nottingham and for 2011 we intend to change that. Nottingham CAMRA have decided that the ciders and perries for this year’s festival should match the ordering ethos of the beers; so the focus will be on local, regional and the independent small, artisan cider and perry makers of the United Kingdom. This year the Festival Steering Group have set up a small team of folk who are passionate about the great diversity of real cider and real perry, with a mission to oversee the selection and ordering.
From the outset, it was decided that Robin Hood Festival 2011 would not feature any ciders or perries that could be bought in virtually any pub in the city. So for this year, there will be no “national” brands such as Broadoak, Thatcher’s or Weston’s. The Festival Steering Group also decided to act on feedback from the 2010 festival and ensure a much more balanced range of sweetness would be available in the 2011 ciders and perries.
CAMRA recently launched the “Local Cider” initiative and here at Nottingham we want to start by focussing on our local cider-makers. For this a distance of 35 miles from Nottingham Castle was chosen as the limit for our definition of “Local Cider”. This should enable us to offer the products from about six different cider-makers from across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and some of these will be able to supply more than one type of cider.
Our next focus will be on the East Midlands cider makers – with the hope of having at least one perry from an East Midlands maker. This should hopefully enable us to showcase another six or so regional cider makers, each bringing along two or more products.
The rest of the producers to feature on the 2011 cider and perry bars will be selected from the 
smaller, passionate, artisan cider and perry makers who are much more concerned with making quality full-juice ciders and perries in which they have pride; rather than those more focussed on making money from diluting the juice by cutting it with water and sugar, never mind flavourings and colourings.
Expect to see a number of ciders from small collectives such as “The Marches Cyder Circle” who are based in Herefordshire but have members across England and Wales. Talking of Wales, the products of members of the “Welsh Cider and Perry Society” will also be prominent – and they really know how to make good perry over there.
Across the compass to the East and we will feature some Eastern Counties ciders from Cambridge, Kent, Norfolk, and Suffolk. From down South we will have the hand-crafted ciders from some very proud artisan cider makers based in Hampshire and Dorset. Of course, we will feature some of the best from Devon and Somerset, as well as ciders and perries from “The Three Counties”: Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. We may even be able to spring a surprise or two from further up north…
One key aspect of the ciders and perries to feature at the 2011 festival will be diversity of style, flavour and sweetness. Over 350 tubs of cider or perry were sold at the 2010 festival and for this year we want to ensure that from a similar total we offer our customers the biggest possible range of quality ciders and perries. We may not sell more tubs of cider and perry this year - but we will give greater choice and selection.
Craft Cider
Always on the lookout for something new and exciting to entice the palate allow yourselves to dream of the perfect crafted cider made on the wings of a butterfly.
Learn more about the Lulworth Skipper (the butterfly) here or (the cider) here
Find out more about Cyders here
For a list of the 2011 Ciders and Perries in .pdf format please click here
Image(s) on this page information details and credits : Glass of Torkard Cider image provided by Ray Blockley. Innovative logos for Ciders and Perries in the CAMRA style provided and copyrighted to Ray Blockley.