In cider trading

10:41am Saturday 30th August 2008

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MONKS have a long history of making alcohol. They brewed ale in the Middle Ages, grew vines for wine such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and champagne, and used distilled alcohol to cure many ills.

The tradition continues at Ampleforth Abbey, where cider can be found bubbling in the barrels.

Former orthopaedic surgeon Father Rainer is the brains behind the production of cider, which began in 2002 to stop so many apples from the orchard being thrown away.

From that first 60-litre harvest, the abbey now produces 3,000 litres a year, selling to outlets such as Castle Howard and the residents of Ampleforth.

“At first, the idea was about making use of all the apples which otherwise would not be used – we didn’t say we want to make cider,” says Father Rainer, opening the stable door to a farm building ripe with the vinegary aroma of fermenting apples.

“We’ve always produced a lot of apples that we used in college and markets around here and sold in the shops locally. It was all going very well until the 90s – probably late 80s – when it started to be a bit more difficult.

“People started to be a bit choosier and there were nice apples all the year round from all sorts of places, so they didn’t have to make do with the scabby ones which were locally grown, and we ended up having quite a large amount of waste.

“Today about 70 per cent of the apples we grow people don’t want to buy because they are too small, too scabby or the wrong shape.

“It was because of those apples that we thought we had to do something to stop them being thrown away.”

When Father Rainer – who grew up on a farm in Germany, where people strove to make use of everything – first suggested making cider, the idea was met with disapproval.

“People said we wouldn’t be able to make cider because we don’t grow cider apples, but that didn’t make sense to me so I made a small amount in a 60-litre barrel and people tasted it and liked it.”

The gamble paid off and the cider owes its wonderful fruitiness to the fact that it is not made from cider apples.

“It is very, very fruity,” he says, swallowing a mouthful of the cloudy, amber liquid.

“There are so many eating apples used in it and they are very scented, which makes it so flavoursome and there is a very complex fruitiness to it.

“It’s the blend of flavours which makes it unique. Many people have been tasting it and said they can’t compare it with any other cider.”

There are 49 varieties of eating apples in the orchard, which is over 100 years old and spreads out from the abbey grounds down along the slope of the valley.

When we visit, many of the 2,000 trees are hanging with ripe, small red apples. Father Rainer picks the apples himself, with the help of a novice and a few others, discards the rotten ones then takes them to the cider barn for juicing.

Everything takes place in the abbey grounds apart from the distillation, which happens in Somerset.

This week, 7,500 litres have been shipped to Somerset, where it will be distilled before being aged for three years in wooden barrels on return.

Father Rainer lifts several barrel lids to reveal the bubbling liquid inside, each in a different stage of fermentation.

When the project began seven years ago, he made his own apple presses from wooden beams and car jacks to prove it could be done. That was hard work though, so he has mechanical ones now.

“The quality of the cider relies first of all on the quality of the apples, secondly on the yeast, then that the space that you’re working in is kept clean,” he says.

The monks enjoy a glass or two on a summer evening, but at eight per cent proof, he doesn’t recommend it for long lunches.

“It’s something I would suggest for heavy dinners. It’s refreshing but not something you want to drink in the afternoon,” he says. “It’s moreish when you start drinking. You can quite happily drink two or three glasses, but it’s not something you would want to gulp down.”

Father Rainer also makes damson gin by steeping local damsons in a simple gin spirit for five months. It is sweet, but not so sugary that it obscures the deep plum flavours, and is delicious drunk neat or over crushed ice.

Then there is Ampleforth Abbey Sloe Gin, made from sloes picked from the blackthorn bushes that grow around the rugby pitches in the valley.

If you want to make your own cider, the monks will even crush apples for you. However, don’t expect it to taste exactly like Father Rainer’s.

“First you have to decide which apples to use and your favourite apple, that you really like, is often because it’s so sweet,” he says. “When you make cider, that sweetness will disappear. You have to envisage what you want. Most apples on their own have a very narrow spectrum and it can be disappointing.

“If people want to try it at home I think they should do exactly the same, use as many different varieties with as broad as spectrum of flavour or strong flavour.”

•To buy Ampleforth cider, log on to www.ampleforth.org.uk/acatalog/Monastic_produce.html or phone 01439 766899.

•Find out more about the orchard at Ampleforth Abbey at a conference, entitled On Mists And Mellow Fruitfulness, which will consider fruit, food and wildlife in Yorkshire’s countryside, on Saturday, October 4, at Ampleforth Village Hall. The conference will include a morning session followed by an afternoon visit to the orchard at Ampleforth College and a local vineyard. Tickets cost £25 per head. For details visit www.fwag.org.uk or phone 01609 783632.