Hello Art, Just now getting to reply to this email.
Mangers cider is made at a plant about 6 miles from where I live. In Ireland it is known as Bulmers, but everywhere else in the World it is sold as Magners, as the Bulmers name is owned internationally by the HP Bulmer company in England, whereas the Irish "Bulmers" is made by C&C. I understand annual production is in the region of 80 million litres, a large proportion of which is consumed in Ireland, where this is the dominant cider in the market, holding about 80% I understand. Each year in the region of 25 to 30,000 tons of apples are bought from Irish growers to make the juice for this cider. If there are not enough apples in Ireland, imports are sometimes used, and this was especially true a number of years ago when Magners had a very strong sales spike in the UK, due mainly to very good advertising, which lifted the entire cider market as well as their own brand. As you can guess, 30,000 tons is not enough apples to make 80 million litres, and in reality about one third of what is in each can or bottle is directly from fresh apples. The rest is made up from apple juice concentrate, syrup, and water. The main apples used are Bramley's Seedling, Dabinette and other cider varieties, plus whatever other cull apples are available. As industrial ciders go, I would guess that Magners would be very unusual in using fresh apple juice in their fermentations, as most other manufacturers work off concentrate, due to the large saving in storage space in taking the latter route. In terms of taste, Magners is very much on the sweetened end of the spectrum, but that seems to be what a lot of consumers want, so who can blame them. It certainly is not an artisan product, but rather something made by a large-scale manufacturer, at least by Irish standards. However, if you are drinking it, perhaps one or two drops in each pint come from my apples, and I am grateful for you custom. Con Traas ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Kelly Sent: 06 December 2010 15:58 To: Apple-Crop Subject: Re: Apple-Crop: Useful review on colony collapse disorder Good review of CCD. We should all pause and consider every time we add a product to the spray tank. On a side note I was waiting for a sandwich in a shop in Hollis NH and was perusing the cooler where they have some very interesting imported beer and saw and purchased an Irish cider known as Magners Oringinal. Even my wife enjoyed it and she is not one for much beyond wine. What can Con tell us abut it? Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME 2010/12/2 Con.Traas <[email protected]> http://www.lab-times.org/editorial/e_173.html Con Traas, Life Science Dept., University of Limerick. Office SR2-009 Ph. 061 202905 M. 086 6091998
