Alcohol levels in apples, grapes and berries used for the nation’s favourite tipples are set to be stronger from this year’s summer harvest due to the hot and dry weather we’ve enjoyed in the UK
Britain has enjoyed a long, hot summer – and now we could see stronger booze as a result next year.
There has not only been a bumper harvest, but fruit like apples and berries have been a lot sweeter as well due to the weather – and it means that drinks like cider and wine will have a higher alcohol content when produced. It is a very different story to last year, when rain and soggy conditions badly affected crops which were also decimated by slugs and snails.
The National Trust is putting the unusually abundant apple and pumpkin harvest down to a combination of weather factors including last year’s wet conditions, the warm and dry spring and plenty of sun this summer.
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Susan Vaughan, the director of Celtic Marches, which makes cider on a family farm in Herefordshire, told the Independent: “It’s too early to say how this will affect the taste of our ciders, but early pressing is showing richer, bolder flavours than in previous years, with more warmth.
“The sugar levels in the apples are really high, which certainly leads to higher alcohol content.” But it won’t make a difference for customers next year she added, as they will mitigate the ABV levels to ensure consistent alcohol levels for their ciders.
And Andrew Paterson, from Lallemand Brewing, explained how the hot and dry weather meant there has been more photosynthesis – where plants make sugar by using the energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into glucose.
He added how larger producers will standardise the alcohol concentration but smaller craft producers may allow for a variation.
And the “near-perfect” growing conditions have led to a surge in requests to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to identify “mystery” apple varieties growing in domestic gardens and community orchards.
The RHS said it had received more than 500 mystery apples this month alone to be analysed through its fruit identification service, significantly more than in previous year – and with one sample even arriving after hours over the fence at the charity’s garden at Wisley.
Jim Arbury, RHS fruit expert, has been working through the samples, and uncovering finds including lemon pippin, a dual purpose apple dating back to at least 1744 and “sops in wine”, a variety with pink-tinged flesh.
Samples also include oaken pin, a rare dessert apple native to Exmoor, and golden bittersweet, a historic cider apple variety, while there has also been a rise in pears submitted for identification including the rare “Alexandre Lambre”, a remnant of a lost London market garden.
The charity is inviting members of the public to bring their mystery apples to RHS gardens for expert identification at a series of “plot to plate” events this autumn. Mr Arbury said: “Most people with apple trees don’t know which cultivars they are growing.
“Identification encourages care for existing trees and helps preserve rare heritage varieties. Once people know what they have, they are more likely to want to nurture these trees, many of which may prove resilient and valuable in our changing climate.”