Archive for the 'campaign' Category

UK cider stickers and posters

Published at August 11, 2008 in real cider, wiki and campaign. 0 Comments

Ukcider is running a campaign to celebrate pubs up and down the country where they are proud to serve real cider. It’s taken a bit of a while to decide on the design for the real cider stickers and posters and to work out a way to get them printed without any central funding, but where there’s an enthusiastic community like ours there’s always a way.

ukcider stickers and posters

A short run of prototype stickers have already been distributed to most of the real cider pubs in South Dorset thanks to Rose who reports a great reception wherever they are offered. The stickers themselves have been designed by Jez, and printed in small batches by Dick Dunn over in the USA and posted over to Rose here in the UK. Now there are just enough to send out a handful each to people who know they can definitely get them put up in doorways and windows of pubs that serve full juice real cider and perry.

The idea to get this up to the next stage is that the artwork is made available on the ukcider wiki so that anybody with a good quality printer can follow the instructions to make some more for local distribution. There are over 1,000 cider pubs recommended in our online cider pub guide but we want to concentrate on those that sell unique, local craft ciders. Much as we really do appreciate all those Wetherspoons pubs that sell Westons Old Rosie and Vintage cider, both excellent drinks, we are aiming at the outlets for smaller producers at first.

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Who are the Responsible Drinkers Alliance ?

Published at June 13, 2008 in discussion, media and campaign. 5 Comments

“Lucy Mcs” dropped by the Cider Facebook Page to leave a message about The Responsible Drinkers Allowance which I’ll publish here without any endorsement, as a means of perhaps gathering further opinion on the subject. In particular I’d welcome any research which can establish whether this is a genuine grassroots campaign or a front for the big manufacturers of the drinks industry.

Responsible Drinkers Alliance

Hi everyone,

I want to let you know about an important new organisation designed to put your voice into the debate around alcohol. The Responsible Drinkers Alliance is the first time the vast majority of responsible drinkers can have a voice in this debate.

The Government is about to make some major decisions on how we all buy and consume our drinks. There are voices calling for major restrictions and taxes. They are getting a widespread coverage in the media and vocal support amongst some politicians. The voice of the moderate drinker is being drowned out.

The Responsible Drinkers Alliance will change that by giving us a platform to make our voices heard. So come visit the site and become a member. You can join in our online debate or you can simply add your name to our community of responsible drinkers.

As they say, it’s your choice, it’s your voice, so use it!

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Cider duty increases expected in budget

Published at March 9, 2008 in duty and campaign. 0 Comments

All three main UK political parties are falling over each to be seen as coming down hard on binge drinkers after the failure of 24hour pub opening to introduce a new continental cafe style drinking culture. Coinciding with a slowdown in the economy and an expected fall in tax revenues, this can only mean one thing for alcohol duties, they’re going up.

Alcopops, cheap white ‘cider’ and strong beers have been singled out for criticism, but spirits and wine duties are expected to rise also.

At present, cider holds a special place in the customs and excise duty regulations. Already lower than other alcohol duties, duties on spirits, sparkling wine and cider have been frozen for at least the last two years.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2006/bn55.htm

The rate for beer is calculated on a percentage alcohol basis at £13.26 per hectolitre per cent of alcohol in the beer so a 5% lager would attract duty at £66.30 per hectolitre

The duty on still cider and perry however is levied at a fixed rate of £25.61 per hectolitre up to 7.5% abv, with only a slight increase to £38.43 for 8.5% ( above this strength it counts as apple wine)

So the duty on a mass produced white cider at 7.5% is currently only around a quarter of that on beer of a weaker strength. Wine and spirits are taxed at a higher rate again.

What are the implications for high quality, 100% juice, craft ciders? At present these have the same alcohol duty advantage as the mass produced industrial imposters, so if the duty rates for cider are increased anywhere towards parity with beer, then the cost of retailing craft ciders will have to go up as well, at least for all except the smallest producers who make only 7,000 hectolitres per year or less.

Those are the facts, but these are some of the questions arising:

1) Why is cider taxed less than beer?

2) How can they get away with calling something fermented from less than 30% apple juice “cider” ?

3) Will increased taxation reduce binge drinking?

4) Will it hit craft cider producers worse than cheap white ‘cider; manufacturers?

5) Is this why NACM tried to squash the campaign to defend the small cidermakers exemption? To what end?

And more importantly, here are some possible actions to be urgently adopted:

* Step up the campaign to defend the small cidermakers exemption - the petition currently has 1,400 signatures and is due to be presented to the prime minister in May.

* Build the ukcider Campaign for Real Cider and Perry - only an independent campaign can represent the interests of the real cider producers and drinkers.

* Expose the deceptive NACM definition of cider which allows for less than 30% juice with the unlimited addition of water and sugar before fermentation.

* Support sensible drinking awareness - http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

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Small cider producers on You and Yours BBC Radio 4

Published at November 20, 2007 in media and campaign. 0 Comments

Last Thursday the You and Yours programme on Radio 4 had a discussion
on the small producer’s exemption.

Listen to Rod Marsh from the National Cider Collection in Sussex, Barry
at Borough market and Simon Russell of the NACM.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/04/2007_46_thu.shtml

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No ice in my cider please!

Published at September 14, 2007 in Magners Irish Cider and campaign. 0 Comments

“No ice in my cider please” the T-shirt design.

no ice in my cider please

I just wondered if this might strike a chord with some people.

There’s a Facebook group

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Real Cider

Published at July 22, 2007 in camra and campaign. 0 Comments

ukcider has a working definition of real cider which focusses on the ingredients. The biggest difference between craft ciders and industrial ciders such as strongbow, magners and blackthorn is in the juice content. It stands to reason really, that something made from 100% fresh (not concentrated) fruit juice is goig to have a lot more natural flavour than sugar, glucose, water and malic acid. So we have this:

Real cider is the product of fermenting fresh apple juice.

The amount of apple juice which went into the final product must be between 85 and 100% and should be clearly stated on the container it is sold in or dispensed from.

No artificial sweeteners, flavourings or colourings
are permitted.

( For real perry substitute pear juice ) ukcider 30/11/2003

The point about ingredients labelling is something which is actively campaigned for by ukcider. We believe that cider drinkers of all types deserve to know exactly what goes into the products, and that this can only help the craft or artisan perry and cider makers who work with the unadulterated full juice.

The Real Ale organisation camra, on the other hand, has a definition which allows for the addition of extraneous sugar “to aid fermentation” but then goes on to suggest that “Ideally, however the minimum juice content should not be lower than 90% volume.” which is fine.

There is then a controversial clause in their description of “how to make real cider” which appears to condone the following practice under that heading:

A number of the larger producers will add sugar at the fermentation stage, enabling the cider to reach 12-14%abv, and then it is diluted down before it is sold (the legal limit for cider is 8.5%abv).

We were assured on 9th July that the above is not intended to cause ambiguity and will be altered on the website to avoid any confusion.

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Sign the petition to defend small cider makers

Published at June 14, 2007 in wiki and campaign. 1 Comment

The following is a link to the 10 Downing Street petitions site:

 ”We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to oppose the abolition of the small scale cider producer exemption.”

More details from petition creator

Ever since duty was introduced on cider and Perry in the 70s there has been a small scale cider exemption in place.

This allows small scale producers to escape duty if they produce less than 70 hectolitres in a year.

This exemption was put in place to protect the rural producers for whom small scale cider/Perry production was part of their rural culture.

Currently it acts as an incentive for small scale producers to be given the opportunity to perfect their ‘wares’ without an onerous tax burden.

The EU Commission are setting up a working group to address special excise duty conditions relating to small scale industries this is likely to result in the removal of the exemption

I petition the prime minister to instruct his ministers to resist this to ensure the diverse small cider producers in this country can continue to produce cider.

If the exemption is removed many small cider producers will cease production and a vital part of Great Britain’s heritage will be lost forever.

Main Page on ukcider.co.uk/wiki updated 

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