One of the best new drinks to enter the market this year is a) not a beer and b) contains zero alcohol.
Step up Peckham’s Apple Zero.
This 0% cider is made from proper cider apples with a wild ferment and the result of those two “ingredients” it’s unlike anything else I’ve tried in the non-alc space this year.
The aroma is stunning, with that trademark funky, earthy, barnyard olfactory hit. There’s plenty of apple character plus lots of body weight and a lovely dry finish.
It’s brilliance was acknowledged at the Australian Cider Awards where it picked up a trophy in the low-no alcohol class and scored 95 points out of 100.
The result repeated at the New Zealand Cider Awards as one of four trophies Peckham’s won there, including the title of champion cidermaker.
Peckham’s owner and cidermaker Jody Scott was formerly at Zeffer where he created a range of 0% ciders. That knowledge made things a little easier at Peckham’s but the proper cider apples themselves did some heavy lifting.
“If anything, it’s a little bit easier [to make a zero] with proper cider apples because the fruit itself has the tannin and the body,’ Scott says.
“With culinary apples, once you take out the alcohol, you’re not left with a lot because there isn’t much in them.”
A 0% cider made with culinary apples “comes back really unbalanced, like really unbalanced … so there’s a bit more playing around and a little bit more to do, but with the with the fruit we’ve got here, it’s got the weight and the structure to be able to carry things without the alcohol.”
Once the alcohol is removed some apple juice is back-added for sweetness.
Peckham’s used a spinning cone at Vintech Pacific in Blenheim for the trials and first batch, released in October.
Spinning cones were created in Australia and work by isolating volatile aroma compounds that can be added back after removing alcohol. It’s a relatively gentle process but also expensive.
“The zero is our most expensive cider to make because of a spinning cone but obviously not paying the excise a big saver. So that’s why it’s still cheaper than a normal cider.”
Scott says a spinning cone is “power-hungry machine” and is not ideal for small batches because of the set-up time and running costs.
Zero cider and wine made with spinning cones, differ from beer. Modern non-alc beers are designed to not create alcohol in the first place, by using specialist grains, yeasts and processes to create a naturally low or no ABV beer. But wine and cider are fully fermented and then have alcohol removed.
That full fermentation plays a role in creating the big aroma.
Scott says some varieties of apple offer more character than others. “For instance, there’s a little bit of Knotted Kernel in this one and that definitely has a bit of barnyard to it, with some rich, savoury flavours. The wild yeast has an impact, but it’s not as much as you would think because the apples have got so many different flavour compounds in them.”
I’m curious to know what happens to the alcohol that they take out with the spinning cone?
Giesen winery use theirs to make gin, and Scott is sitting on his until he decides what it might become.
“I’m thinking about it. I might redistil it to get up to cask strength, around 60%, and then age it in barrels for somewhere between three and 10 years so we probably won’t see the alcohol as a product for a while if I do that. The alcohol is very clean — it’s like a very good vodka.”
It’s a shame it’s not ready yet as there’s lots to toast at Peckham’s this year after Scott and his wife Lois re-entered the cidery into competition judging. They won six trophies across the New Zealand and Australian Cider Awards and their Hazy Apple cider won a place in the New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 30.
While Scott was familiar with awards during his time at Zeffer, he was nervous about entering competitions under the Peckham’s label when he and wife Lois took over last year, especially as the brand had stepped back from competitions in the years just before founder Alex Peckham died.
“They’d sort of scaled things back a bit and I think they weren’t looking to grow the business so they hadn’t entered any New Zealand awards for a couple of years.
“So I was nervous to enter these competitions for the first time as they’d had such success themselves. To re-enter awards with us at the helm was nerve-wracking — probably one of the more nervous things we’ve done.”
Scott is excited for the future of cider, which he says is strong despite slowing sales in the sector.
“The market is going backwards quite a lot on the heavily-sweet, more RTD-style ciders — it’s looking quite poor, but it’s the big producers who are seeing drops in their numbers.
“That segment is still big but it’s in decline and making the whole market look quite poor.
“And I think that’s probably driven by a move to the ‘better for you’ RTDs or trendy RTDs. People are a bit more conscious about either sugar or alcohol levels and are experimenting on other stuff.
“But the overall cider market is quite complex and I think a lot of people just lump ciders together as one product whereas with wine and beer they tend to dig down into a little bit more and look at the different beer or wine styles and sort of see trends within the category.”
Peckham’s confidence in the market, and their own products has seen them launch a range of four-packs including the 0% apple cider, the Classic Apple and a mixed pack.
Scott’s also contemplating a move to 440ml cans.
“Realistically, if we’re doing singles, we should probably be in 440ml singles for the margin. The 330ml singles are good for restaurants because they can land on a restaurant menu at a sensible price, but it’s not a very good retail offering.
“The 4-packs definitely seem to be a gap as a grocery offering for us that we’re not currently doing.”
Further down the line, like 15 years into the future, he’s excited about the just-launched programme that aims to turn New Zealand cider into a billion-dollar export industry.
Under the banner of Cider Apples NZ, the programme aims to grow more proper cider apples to create authentic export products for the premium global market.
READ MORE ABOUT CIDER APPLES NZ
The idea is to use New Zealand’s expertise in apple breeding to create new cultivars.
“They’re looking at developing some cider-specific apples to grow in New Zealand that are commercially viable for the growers.”
Scott says New Zealand already has large catalogue “of really interesting apples” that were initially bred as eating apples but for whatever reason didn’t make the grade.
“So they’re going through all these thousands of different apple varieties that already exist and then also doing a breeding programme.”
Cider Apples NZ sees a trajectory in apples that could mirror the success of Sauvignon Blanc wine and New Zealand-grown hops.
“It’s about creating an apple that’s got strong characteristics that you can then take to the rest of the world and go, here’s an exciting export cider,” Scott says.
“If you look at the global cider market and what the potential export market would be … it’s pretty close to a billion dollars, which is quite an interesting opportunity.
“Currently, if you try to explore New Zealand cider — if it’s just made from concentrate or heavily flavoured — why would you buy that? You can buy that in your current market, wherever it is.
“So this is really in line with what Peckham’s does — making the products about the raw ingredient, not the process. So we’re quite interested in that and we’ll be working with that over the next 15 years to try to bring that to life.”