Cider and Perry Books

Editor's note: Not all the books listed below may be available. A list of books currently available online from Amazon is provided in the Scrumpy User Guide - click on the Scrumpy Books link near the top right of the page.

The following is a list of books relating to apple growing, cider making, pear growing and perry making. Some of the books relating to cider making also cover perry making and where this occurs it is indicated.

Disclaimer. This information is as accurate as I can reasonably manage but I accept no liability for the contents.

Apples and Cider Making

Apples by Great Britain Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London. 1972. SBN 11 240507 X.

A very complete guide to setting up and managing an apple orchard. Includes advice on tree grafting.

Apples. A Guide to the Identification of International Varieties. by John Bultitude. Published by MacMillan Press, London. 1983. ISBN 0-333 34971 7.

A good guide with pictures on how to identify your apple tree.

The Apples of England by H.V. Taylor. Published by Crossby Lockwood and Son Ltd., London. 1945. ISBN ?

Covers apple growing, tree characteristics and selection of types for cider making.

CRC Handbook of Fruit Set and Development by Shaul P. Monselise. Published by CRC Press Inc., Boca Raton, Florida. ISBN 0-8493-3260-5.

A very technical guide covering apple cultivation.

Cultivated Fruits of Britain. Their Origin and History. by F.A. Roach. Published by Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd. Oxford, UK. 1985. SIBN 0-631-13969-9.

A fascinating and well researched book covering the history of fruit growing in the UK. Covers apple and pear growing and the making of cider and perry. Well worth a read.

The Fruit Manual: A Guide to the Fruits and Fruit Trees of Great Britain by Dr. Robert Hogg. 5th Edition. Published by The Royal Horticultural Society, London. 1884.

An unequalled book. Lists hundreds of varieties of both apples and pears together with detailed instructions on how to identify trees from their fruit. This book was highly influential in saving the enormous varieties of apples and pears found in England at the time and contributed greatly to saving the cider and perry industries. Its importance cannot be overstated.

The Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards. 1st edition. Published by Ebury Press, London. ISBN 0-09-177759-3. 1993

In addition to a rather extensive catalog of dessert and cooking apples, included a chapter on cider and a small directory of cider apples. I'd recommend it to anyone "into" apples in some fashion. Steven Rezsutek.

The English Apple by Rosanne Sanders. 1st edition. Published by Phaidon in association with the Royal Horitcultural Society. Oxford. ISBN 0-7148-2498-4. 1988

A nicely illustrated book containing 122 colour pictures.

Catalogue of Cultivars in the UK National Fruit Collection. Published by Wye College, University of London and the Brogdale Horticultural Trust. March 1992.

A complete listing of all of the cultivars available in the UK National Collection. Available only via The Brogdale Horticultural Trust.

Making Cider by Jo Deal. 2nd Edition (8th impression). Published by G.W. Kent Inc., 3667 Morgan Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA. 1993. ISBN 0-9619072-1-5.

A terrific little book published by a talented amateur cider maker who lives in the heart of the English cider-making country. She has benefitted from teaching from local cider makers and passes on a lot of expertise and handy tips. For the homebrewer of cider, if you only get one book on cider making, this should be it. In the UK you can get this book from Brew Books, 4 Lytles Close, Formby, Liverpool L37 4BT. Tel/Fax 01704 875898

Cider and Juice Apples: Growing and Processing Edited by R.R. Williams. 1st Edition. Published by The University of Bristol Printing Unit. ISBN ?

This book is a series of articles by world leading experts in the fields of cider making and cider apple growing. It is aimed squarely at the professional grower for whom this is the definitive authoritative text. If you are seriously thinking of going into cider making on a professional footing, you must read this. It is available via The Cider Museum, Pomona Place, Hereford, Herefordshire HR4 0LW, UK. Tel. 01432 354207.

Traditional Cider Drinks by Francis Beswick. 1st Edition. Published by heart of Albion Press, 2 Cross Hill Close, Wymeswold, Loughborough, LE12 6UJ., UK. 1994.

A short (29 pages) but informative book on the basics of cider making, containing some old recipes not found elsewhere, for example sorb apple cider, cyser containing such herbs as lavender, rosemary, borage, and Bishops (a traditional type of mulled cider).

The Art of Cidermaking¹ by Paul Correnty. 1st Edition. Published by Brewers Publications, USA. 1995. ISBN 0-937381-42-X.

A great resource for North American cider makers. Contains a wide range of recipes, eg raspberry cider¹ , as well as detailed instructions.

Cider Making and Cider Research: A Review by F.W. Beech. Published in The Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 78 (1972) pages 477-491.

Dr. Beech was for a long time a scientist working at the Long Ashton Research Station at the University of Bristol, UK, researching into cider making. This review covers the entire process of commercial cider making from a scientific point of view. Despite being in a technical journal it is highly readable and would be intelligible to the non-specialist. Recommended if you want to highly detailed knowledge about cider making.

The History and Virtues of Cyder by Dr. Roger K. French. Published by Robert Hale Limited. 1982. ISBN 0-312-37412-7, also ISBN 0-7091-9147-2 is listed.

Not extremely useful so much for making cider as much as for portraying the history of English cider making. The book is full of nice engravings of "olde tyme" presses, mills, etc. and the people who operated them. There is much folklore on the topics of cyder and perry as well as other lesser known potables. Tom Messenger.

A Drink For Its Time by M.B. Quinion. 1st Edition. 1979 ISBN 0 906893 00 3. Published by Museum of Cider Ltd., The Cider Mills, Ryelands Street, Hereford HR4 0LE.

A short (24 pages) pamphlet giving a brief history of farm cider making in the western counties of England. Some interesting historical material and quite a number of old black and white photographs dating back over one hundred years.

Cidermaking by M.B. Quinion. 1st Edition. 1982. ISBN 0 85263 614 8. Published by Shire Publications Ltd, Cromwell House, Church Street, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire HP17 9AJ, UK as the Shire Album 95.

Essentially an updated (now 32 pages) version of A Drink For Its Time. Much of the text and many of the photographs are the same. Of the two this is the better buy since it includes slightly more text, but also a useful list of cidermakers and places to visit.

Bulmers. A Century of Cider-Making by L.P. Wilkinson. 1st Edition. 1987. ISBN 0-7153-9116-X. Published by David and Charles Publishers plc, Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, UK.

Commissioned by Bulmers to celebrate their centenary in 1987, this book was written by a firm family friend. Despite that it manages to be an entertaining and largely independent and honest appraisal of the world's largest cider making firm. It fails only in the last chapter which reads as a dry management manual rather than the lively exposition of the rest of the book. It is a fascinating history of the firm and a rewarding read.

Sweet & Hard Cider by Annie Proulx & Lew Nichols, Garden Way Publishing. 1980 ISBN 0-88266-352-6

Here is a pretty good book on North American cider and where to get cider apples and good traditional NA ways of making it. Marcel Fortin

Rare Books

Cautions to the Heads of Families in three Essays:I. On Cyder-Wine, Prepared in Copper Vessels, with Hints for the Improvement of Cyder, Perry and other Fruit Liquers. by A. Fothergill. Printed by R. Cruttwell of Bath. 1790.

A rare pamphlet in which the author, a physician, investigates the composition of ciders produced at the time. In doing so he inadvertently gives a detailed and highly entertaing description of some of the processes involved in cider making of the time. If you ever get the opportunity to read this it is well worth doing so!

The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire by Marshall. 1796.

Another fine, rare book. The author made a very careful study of all of the rural practices of not only Gloucestershire, but also Herefordshire and Worcestershire. There is an exemplary description of the cider making process common in Herfordshire at the time. The descriptions of mills and presses are so detailed that it would be perfectly possible to reproduce them exactly.

The Herefordshire Pomona by Dr. Robert Hogg. Published by The Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club between 1876-1885.

The most influential of all of Dr. Hogg's publications. This is a rare and very beautiful book containing illustrations of all apple varieties growing in Herefordshire in 1872. Worth going a long way to see. A copy is on public display at The Cider Museum, Hereford.

Cider Makers' Manual: A Practical Handbook by J.S. Buell. Published in Buffalo NY by Haas and Kelly. 1869.

Brevity and concise diction are concepts completely foreign to J.S.Buell. Rambling and long winded in a pleasant colloquial manner was more his style. None- the-less this book contains a wealth of information on the production of a traditional cider in North America. Greg Appleyard.

Pears and Perry Making

Pears by Great Britain Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1973. SBN 11 240508 8.

A very detailed book on how to plant and manage a commercial pear orchard. Includes detailed instructions on tree grafting and pruning.

Perry Pears Edited by L.C. Luckwill and A. Pollard. Published by the University of Bristol for The National Fruit and Cider Institute. 1963. ISBN ?

A thorough and comprehensive book. Covers pear varieties, how to identify them, propagate them, and how to manage a perry pear orchard. Has a good description of the principles and practice of perry making. Highly recommended.

Editor's Note - June 2003
1. Links to website removed - no longer current.

Back to the Real Cider and Perry Page.

Created by Gillian Grafton (last update 6 May 1996) and now edited and maintained by Paul Gunningham.
Original text copyright © Gillian Grafton 1990-1996; revisions copyright © Paul Gunningham 2003.
This page was last updated on 7 June 2003. If you have any comments please contact .