Glossary · History
Long Ashton Research Station
Also written National Fruit and Cider Institute, LARS. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The Somerset research station, founded as the National Fruit and Cider Institute in 1903 and later part of the University of Bristol, whose analyses of cider fruit and fermentation underpin most English cider science.
- Subject
- History
- Also written
- National Fruit and Cider Institute, LARS
In more detail
Long Ashton produced the acid-and-tannin classification of cider apples still in everyday use, analysed hundreds of cultivars, and did foundational work on keeving, fermentation and cider disorders. The station closed in 2003.
Its figures are historic measurements of specific fruit grown at one Somerset site over a defined period. They are frequently quoted as if they were universal constants for a cultivar, which they are not: the same variety grown in Vermont or Asturias can analyse quite differently without either figure being wrong.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Bittersweet
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple low in acid — conventionally below about 0.45 per cent — and high in tannin, above about 0.2 per cent. Bittersweets form the structural base of West Country cider.
Fruit
Bittersharp
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple high in both acid and tannin — conventionally above about 0.45 per cent acid and 0.2 per cent tannin. The smallest of the four classes and the most self-sufficient.
Fruit
Sharp
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple high in acid and low in tannin. Sharps supply freshness and lower the pH of a blend into a range where spoilage organisms are less comfortable.
Fruit
Sweet
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple low in both acid and tannin. Sweet fruit contributes sugar, alcohol and volume but little structure, and makes a bland cider on its own.
Chemistry
Total phenolics
The aggregate measure of phenolic material in a juice or cider, usually determined by a colorimetric method and expressed as an equivalent of a reference compound. It is what most historic "tannin" figures actually record.
Fermentation
Keeving
A pre-fermentation clarification in which pectin in the juice is gelled into a floating brown cap, taking nutrients and yeast with it, so that the clear juice drawn from beneath ferments slowly and stops with sugar remaining.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Long Ashton Research Station cider fruit analyses
National Fruit and Cider Institute / University of Bristol · research institute · registered as competent for this subject · covers 1903–2003
The foundational body of cider-fruit science in English. Long Ashton produced the acid-and-tannin classification that divides cider apples into sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp, and analysed hundreds of cultivars grown at its Somerset site. Its figures are historic measurements of specific fruit at a specific place, not universal constants — a distinction CiderHQ preserves in every measurement record that cites it.