Magners bee aid

[beeboybee]

Anyone else had an email from them?

 

[Surreybeekeeper]

Nope,what was the content? I know theynare keen to promote beekeeping but didn't know they were emailing....

James

 

[susbees]

Magners are sponsors of the BBKA. I expect that gives them access to the email list?

 

[drstitson]

Not the best brand of cider to be supporting no matter how good their intentions:

only 25% - 1/3 fresh juice used. Remainder is concentrate, sugar and water.

also they are unable to maintain the complete natural yeast culture in their modern stainless plant so have to ship lorry loads back and forth between old oak vat plant and new stainless plant in order to get appropriate natural fermentation going.

oh and they're Irish. So every £ spent on Magners supports the Irish rather than the UK economy.

 

[bobster]

Anything to do with this?

Bobster

 

[Appinpiper]

Not the best brand of cider to be supporting no matter how good their intentions:

only 25% - 1/3 fresh juice used. Remainder is concentrate, sugar and water.

also they are unable to maintain the complete natural yeast culture in their modern stainless plant so have to ship lorry loads back and forth between old oak vat plant and new stainless plant in order to get appropriate natural fermentation going.

oh and they're Irish. So every £ spent on Magners supports the Irish rather than the UK economy.

 

[drstitson]

"‘Magners Bee Aid,’ a campaign to help save 1.5 million urban bees in the UK and Ireland"

So that's around 150 hives over winter or say 25 in june/july.

Wow.

How many bees die per colony per season? are they just aiming to keep the TOTAL product of 1-2 colonies in a perpetual nurse bee state? I could design a double hive setup that allowed that to happen.

 

[Tom Bick]

It’s a bit similar to the Capital Bee project in London.

That wonderfull man Boris Johnson started

 

[Surreybeekeeper]

Interesting. They obviously have commercial motivations here but maybe it is another suggestion of any publicity is good publicity for beekeeping to encourage others to start (in a responsible manner?)

James

 

[For want of a better word]

Total cods-wallop... the sider and the competition
*BKA site triggered a virus warning and suspicious site, when I circumvented this got sent to a magners advertising page and entered a competion about slug killer !!
I think it would be cheaper to buy some slug pellets than tip their sider over the lettuces....
,,.... from a REAL CIDER DRINKER !!

 

[For want of a better word]

Interesting. They obviously have commercial motivations here but maybe it is another suggestion of any publicity is good publicity for beekeeping to encourage others to start (in a responsible manner?)

James

No it is merely a product of marketing

 

[Teemore]

I am very wary of these commercial initiatives to 'promote' beekeeping: they are only clever marketing initiatives to promote the product.

Boyne Valley Honey was offering to help set up association apiaries in Ireland, the proviso being that they got an agreed proportion of honey from the apiairies. IIRC, FIBKA's executive declined the offer. Within my association I had raised concern at the stipulation that Boyne Valley Honey would have to get a proportion of the honey: I wanted clarification as to whether it was a proportion of all honey produced within an association apiary or whether it was just a proportion of honey produced from the initial couple of hives sponsored by Boyne Valley honey. I was also uncomfortable about the Association having a direct relationship with the commercial venture and thus being linked to everything they support and do.... seems that the FIBKA Executive were of a similar mind. Boyne Valley import honey and it looks as if FIBKA do not want to be seen to endorse importing honey into Ireland.

Magners buy up a lot of apples in the UK and Ireland and i know a lot of growers who have increased their acreage of apples and pears to supply them. Magners also import fruit, I don't know what quantities they import, but the simple fact they import is not doing British and Irish growers any favours.

 

[Andy Duff]

Anything to do with this?

Bobster

Next time you post a link to BBKA site, PLEASE have the common decency to warn that it is to BBKA site. I ended up there and now I have to go and bathe in bleach.
UNCLEAN
UNCLEAN

 

[Torq]

oh and they're Irish. So every £ spent on Magners supports the Irish rather than the UK economy.

In light of the massive profits made by UK stores operating in the Irish market would you really begrudge us a few euro back for a couple of pints of cider?

Don't forget how important Ireland is to the UK economy, so important that you gave us a bail out independent of the euro zone one.

Halifax pulled out as soon as the cash dried up! But hey at least Iceland (supplier of fine dining for the Jeremy Kyle audience) came back with their 50% mark up on UK prices.

 

[taff..]

In light of the massive profits made by UK stores operating in the Irish market would you really begrudge us a few euro back for a couple of pints of cider?

Don't forget how important Ireland is to the UK economy, so important that you gave us a bail out independent of the euro zone one.

Halifax pulled out as soon as the cash dried up! But hey at least Iceland (supplier of fine dining for the Jeremy Kyle audience) came back with their 50% mark up on UK prices.

but what DrS says is not even true.

the orchard that is home to my bees sells his apples to Magners (in the region of 400-450 Tonnes a year) and I strongly suspect that many Somerset/UK orchards do the same = money into the UK economy.

 

[For want of a better word]

a couple of pints of cider?

It is not CIDER......
call it sider or even like the French muckle brew Cidre... but to be CIDER it needs to be from English apples grown in England and fermented and bottled in England

Not that I am patriotic or anything... just know what is right !


Even our across the pond cousins call it applejack I believe

 

[JamezF]

Sadly, I have to agree that it's more about Magners promoting their brand than anything else. And as a tyro cider-maker myself, with quite a few acquaintances who make cider "properly" (ie apple juice only, no chaptalisation, water, sugar, concentrated and/or imported juice etc. etc.), some to an exceptional standard, I really couldn't bring myself to do anything that might further promote their deceitful marketing.

James

 

[JamezF]

Even our across the pond cousins call it applejack I believe

Not quite.

The names used drift a bit because there's a fair bit of discussion between US and UK cider-makers, but I think it's usually accepted that in the US "cider" is unfermented apple juice, "hard cider" is fermented apple juice (what we would just call cider) and "applejack" is distilled hard cider (often traditionally produced by freeze distillation I believe, though evaporative distillation is also now used).

James

 

[The Cumbrian]

a couple of pints of cider?

It is not CIDER......
call it sider or even like the French muckle brew Cidre... but to be CIDER it needs to be from English apples grown in England and fermented and bottled in England

Not that I am patriotic or anything... just know what is right !


Even our across the pond cousins call it applejack I believe

I am interested in where this insistence that it has to be English comes from. Both my dictionary and the t'internet define it as fermented apple juice. Where as for Champagne it does say it must come from Champagne.

Is it impossible for the welsh to make cider?

 

[JamezF]

Is it impossible for the welsh to make cider?

Obviously not. And there are some cider-makers in Wales who produce very good cider.

James