Andrew Lea: Craft cider Making
Andrew wrote the first modern comprehensive lay book on cider making. He is a retired chemist/ plant biochemist/ food scientist by profession, and after a career at Long Ashton ( Cider) Research Station near Bristol, was the former Head of the Beverage Research section in a contract food analysis and consultancy company. He knows his tannins! He has been very gracious and helpful to many cider makers over the years with his website and the Google group, Cider Workshop
Andrew is an amateur cider maker which started when he worked at the Long Ashton Research Station near Bristol, where he took his Ph.D in the 1970’s. The cider research part of the Station sadly closed in 1981.
LARS was first formed as a private organisation by Robert Neville-Grenville at his farm at Butleigh near Glastonbury in 1893 for cider research This led to the formation of the National Fruit and Cider Institute in 1903 in fields south of the main road through Long Ashton. In 1912 the Institute became the University of Bristol’s Department of Agricultural and Horticultural Research and its name was changed to the Long Ashton Research Station. But in 1981 two of Long Ashton's major research divisions, the Pomology and Plant Breeding Division and the Food and Beverage Division were closed down.
