Cider Making Process

Each autumn we need over 15 tonnes of fruit to press into our ciders.

We pick all the fruit for our apple juice and most of the fruit for our perry by hand when they’re perfectly ripe starting in mid-August. Later, we use an apple picker to gather the fruit for our cider. We shake the trees to remove the fruit to ensure that very little of the crop is missed. This might continue to the end of November. 

After harvesting the apples need to be washed and sorted by hand in our water baths, removing the rotten apples before milling. The milled fruit is pressed straight away for apple juice and within 48 hours for cider and perry. 

Fermentation is where the magic happens. The apple juice, now known as “must”, is placed in fermentation vessels. The wilds yeasts which abound on our farm do their work to convert the sugar in the must to alcohol. This process takes several weeks or even months, during which our cider develops its unique award-winning flavours and aromas.

After fermentation, the cider undergoes a maturation process. This allows the flavors to mellow and meld together, resulting in a smoother, more refined taste. Our maturation occurs in large steel vats or in bottle in our original cider barn from late winter onwards.

The final stage is bottling where the maturing continues. Everything is done by ourselves on the farm. This careful process ensures that every bottle of our cider tastes just as fantastic as we promise our customers. Some of our products need 12 months or more in the bottle.