Herefordshire Cider Trip... Part 2

If you are planning on visiting cider makers in Herefordshire, I can give you several tips to make the experience worthwhile:

1. Don’t trust your Sat Nav to actually get you to the location!
2. Allow several days to get round them – on average 2-3 a day is a max, especially if you intend to drive to them!
3. Make sure you call ahead to ask permission to visit. Even using the ‘Cider Route’ guide, the odds are that a number of the cider makers are small and not always around (Greggs Pit is a good example).

When I planned to visit a few, I was worried that these cider makers would be wary of a ‘hobbyist’ or ‘wannabe’ commercial producer visiting with lots of technical questions. Not so, I have to say that every cider maker I met in Herefordshire was welcoming, knowledgeable and really generous with their time.


My last trip out was to meet two more artisan producers. Once Upon a Tree are a relatively new artisan producer based in Putley. Whilst the chief cider maker, Simon Day, wasn’t available I met up with Norman who owns the farm and Dragon Orchard. This time, I opted to be up front about my own cider making, and also about the Cider Workshop (after all, evangelising about the Workshop is never a chore to me!!). Norman was incredibly generous, showing me around and talking me through the way in which they craft their cider and perry. Craft is the right word to use, as they ferment each variety of apple and pear separately, only mixing them up at blending time.I loved the way that they present their cider in a similar fashion to wine – opting for 750ml wine bottles and still cider, I can wholly recommend it for its clean taste. Its definitely a cider with a purpose, seeming to know exactly what it wants to be and how it wants to taste. Sometimes, I feel my own cider cannot make up its mind and tries to taste like everything!

So, another lesson learned. I probably get too many different varieties to separate them all. However, I can separate cider from desert much better – and I may well try this out next year.


One other recommendation. Once Upon a Tree make a fantastic desert cider from Blenheim Orange apples. This is done by freezing the juice and only fermenting a third that thaws. A bit like apple jack in method, but the taste is incredibly sweet and smooth.

And so on to my final destination, Lyne Down Cider. And another contrast. Whilst both Greggs Pit and Once Upon a Tree really try to craft cider to particular styles (and do well at it too), Lyne Down makes cider to sell – pure and simple, no fuss and very few frills.


Mark, who owns Lyne Down, met me at the gate to his newly built cider house and ‘in progress’ shop and picnic area. I had a feeling it would be rather posh but Mark was very grounded and much more ‘business like’ about his cider business. His operation had more in common with New Forest Cider than the others I had seen locally – vats of cider (although there were single variety Stoke Red and another of Yarlington Mill. He also had the same stone bedded press as Greggs Pitt, although this is to be replaced something more hydraulic later this year.

Mark was, once again, really open and helpful with his knowledge of cider craft. I now have a plan for racking cider that will take out a lot of fuss, bother and errant lees! He also had a couple of 1500 litre tanks for sale – which I can just see in my cider garage!!

As all the others, the meeting ended with a tasting. This cider tasted a lot more like my own, albeit in a Western style that I do not go for. The blend contained many varieties of apple – not the few that the others used, and although this meant that there was less ‘impact’ of individual types of apple (others were very definitely sharp – although these ones usually contained a significant proportion of Browns Apple which is a full sharp cider apple).

So, an enjoyable and educational trip... lets just see how this affects what I take to Putley in May!!!

Herefordshire Cider Trip... Part 1

Easter holidays! Just back from a 5 day trip to the Forest of Dean with some friends. Not only did the weather hold out for us, it was a perfect ‘pre-Putley Cider Trials’ preparation... and it left me wanting to strive to make my cider as professional as possible!

There was only time to visit 4-5 producers (this was a family holiday, after all!), and we started with the surprising choice of Westons, and by contrast the much smaller operation of Greggs Pit. Both are found in Much Marcle – to some, the Mecca of Ciderland... in reality its a small place you could easily drive straight through on the bendy A449.
Westons provide a tourist attraction in itself, with farm animals, a playground, cafe and shop. They even had a bottle museum (bottle collection is more accurate). Whilst the children cooed at the animals, I took my friend on the cider tour to see how things were done.

Some may baulk at the idea of going round an industrial cider producer (I have never really been comfortable with the term ‘industrial’. In fact, you can see that the principles don’t change – apples must be collected, washed and milled, pressed and the juice must ferment. However, this could be hard to see, as the scale and methods are simply much larger and more, well, industrial. Although the topic of chapitalising never came up (and I promised myself not to be so provocative), there was no real effort to hide the fact – one of the guides at the tasting even said “it all starts at 11%”. However, on finding out that they produce more than 4 million gallons per year, with 15,000 tons of apples, the little animal in me had to do the maths on my Blackberry to work it out. Oh, and for those who like to be right about a producer like Westons, even a 75% yield of juice would only make 2.5 million gallons.

Still, its horses for courses and you cannot argue that they aren’t good at what they do. At the tasting, whilst avoiding the ‘stock’ Stowford Press, the Vintage and Extra Dry were very pleasant.

Going on to Greggs Pit (which had been arranged the day before), we found one of the owners, James Marsden, very welcoming. What it must be like to live with a view of an old pear orchard!

After showing us round the orchard, where the trees were almost ready to burst open with blossom, and the apple orchard to the rear of the house – 4-5 perfectly formed lines of standard fruit trees, we moved on to the production and storage area.

My first thought was – this isn’t a whole lot bigger than the area I have for making and storing cider. However, any idea that this would be a like for like comparison vanished when I saw the stainless variable tanks and storage/bottling area. Most of Gregg’s Pitt’s cider and perry is produced by keeving (or, as James preferred, bouche method). This is something I have never tried before (although one of my fermentations naturally produced a cap of pectin – which leaves the juice with fewer nutrients for the yeast and therefore prolongs the fermentation).

We tried several types of perry, including two seasons of the same blend. James was particularly enthusiastic about his perry. Unfortunately, my knowledge of perry is very limited, but it was incredibly light and fruity.

I wanted to do the visit’s without coming across as a ‘cider bore’, mentioning the Cider Workshop - which I feared would lead me to be judged a ‘cider bore’, or mention that I am taking part in the Putley trials – which I feared may label me not only a ‘cider bore’ but also a philistine from Hampshire!

Whilst I think I probably failed on all counts (after about 5 minutes at Greggs Pit I was handed a Putley Blossomtime Festival leaflet and announced I intended to take part), I made every effort to listen to the tips that Jams so freely gave me. I am not sure I have the budget for the stainless tanks, but I will make sure I try for slow fermentations with all my ciders in future!

Registering for business...

Whilst things have been a bit slow on the ground here, I have finally managed to register the business with the Council. OK, it doesn’t mean we are ready to sell yet... although I am shortly taking a delivery of bottles ready to get going. There is still a bit of work to do – insurances need to be purchased (just in case) and I am slowly but surely working my way through the Business Link start-up business ‘organiser’. This is an administrative thing that just helps me make sure I have checked all the correct boxes as a business before getting on with the fun part of actually selling the cider.

The intention for this blog is to act as a conduit to 146 Cider – there are two purposes for this. First of all, it means that people who buy the stuff can see where its come from and who we are. The other reason (all things being equal) is that I intend to build a partnership with an off-licence who can actually supply the cider, meaning that I can simply point people in that direction for the time being. To me, this seems to be the most appropriate way of starting out – although I will welcome feedback on this blog!

The only other thing to update is that I have now entered two cider competitions this year – the Big Apple ‘Putley’ competition and the International Hereford Museum competition.

Putley is a bit of a ‘cider-off’, with participants being judged by their fellow competitors, and if often seen as one of the more equitable ways of judging a cider competition. For 146 Cider, this will be our first ‘outing’ against others and I am hoping its going to be a great time! It has been plugged quite a lot on The Cider Workshop, so lets hope there are some friendly faces during the day.

The Hereford Museum competition is a more serious set up, and probably a bit more prestigious too. Again, its taking my Hampshire cider into the lions den that is Herefordshire – it will be interesting to see how it fares against cider that is made in ‘the heart of cider country’!

There may be other competitions on the books, although I am not sure if I want to go for many more this year – it would be great to place at all in these two.

All the best
Jez