Based in Little Leigh, near Northwich, Cheshire we have been making ciders and fruit wines for the last 6 years.
Our aim is to use apples and pears from local traditional orchards to create a pure juice cider using traditional methods.
Unlike a lot commercially produced ciders now available, our ciders and perries are bottled still and unfiltered, and are a slightly hazy drink that retains all the aroma and flavour of the original fruit.
All the fruit is gathered by hand in the autumn. It's washed and checked for quality in our cider shed before being milled to a pulp. The pulp is squeezed in a hand-operated press with the resulting pure juice being put into barrels and given the opportunity to ferment naturally from the yeasts present on the fruit. A small amount of sulphite is added at this stage to kill harmful bacteria and 'bad' yeasts that can taint the cider.
Over the winter, the yeasts convert the natural sugars present in the fruit into alcohol - no other sugar is added. Temperature and other factors affect how long fermentation can take. Normally, the cider and perry is not ready for bottling until spring. Because fermentation produces carbon-dioxide, we have to wait until the process has stopped before the drink is safe to bottle.
By now, the drink is slightly hazy, having started to clear naturally. If left undisturbed, it should become totally clear as the spent yeasts settle out of suspension.
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