Established by accident after planting some apple trees in a conservation project, we discovered the sweet pleasures of producing our own cider. As an “award winning” entry to the Kingstone Agricultural Show in 2010!!!, we then decided to take this more formally creating Hoar Cross Cider Limited in 2014.
The site at Hoar Cross, Staffordshire is an open south facing field. The initial planting consisted of 100 trees on M25 rootstock (Dabinett, Kingston Black, Yarlington Mill and Harry Masters Jersey). These were planted on a very cold November day in 2014, with sunshine, rain, wind and snow showers.
The trees took time to become established. In March 2016 we introduced a further 57 trees, mainly Kingston Black variety. We are following a low intensity model of production which will be favourable to wildlife as well as apples.
There is a lot of hard work before one can reap the fruits of ones labour. First the apples have to be milled, pressed, the juices left to ferment, then bottled and fermented again. This produces a clear dry naturally fizzy cider ( Champagne yeast is used).
Sometimes, the hardest things in life are the most rewarding……
Whilst we enjoy the cider, it would have to undergo pasteurisation and other processes to achieve commercial acceptance.
It was during “Covid-19 lock-down” in 2019 that we undertook the conversion of our cider in to Cider Brandy………….what an exciting new chapter in our lives………….
Hoar Cross Cider 