Small-Scale Cidermaking 

If you're really interested in the exact details, you can find (somewhat out of date!) descriptions of my orchard and my current cidermaking techniques on the following links:

• Andrew's orchard
• Milling and Pressing
• Fermentation and Storage

Click on the titles below if you want to read these articles. Remember, they were written in a simple and chatty style for a magazine. I have edited them lightly to bring them up to date a bit, but otherwise they remain as originally published in 1992. I've probably changed my personal approach to cidermaking a little since then, but the basics haven't altered!!

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - Fruit and Cultivation
• Part 3 - Juicing and Fermenting
• Part 4 - Customising your Cider
• Part 5 - When Things go Wrong!
• Part 6 - Apple Juice and Cider Vinegar
• The Craft Cider Revival- Some technical considerations (notes from a talk given in February 2007)
  

• Cidermaking - an overview (beware - 1.3MB PDF download!)
• Cider Flavour descriptors - and links to flavour wheels
• More about Cider Aroma ... and 2-methyl 4-pentyl
  1,3-dioxane!
  
•  Nitrogen - the forgotten element in cidermaking!
•  Mainstream Cidermaking - a book chapter abridgement
•  Cider Apple Data - some tabulated information on cider apple composition
• Malo-lactic fermentation - monitored by TLC
• Tannin in Cider Apples
• How to measure tannin - the Lowenthal and the Folin methods
• The relationship between pH, titratable acid and sulphite addition
• Keeving - what's that?
• How Much Apple in my Cider?
  

•  PET bottles vs. glass for naturally conditioned ciders
• Making a press (and some ideas about mills)
• Apple Mill and Press Suppliers
• Cider Tree Suppliers
• Pictures of Cider Apples
  

• The History Room

 
• Cidermaking in Devonshire in 1898
• Cobwebs in Somerset in 1998!
• Cider Vinegar Making in 1917
• Cider Making on the Farm from 1934
• The Retention of Natural Sweetness in Cider from 1939
• A Cidermakers Calendar from 1939

 

If you want a serious scientific treatment of the subject you should read my chapter on 'Cidermaking' in 'Fermented Beverage Production' (second edition) edited by Andrew Lea and John Piggott.  In that chapter you'll find lots of references to the old Long Ashton work, which was also very ably reviewed in various different articles by my old boss Fred Beech, whose knowledge of cider chemistry and microbiology was encyclopedic and unsurpassed. Sadly, Fred died in autumn 1995, and with him went the end of an era.

You can see an abridged version of this chapter by clicking here,  and an even shorter pictorial version here (beware - it's a 1.3 MB PDF download so only for those on broadband!) but if you want to see the whole thing you'll have to beg or borrow the book !

Three reasonably priced and practical 'how-to-do-it' books which I recommend are

• "CIDER - Making, using and enjoying sweet and hard cider" by Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols - ISBN 1-58017-520-1 - Storey Publishing, Massachusets. This is the third edition published in 2003.  I liked the first edition (1980) rather better - it had more pictures and drawings (and a personal acknowledgement to me and all my Long Ashton colleagues, which got dropped due to a typo in the second edition and was not restored in the third!) But the third edition does contain plans for a press similar to the one I made for myself.

 
• "REAL CIDERMAKING - On a small scale" by Michael Pooley and John Lomax - ISBN 1-85486-195-6 - Nexus Special Interests, Kent. This was  published in 1999, and is an excellent description of how to make good cider on a small scale at home (but it does contain a serious typographical error!). This book, like the Proulx and Nichols one, also includes plans for a small scale cider press, in this case of the 'slatted basket' type.  See the Shropshire Apple Network website for more details about the book, the press and associated training courses.
  

 
• "CIDER - Hard and Sweet" by Ben Watson - ISBN 0-88150-468-8 - The Countryman Press, Woodstock, Vermont.  This book was also published in 1999 and is an excellent practical guide similar in concept to the Proulx and Nichols volume described above.  It's written by an American author from a US perspective but with a fair bit of European background and some interesting historical detail too.

And a superb book (2001) by an ex Long Ashton colleague of mine is:

• "A SOMERSET POMONA - the Cider Apples of Somerset"   by Liz Copas - ISBN I-874336-87-3 - has now been privately reprinted and is available directly from the author herself.  There are 20 or so pages of interesting introduction about Somerset Cider Apples and their use historically,  a bit about the current UK craft cider revival, and then 80 individual apples described in detail with botanical, orcharding and cider characteristics together with excellent coloured plates of each one. 

If you want to look elsewhere on the Web for small-scale cidermaking information you should start with Gillian Grafton's Real Cider and Perry Page (which is now maintained by Paul Gunningham), and you should subscribe to Dick Dunn's e-mail Cider Digest.

Some other interesting links to small-scale commercial or 'craft' cidermakers are

• Roy Bailey's Lambourn Valley Cider in West Berkshire (UK, that is!)
• Richard and Susan Anderson's Westcott Bay Orchards on the US Pacific Coast
• The Squeeze Cider Press not far away on Vancouver Island, Canada
• Terry Bradshaw's Lost Meadow operation in Vermont - a hobby run to professional standards with some very interesting orcharding and cider-making details on his website
  
• Farnum Hill Cider in New Hampshire
• West County Cider in Western Massachusetts, run by Terry and Judith Maloney, the inspiration behind Franklin County Cider Day!
  
• Black and Fagan's Cider in Michigan - an interesting 'case history' of a small scale cider business which is no more!
• Dunkerton's Cider in deepest Herefordshire (back to the UK again!)
• Julian Temperley's Burrow Hill Cider and the unique Somerset Cider Brandy
• Tom Oliver's excellent cider and perry from Ocle Pychard in Herefordshire
• Keith Orchard's (aptly named!) cider and perry from Brockweir in the Wye Valley.
  
• Kevin Minchew, the idiosyncratic perry maker from near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire
• More award winning craft cider and perry from Gregg's Pit in Herefordshire
• Mike Henney's Frome Valley Cider - one of the highest quality mainstream ciders with UK national distribution
  
• On the rather bigger side, Sheppy's near Wellington, in Somerset
• Likewise in Suffolk, Aspall's Cyders which are distinctive, full juice, and nationally available throughout the UK
  
• For a range of speciality ciders by mail, try Orchard Hive and Vine in Leominster, near Hereford.

Of course there are plenty of mainstream commercial links nowadays too (Weston's, Thatcher's, Bulmer's, Matthew Clark, Aston Manor etc.) but you can give your brain a workout and find them for yourself through Google or something (or look on the Further Resources page)!  The Three Counties Cider and Perry Association (3CCPA) is a thriving group of small high-quality cider producers in the counties of  Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, with a smattering of members from adjoining counties eg Dorset, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Warwickshire.  The Marcher Apple Network and the Gloucestershire Orchard Group have great sites to visit too. The NACM website, set up by the National Association of Cidermakers in the UK, is the place for information about mainstream commercial cidermaking. The AICV website (a trade association for cider and fruit wine manufacturers throughout Europe) is also worth a look.
 
And, if you need some serious training or consultancy in cidermaking, check out Peter Mitchell's website at Mitchell Food and Drink.  Peter was originally responsible for the development of the Core Food and Drink Centre at Pershore College, near Worcester (now sadly closed),  and for the production of the award winning Hindlip and  Avonbank ciders and perries.

There are more cider-related websites on the 'Further Resources' page

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Last Revision February 2006