The process of cider making shouldn’t be rushed! We have learnt from painful experience that if you try to push cider on too quickly the results are a poor cider which can be over carbonated if bottled too quickly.

Cider needs time to mature, it is all dependant on the temperatures in the cider barn as well as the apples used. Typically cider will take 6 months to mature sufficiently for bottling. So if we are pressing in October it should nearly be ready for drinking in May.

We prefer apples that are ripe. This isn’t necessarily when they are falling from the tree as a tree may shed some apples for many reasons. Please check by cutting an apple in half and checking the colour of the pips. They should be dark brown. In addition, when you shake the branch they should easily fall to the ground.

We use any apples that are available. They may be dessert, cooking, crab or cider apples. We blend the apples when we mill and press them to try and get a balance of sweet and bitter to give a great cider. If we don’t achieve the right balance we blend the cider later in the process

Care should always be taken when picking apples but especially when making apple juice. No bruised or damaged fruit can be used to make apple juice. We usually pick the apples we use for juice into baskets to help protect them.
For cider making the fruit may be bruised slightly but must not be rotten. We usually pick the apples and put them in string sacks which keeps them in good condition.

No, there is no maximum amount you can bring but please tell us in good time before bringing a lot of apples so we can plan to receive them. There is a maximum of cider or apple juice we give in return though in order to make it viable. We give 2 bottles per 25Kg sack up to a maximum of 3 cases, 36 bottles. We can only take a limited amount of Cooking Apples, so please check before bringing these.

If you can email us ahead that is helpful so we can ensure somebody is on site to receive the apples. Ideally the apples should be delivered to Fentenfenna Farm in Ruthvoes.

If at all possible, please keep different varieties of apples separate. Different apples are suited to juice, cider or chutney and jams so we’re keen to know which varieties are there so we can process them in different ways.

If you can deliver them to Fentenfenna Farm, Ruthvoes, TR9 6HT

If your apples are good enough to eat then it is likely we will take them. We can only take a limited amount of cooking apples, so please check before bringing these. We cannot take any rotten apples or anything that has remained on the ground for too long and has started to decay.