How we make our Rough Old Wife cider

The apples are hand picked rain water washed and checked for rot or mould. Apples which are badly rotting are discarded.

Our first press was a traditional 200 year old hand driven oak screw press. The pulp is first wrapped in fine Hessian mesh cloths, like parcels, and eight of these are stacked on top of each other and used to make one pressing - called a cheese.

The press is then tightened down to several tons pressure allowing the juice to extract into the ceramic holding sinks.

The juice is strained and then placed into 56 gallon Scottish oak whisky barrels which are stored in our cool barn. Our barrels come from the famous Bruichladdich Distillery on the coast of Islay and allow the cider to breathe naturally through the peaty wood.

The natural yeasts in the apples start the fermentation and after several months we seal the barrels and allow the cider to develop and mature.

Our Apples - Hawkins Rough, Canterbury & West Kent Community Orchards

When do we make our cider?

Producing our Rough Old Wife cider takes place from late September to early in the New Year and depending upon ambient temperatures, fermentation can take until the following spring. It is a fun time as all the hard work transforms into monitoring the gently bubbling barrels.

Serving our ROW real cider

Depending on facilities or turnover in the licenses premises, our cider is served from an innovative bag in the box or manucube container on or behind the bar.

Both systems extend the shelf life to several weeks or months and are similar to the well accepted Australian wine box system & prevent the spoiling of our cider by excluding all air during draw-off, thus preventing airborne contamination or spoiling once opened.

Further Information on UK and World Cider and Cider / Cyder making can also be seen on the excellent write-up in Wikipedia

Kent Cider apple boxes, annie cap, andy maclean

"Dry and clear with a rich apple bouquet in aged Scottish whisky and oak barrels"

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Pure Kent traditional hand pressed cider

Great Holt Farm, Elmsted, Ashford. Kent TN25 5JY

(Cidery visits by prior appointment)

Tel: Annie or Simon; Cidery +44 (0) 1227 700757 or Mobile (Simon) 07768 364353 Email: simon@rougholdwife.com

"How many can you handle?!"

We then crush our apples in a machine called a scratter attached to a tractor or electric motor which chops them up into small pieces. This pulp is then put into a container ready for the next stage.

In the Eastern Counties - Sussex up to Norfolk and our area, Kent, - the tradition for cider is to use a mixture of eating and cooking apples with the greater the variety of apples used, the better as they all have different characteristics and give a depth of flavour and sweet / acid balance which increases the interest of our ROW cider. We have a predominant mixture of Bramley's with Worcester, Cox and Crispin to add additional sweetness if required.

We let nature take its course and this means that our cider is ready the following year from around may onwards depending upon the temperatures.

Rough Old Wife Cider