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To use apples from local gardens and orchards that were going to waste to create a cider that I wanted to drink!

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My journey started off with a small 18 litre press and scratter off ebay a few buckets and a lot of optimism! I was also getting married the following summer at a very DIY wedding in a field and thought I could save a few pennies by serving the guests my homebrew so what started off as making 50-100 bottles escalated to making over 600 that year. 

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As I often do I went all in and devoured every online and written source of information I could find, attended local shows, carrying out 'product research' on a lot of other ciders (my favourite part). The feedback I got was much better than I expected and I enjoyed making it and getting to know new people so much i've expanded operations and continued to hone my craft. 

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Where Hesketh cider differs from others is in the process and end product. Personally I'm not a big fan of the commercial very sweet ciders found on tap in most pubs. What I do like though is white wine so I try and match the flavour profile to a white wine on some batches and more tannic on others, always full juice. To help me get there I use a champagne yeast (IOC 18-2007 to be precise) and cold aging as well as wild yeasts and time, always time. Fortunately I have access to a great range of traditional cider varieties as well as culinary and desert apples so have an ideal range of flavours on tap to blend together. 

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I've experimented with fruity ciders which although quite drinkable are not where my passion is so will be focusing on a range of full juice ciders going forward.  I never use concentrate, added preservatives, flavouring or colouring and only pick and source from spray free orchards and gardens.  

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Everything is aged for a minimum of 1 year, hand picked, hand pressed, fermented, blended, bottled, labelled, sampled and sold from my climate controlled workshop in Guilden Morden, South Cambridgeshire. 

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Charles Hesketh 

Owner / Director