NOTICE
Halfpenny Green Cider Company is for sale
About the Halfpenny Green Cider Company
Anthony and Malcolm are the people behind the Halfpenny Green Cider Company.
Anthony, with a background in engineering and a passion for making high quality cider teamed up with Malcolm who owns and runs a successful brewery and also owns a small orchard.
From the outset the goal was to make the highest quality cider using traditional methods and natural ingredients.
At Halfpenny Green we have a passion for high quality cider and are always striving to ensure that the public are aware of the differences between the commercial products that we all know and (some) love and pure juice craft cider available from artisan cider makers such as ourselves and many other passionate makers.
Made using the finest apples
To state the obvious cider is made from apples but did you know that the law allows cider to be made with a minimum of 35% apple juice. So legally you are allowed to add up to 65% water. At Halfpenny Green Cider we only make our cider from 100% apple juice with no added water, colourings and flavours.
We have a small orchard of cider apple trees and buy in specialist apples from cider apple growers to supplement our harvest. We press all the apples ourselves and all are hand sorted to ensure only the very best make it into our cider. The apples are blended to ensure the juice has the correct characteristics we are looking for such as tanning levels, PH and sugar content prior to fermentation.
From the outset our mission was to make the finest cider possible. This means a long slow fermentation followed by months of maturation in stainless steel tanks, no plastic! to allow the flavours to develop and the cider to mellow. After maturation we at Halfpenny Green Cider take the art of cider making a step further and transform the dry still cider into a variety of sparkling style ciders using tried and trusted methods. We are also pushing the boundaries and experimenting with methods of our own to produce new styles of cider never before available commercially
Our Three Production Methods
Cidre Bouché
Cidre Bouché is made by taking the fully matured cider and bottling with a small amount of sugar. The sugar ferments in the bottle producing a fine effervescent fizz. After the cider is fully conditioned in the bottle the cider is then removed from the bottle and can be blended with other bottle conditioned ciders in a pressurised container. The cider can then have sugar added to adjust the taste to Brut, Demisec or Sec, filtered and placed back in the bottle all under pressure to ensure none of the fizz is lost. This ensures that the cider is clear and sparkling down to the very last drop.
Cidre Charmat
Cidre Charmat is made using the same process to make Prosecco. The fully matured cider is allowed to sit on the lees or spent yeast until it is ready to be bottled. The cider is then moved to a pressurised container where sugar and yeast is added and allowed to ferment. This gives the cider a lively sparkle. The cider is then put into bottles under pressure and the taste adjusted to Brut, Demi Sec or Sec and capped.
Cidre Mousseux
Cidre Mousseux is made using the champenoise method, the same as iused to make the finest champagne. The fully matured cider is bottled with sugar and yeast and allowed to ferment in the bottle. The cider is allowed to mature for a minimum of 12 months to allow the complex flavours develop similar to champagne. The bottles are then inverted and rotated to allow the yeast to collect on the crown cap. The neck is then frozen and the cap removed allowing the pressure to blow out all the spent yeast. The taste is adjusted to Brut, Demi Sec or Sec and capped with a cork secured by a wire.