Our Story
Introducing The Pure North Cider Press, based at Deanhouse, Holmfirth
We started making cider with apples from the old orchard contained in the grounds of our 200 year old farm house. After much research and experiment, we learnt that you can only make a full well balanced cider through using a range of cider apples.
So we expanded the old orchard with a selection of cider apple trees that we planted to see if they would adapt to our pennine climate, they did very well so at the beginning of March 2011 we went ahead with the planting of 250 apple and pear trees with over 17 different varieties of eating apples, cider apples and perry pears. The orchard is establishing itself very well.
In the spring of 2011 we embarked upon the conversion of our stable block into a fully equipped cider house containing press, scratter, fermentation and maturation vessels.
Pure North ciders have now been on sale on a commercial basis since July 2010 and are sold in a range of pubs and shops around Kirklees and the Keswick areas. All of our ciders are pressed and fermented naturally and contain 100% pressed juice with no concentrates.
Producing the finest natural cider from a blend of traditional cider apples
The taste for cider has been rediscovered; sales are growing strongly and with this success has come a greater demand for good quality cider fruit. Farmers and land-owners throughout the country have responded to the challenge and some 8,000 acres of new orchards have been planted in the last decade, including the apple orchard at Pure North.
During 2012 we will be expanding our range of ciders to include dry, bottle conditioned champagne style ciders and oak aged ciders. In addition we will be offering pure apple and pear juice fresh pressed and flash pasturised
We are currently applying for a licence to sell our ciders to the general public and from Summer 2012 the cider house will be open Wednesday to Sunday for people to take a look at what we do and hopefully buy some cider and juice.