Burton Cider Makers, ‘Community Apples’

Burton-upon-Trent is a beer town; you can walk along Worthington Way as you head towards the fermenting towers of many of the long standing breweries. However nestling in-between are a group of cider makers, some established, some new but all with one goal to make real cider. All the individuals share a passion for the apple with a home grown love that has continued and developed into an honest living. We all met up in the Coopers Tavern in Burton, Camra Regional West Midlands cider pub of the year (numerous times) and a haven for tubs of the good juice, amongst many a handpull and the Joules regular ales on offer.

Wednesday night in the bar room of Coopers Tavern was turning out to be a lively night. Dickie Allen (pictured above 2 from right) ensured we had a good quantity of Scropton Cider to taste, alongside the wealth of cider and perry landlady Mary Bagley has on offer all year round. The idea of gathering Burton’s cider makers together was turning out to be a good one. Cider isn’t a drink you necessarily associate with Burton-upon-Trent, not with the beer remnants dotted round town and the beer tours on offer at The National Brewery Centre. Beer quite firmly stamps it’s presence on the town. However as Scropton cider is the longest standing cider company from the region at 10 years, with Dickie and his wife Jackie (pictured above 1 st on left) beginning their first production after a light hearted give it a go and see what happens attitude; it’s hard not to respect the cider their due diligence and care has produced. Having the space in the form of outbuildings helped in their quest to squeeze and ferment the most juice they could out of the apples they scrumped or were given, or ‘community apples’ as was coined on the night, but the resulting batch gave them the confidence to continue and grow.


Woody’s Cider is next on the Burton region cider map beginning production in 2008. Frank Wood (pictured above 3rd from right) was involved in the fruit and veg trade and had an appleiphany whilst on holiday in Hereford. His determined attitude provided a steady foundation to grow Woody’s into his own fruitful business. Acquiring a fruit mill from Devon also increased his yield and he’s not looked back since.

Jane Love’s Cider, no really Jane does love cider, and chutney and jam. Jane Love (pictured above 4 th from right) embodies the home grown making attitude that all Burton cider producers share in abundance. Newest of the bunch, she decided to expand her love of home baking into other areas and cider production was her next attempt after being inundated with requests from friends to ‘do something’ with their spare apples. This was only last year and with the support of Burton Camra beer festival, she’s seen some extremely positive responses and decided to continue producing.

Look out for all the producers at Regional Camra beer festivals such as Derby, Burton, Birmingham and Nottingham and Swadlincote Apple Day every October.

On the night we sampled Woody’s Cider (6 per cent), a cloudy gold medium dry cider; Three Cats (6.7per cent) sweetest of the bunch; Jane Love’s Cider (6.5 per cent) apple-tang medium dry; Scropton Derbyshire Dry (5.8 per cent) pale straw colour easy drinking dry cider & Dorris Stokes (6.3per cent) a well-rounded medium cider with balanced apple flavours.

www.cooperstavern.co.uk

To contact any of the makers featured in this article to order their cider: www.ukcider.co.uk