Sheppy's Cider

I don't really drink alchol, but was really looking forward to a trip to a cider making and cheese tasting experience laid on by Sheppy's Cider Farm.

Based near Taunton it is easy to access and a great place to visit. As part of the tour which lasted two hours you got to learn about the history of the family, see the whole process of cider making and then sample cider and cheese.

In a bid to try and learn some of the facts I made notes so hopefully it will make sense and be interesting for you.

Originally the cider making started in 1816 in Congesbury and then they in time moved to the location they are at now in 1914.  Amazingly the business now is in it's sixth generation of the family having traded for over 200 years!

There are three type of orchard at Sheepy's

The first they plant 50 trees per acre and the tree takes 15 years to reach it's full potential where they are happy to use the apple as a consistant crop.

 

 

The 2nd orchard takes 10 years to develop 200 tree's per acre

A wild orchard planted takes incredibly one day to plant as it is all done by machinary.

 

 

 

CIDER MAKING YEAR 

On the 17th January under the traditional Pagan tradition their is a Wassali Festival where they have a Wassali King or Queen who processes through the orchard to bless the crop for a bountiful year to come.

Then in March they prune trees lightly to get rid of any dead wood.

To be able to gather the apple crop up they use a hugh machine to shack the trees and gather the apples down.

 

Up to 30 tonnes of apples in a bay which gets processed.

The brewery offer four flavours 

Bitter sharp

Bitter sweet

Sharp

Sweet 

Last year they sold 2.2 million bottles!  They export to 17 countries including Czech Republic, Canada and Japan.

In the press house they can process up to 6 tonnes of apples an hour.

 

The apples are chopped then squeezed for juice where they get 85% juice from apples, the pomace that is left behind is sold for cattle feed.

 

In the Vat house the one vat can hold up to 2200 gallons of liquid.  There are 10 vats some of which are 100 years old.

Now on to the cider and cheese tasting.

When drinking cider 

Put in mouth and breath through nose

1. Made in oak vats - sheppys gold medal cider 7.5%

Barbers 1833 Cheddar matured for 24 months 

 

2. Perry 7.4% pear cider - 

60 % mould ripened Somerset Brie. 7 week to ripen 

3. Sheppys 200 Cider - To mark the 200 year's 5% medium sweet 

 Harlech Cheddar - blended with horse radish and Cheddar 

4. Cloudy Cider - 4.5% blended with apple juice 

Smoked Dorset red - Cheddar been coloured with red dye.  is smoked overnight. 

5. Sheppy's with Raspberry 4%

Dorset Blue Vinny

 

I hope you've enjoyed reading something different from my normal post.