
Haye Farm Cider remains dedicated to making the very finest and most
delicious-tasting cider true to the traditional methods of making cider. This
begins with collecting the apples from our orchards. Once the apples have
been picked by hand, either as windfalls or from the tree, they are dropped
into the mill for a light crushing by a set of Cornish granite rollers. This
breaks up the apple and helps the juice run. Once the apples have been
milled the resulting pulp is placed onto the large wooden press and the
“cheese” built. This involves binding barley straw around the edges in rings
and on occasion within the cheese itself. The straw acts as a natural filter
and keeps the apples in place when being pressed. The cheese usually
consists of 7 of these straw rings and typically contains 2.5 tonnes of
Haye Farm apples. The cheese is then pressed. The pressure reaches 88
tonnes per square foot and without the straw the apples would simply
squash out of the sides! This pressure reduces the cheese to about one third
of its original height.
The cheese is then pressed over a period of about 5 days. After the first
pressing, the pressure is taken off and the outermost layers of pulp and
straw are cut off with a hayknife and piled on top (a process known as
“paring the cheese”). Pressure is again applied and repeated until juice
stops flowing. We normally hope to fill 2 whisky or port barrels per cheese.
The remaining dry pulp or pomace is fed to our sheep and cattle, which love
the delicious combination of straw and apple.
Once in the oak barrels the apple juice starts to ferment. This is an entirely
natural process and nothing is added to start the fermentation. The apple
skins contain natural yeast which turns the apples’ sugars to alcohol. The
barrels are watched carefully and kept topped up to the bunghole (with
more apple juice - and never water as with some other cider makers). This
prevents air, albeit the sweet air of Cornwall, reaching the juice and spoiling
the cider.