The Ashover Cider Company was started in 2011 when a group of friends decided to do something with the apples that were going to waste around the Derbyshire village of Ashover.

So a press was purchased and various cider makers were visited and interrogated and a cunning plan was put together. This essentially was to make a Derbyshire Cider in a traditional way using pure ingredients. It’s a very slow, labour intensive process but it’s very satisfying.

Family and friends were press ganged along with some passers by and the first few gallons made proved to be a great success. So we gathered more and more apples.

We have continued with the process each October, until we have got to the point where we now produce hundreds of gallons of lovely Cider each year. We have been supplying a very select collection of customers with our Ciders over these years and have appeared at beer festivals all over the country. We have never advertised and have really struggled to keep up with demand, despite increasing production each year, so in 2018 we decided to make much more.

Our Cider comes from 100% apple juice (please don’t take that for granted with most Ciders). We harvest all types of Derbyshire apples, from wherever we can get donations. We also bring cider apples from Herefordshire. We press the apples each year in October and November on a farm near Littlemoor in the Parish of Ashover. The juice is then allowed to ferment over the winter and spring to create our unique Cider.

Our Cider is a full juice Cider made in the traditional way using the yeast from the apples for a slow wild ferment over winter to produce a still, clear full flavoured Cider.