It started in a back garden but four years on Mates is toasting great sucess; I found out the secret of its success

                          

It may have started as a hobby in a friend’s back yard but only four years after formation a company from Wiltshire is now selling a variety of bottled and cask cider and perry to rugby clubs, pubs and music festivals all over the region.

Dave Harrison and Roger Heston, owners of Mates Cider and Perry Company, invited Brendan McFadden to meet them at their farm base near Minety, to find out how they make their successful products.

Roger, 67, explained: “There were four of us at the start. The first year we did it in my back garden and then we expanded it into more of a group activity. We did it for a year, we didn’t sell it but just drunk a lot. It was a bit of fun.”

But after coming fourth in the Hereford International Cider festival & Perry Competition at Hereford museum, the group made the decision to set up a professional business. 

“We decided to enter the festival and came fourth and that was just amazing. We then thought why not do it professionally if people like it,” said Roger, who is a food technologist.

The company produce a variety of cask ciders, such as  Ravens Roost, Jackdaw and Golden Eye as well as Red Leg perry , which comes from Wiltshire and Herefordshire.

Two of their most popular customers are award winning pubs The Red Lion in Cricklade and The Rummer hotel in Bristol, who both picked up accolades in the Great British pub awards recently.

To make the drinks, each summer thousands of apples are picked from orchards in Hereford and Somerset and pears are sourced from Wiltshire and Herefordshire.

They are then transported back to Minety, where they are checked and cleaned, before being put in a hydraulic press, which extracts juice from the fruits using 24-tonnes of pressure.

The juice is then put in large containers and goes through its first fermentation period which can take up to seven weeks, before fermenting for a second phase which can last up to six months.During the second phase lacto and malic acids in the juice combine to give flavour to the juice.

I was there to see the middle of these phases, where  the juice is transferred from one container to another using a pump, leaving a residue of starch and yeast behind. 

Dave,61, explained that this process is vital because the residue can destroy the taste of the cider if it is left for the second phase of fermentation.

He said: “If you left that in it would just taste very bad – you wouldn’t be able to drink it.

“The second of fermentation is the most important and the juice must be monitored carefully to ensure the best results.

David Harrison pumps cider from one vat to the next, watched by business partner Roger Hesten at Mates Cider

 “The softer lactic acid allows the fruit flavours to come out where as the malic masks them.When these two acids are combining we need to keep checking the cider to make sure it does not go off.”

Today 14,000 bottles are produced by the company, most of which are bottled  in Minety with the exception of  Ravens Roost variety, which is bottled in the Forest of Dean.

Although Mates Cider and Perry is already enjoying the taste of success, Dave and Roger vow to continue to make new and interesting ciders.

Roger, said: “We want to make new varieties and be ahead of the game and try and make something different."

 

 

Dave added: “We have to be realistic, we are both in our 60s,we do not have many years left to build an empire. My ambition is to continue what we are doing. We also want to make a single variety cider.”

To find out more and buy the cider and perry visit http://ciderandperry.org.uk/