The future of traditional English cider is safe thanks to dedicated small producers like Allen Hogan, writes Richard McComb.
The secret of great cider, according to Allen Hogan, is using only 100 per cent fresh-pressed English apples.
Allen has turned a 20-year hobby into a modern-day business by harnessing traditional methods from a headquarters in Haselor, near Alcester.
And the quality of the undiluted juice makes all the difference, he said.
“You can legally make cider with only 25 per cent apple juice.
“If you do that and you artificially flavour and colour it you will come up with quite a different product.”
He is being kind. For “quite a different product” read joyless and bland.
Hogan’s Cider has only been running for six years but has already amassed a clutch of awards and a loyal following.
The birth and development of the company coincided with the increased popularity of cider and a demand for fuller flavoured, heritage-style blends packing subtlety and measured potency.
“I would describe our cider as a more earthy, traditional flavour with more complexity than a mainstream product,” said Allen.
A 4.5 per cent abv draught cider is made for the pub trade and more potent varieties are made for sale in bottles.
Hogan’s medium cider is 5.4 per cent abv and Hogan’s dry cider is 5.8 per cent.
There is also a vintage perry (5.4 per cent).
All the drinks are unmistakably artisan is style. You taste the apples before you get the warming, gentle kick (more of an enveloping feeling, really) of the alcohol.
The cider is made at Castlemorton, near Malvern, and draws on fruit generally produced within a tight radius, taking in orchards in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
Only pure cider apple varieties are used, such as Yarlington Mill and Dabinett, and Allen is always keen to sniff out crops from older orchards.
Despite the stresses of running a small business in a highly competitive market, Allen, aged 56, said he would not trade his job for his old “low-flying career” in the IT industry.
“It is extraordinarily rewarding picking the apples in an area where they have been grown for centuries, then pressing the juice, blending and turning it into cider and selling it,” he said.
Hogan’s made its first shipment of keg cider to the US last year and scooped a clutch of awards at America’s leading cider and perry competition, the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition.
Production has now soared from 12,000 pints in the first year to 500,000 pints.
“It’s been a big jump in a relatively short period of time,” said Allen.
But there is no resting on laurels. There are plans to produce an apple vodka and a bottled spiced cider is being worked on for Christmas, making an ideal winter warmer.
