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Ross-tober-fest at the Yew Tree Inn
Events
Annual Events at Broome Farm and the Yew Tree Inn
Ciderganza
A spring cider festival at The Yew Tree Inn.
Friday 29th March – Sunday 31st March 2024
A festival celebrating all things cider, with 20 draught ciders and 60 bottled ciders available as well as daily cider tastings. Live music every day. Tasty wood-fired food from Firebird Kitchen.
Blossom Walk
A charity fundraising blossom walk around the Broome Farm orchards.
Saturday 4th May 2024
In 2019, Becky and Albert walked every single row of the farm, up and down each of them took a grand total of 20 miles! For our charity blossom walk, you will be able to choose different routes to walk the farm orchards of varying length, with cider and cream teas to keep you fuelled up and enjoying the day!
Summertime Soirée
A weekend drinks festival at The Yew Tree Inn.
Friday 24th May – Sunday 26th May 2024
After a fantastic two years, the Yew Tree is holding another summer drinks festival in 2024. Featuring live music, drinks tastings and food from Firebird Kitchen. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back again.
Peterstow Village Fete
An annual fete celebrating the local community at The Yew Tree Inn.
Saturday 20th July 2024
The annual Peterstow Village Fete with burgers, ice cream, bric-a-brac, and cakes! A lovely day out for the whole family.
Cider Challenge
A charity cider competition and festival at The Yew Tree Inn.
Saturday 27th July 2024
A draught cider competition that is open to all and featuring peer-judging with complete transparency. Entries take the form of donations of cider which are available for you to drink over the weekend. All the profits from the cider competition bar are donated to a charity of our choice.
Ross Cider Festival
A summer cider festival at Broome Farm.
Friday 30th August – Sunday 1st September 2024.
The highlight of our calendar! Three days of all-things cider as well as live music in the barn and street food, with camping in the orchards.
Ross-tober-fest
An Octoberfest event held at The Yew Tree Inn.
Friday 4th October – Sunday 6th October 2024
Featuring every offical Octoberfest brewery, as well as a host of European and British beers from the top breweries around, with live music and food from Firebird Kitchen!
As well as our major festivals, we also hold monthly events at The Yew Tree Inn, such as our Cider Club and Pub Quiz. Keep an eye our social media for upcoming events!
Yew Tree Summertime Soirée
SUMMERTIME Soirée AT THE YEW TREE INN
Friday 24th May – Sunday 26th May 2024
A weekend drinks festival in our large pub garden, featuring a variety of cider and other drinks tastings (details TBC), live music and amazing wood-fired food from Firebird Kitchen.
Last year we had 24 beers and ciders available, and ran ticketed rum and champagne tastings.
Free entry for the whole weekend except the ticketed drinks tastings.
Camping and Caravanning is available for the weekend on Broome Farm or at the Yew Tree Inn. Click here to book.
Summertime
The Summertime Beer Party
3rd to the 6th of June, at the Yew Tree Inn, Peterstow, along the a49.
A weekend with other 24 beers and ciders on tap plus guided beer and cider tastings, live music, pizza, and a pop-up Jubilee tea room.
What’s on?
Thursday to Sunday, from the 3rd of June to the 6th, The Yew Tree Inn will host it’s Summertime Beer Party. A beer and cider festival over Jubilee weekend, featuring live music, beer and cider tastings, a pop-jubilee tea room, neopolitan pizza, and a community afternoon tea and picnic.
Keith Christmas, live on the 3rd of June
The Lighter Thieves, live on the 4th of June
Tony Hopkins and the Strangers, live on the 5th of June
Tastings
We will be running one tasting each day, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets are available for each tasting here.
Thursday, 3rd of June: ‘Beer Club’, our first ever beer club following on from the success of our monthly Cider Club. Pete Tiley, of Tiley’s Brewery will lead a guided beer tasting of his beers, as well as talking about the story of his fantastic brewery, and his own experiences with beer. Followed by a cheese and bread buffet.
Friday, 4th of June: ‘Cider Club’, a cider tasting led by Albert Johnson, exploring 3 of our own yet unrealeased ciders as well as a few others. Followed by a cheese and bread buffet.
Saturday, 5th of June: ‘An exploration of British Empire through Beer’. A jubilee themed beer tasting, where Ben Thompson will explore the history of British Empire through a tasting of key beer styles shaped by Britains history, each matched to a food that suits and compliments the history, and taste of the beer.
BCS
The Single Variety Tasting Box! from Bristol Cider Shop and Ross on Wye Cider & Perry
Welcome to the Tasting Guide!
How Did we Get here?
Ross on Wye Cider & Perry is a family run cider farm. We have been lucky enough to be on the farm since 1930, and whilst sadly the last tree dated to before then fell down Christmas 2020, the history and heritage of our farm and of our area has always included apple trees and cider.
Two of the varieties in your box, the Bulmers Norman and Tremletts Bitter ciders, are grown from trees in ‘The Old Orchard’. This is the orchard that was here when we arrived in 1930, and at that time it featured a range of different eating varieties and local varieties. In 1934 several trees were added, though without the intention to focus on making cider as a serious venture. The focus of the farm for the next several decades was on traditional mixed agriculture and livestock, with sheep, cattle, horses, potatoes, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries and more all being part of the farm at different times.
Today the oldest trees in this orchard are the Bulmers Norman and Tremletts Bitter trees, planted sometime in the 1960s. Unfortunately Honey fungus grow in this orchard which shortens the lifespan of our trees, as well as in the last two decades, the prevalence of mistletoe all across Herefordshire and our village makes it more of a threat to the trees.
In 1978 the first orchard was planted under contract with H. P. Bulmer, aka Bulmers, which is just out of shot on the map below. A two acre orchard of Dabinett & Bisquet. It was an experiment to begin transitioning the farm into a more reliable form of income – Bulmers guaranteed to buy the apple crop for the period of 20 years, and helped you establish the orchard.
Herefordshire is an ideal place to grow cider apples, and Ross on Wye in particular is in a very good spot. Our climate is mild, as we are shielded by the Malvern Hills, the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains from extreme weather. Our drainage is very strong with sandstone forming the basis of our soils. Our trees therefore – usually – get good chill hours in the winter, comfortable growing conditions with not too many late frosts which can destroy blossom, and usually we are ok in the harvest window. In recent years of course this has all been thrown up in the air – our weather, like everywhere, is now significantly more variable and there have been challenges to our fruit quality and harvest as a consequence.
Back in time though, and everything had started well – so in 1984 we added the ‘Gameoolands’ (a slang for ‘wet lands’, as there is a marsh in the wooded area below it on the map), an 8 acre orchard again of Dabinett & Bisquet. It is in this orchard, from early ripening Bisquet, that the apples came from in your bottle.
Between then and 2001 we kept adding more orchards to sell the fruit to Bulmers. A quirk of planting an orchard is that you sometimes end up with a few too many trees, and so Mike used these overflow trees to start planting an orchard for our own use, which is the ‘Strawberry Field Orchard’ on the map – you guessed it, this is where the strawberries used to be grown.
Strawberry Field became a hodgepodge of overflow trees from the surrounding orchards, and more unusual varieties that Mike wanted to plant out of his own interest in growing and seeing different apples. Thus it was that we ended up as one of the few cidermakers to have one row of Ashton Brown Jersey, and two rows of Reinette d’Obry, neither variety being grown widely commercially.
How is it made?
We make the cider today in a very similar way to the early years of Kenelm and Mike. The objective remains the same. To make delicious, clean, expressive and individual cider with the minimum necessary intervention.
The cidermaking cycle goes as follows.
We prune the trees in the winter, by hand, using long polesaws. We try to visit each tree at least once every three years, though as we’re a small team sometimes we miss our goal!
The trees, if they are happy and healthy, will blossom in the spring – with pears it is usually late March and into April, with apples it is generally late April and into May. A warmer, dryer spring is ideal for the blossom. Good temperatures encourage the most insect activity which pollinates the trees, and dry conditions prevent fungal or bacterial diseases damaging the blossom or leaves.
Then we hope for a good summer – ideal conditions are moderate, preferring more sunshine to less. You of course need rain for the apples to grow, and sunshine for sugar to develop. The more sunshine the more sugar, which means the more alcohol, which often means more flavour. As a producer though there is a tradeoff with how much alcohol is too much. In 2018 we had such a good summer that the typical ABV of all our ciders was 7.5% – not exactly session strength! As the climate changes and we seem to be getting hotter and hotter summers, the trend for average alcohol in our ciders is definitely going up.
Harvest runs from the beginning of September all the way through until the end of November, and some years even deep into December. Each variety has a different window of ripeness, so we move through all the apples as the weeks go by.
We no longer sell our apples to Bulmers, so all the fruit we grow is our responsibility to make good use of! We let the apples fall to the floor, as they will continue to ripen in the grass, and then harvest them by machine. The apples are then washed and hand-sorted, which is both the most time consuming part and also the most critical, and then ‘scratted’ to turn them into a pomace, and then pressed.
The juice goes into barrels – a mixture of oak and plastic – and we add the minimum necessary sulphite to ensure we avoid a bacterial infection in the fermentation. It is a small enough addition that the wild yeast that are native to our orchards and our cider barn are still healthy enough to ferment the cider. This spontaneous ferment gives our cider unique character – the yeast strains are the ones happy in our environment, if you fermented wild in someone elses barn, you’d have different yeast. With that said, the yeast is only one factor of the flavour of the final cider, by far the most important is the apple variety.
Fermentation time can vary hugely on different varieties, from three weeks in some cases to as long as six months. Even after fermentation is complete however, the cider will continue to evolve and develop. There is so much going on in the cider in the months that follow that improves the flavour, as the tannins soften, the acidity mellows and the juiciness can become more expressive. The average time it takes for a cider to go from being pressed to being put on the shelf is around 12 months, but it can be even longer when we feel its the right decision.
When we feel a cider is ready, we will bottle it. Our favourite style is bottle conditioning – this is when a cider goes into bottle with about 5g per litre of plain sugar with it. That sugar will ferment in the bottle to give us a natural fizz – but only a little one. Bottle conditioning is about creating a platform for the cider to shine on – we want the taste to be kept fresh and alive by the in bottle fermentation, but the focus should be on the delicate flavours of the individual varieties, rather than being overwhelmed by bubbles!
The Assembled Six!
Drink from left to right! And have some fun, and nerd out!
If you can, open them all at once. Try a small glass from each bottle individually. They are listed here in order of lowering acidity and greater tannin. Drinking them in this order should help you appreciate the changing individual flavours, as the intensity grows with each drink.
Once you’ve tried them all, have a taste of the blend – can you pick it apart and spot the individual varieties coming together? What are your tasting notes for the mix of them?
I would love it if you would head to https://ourpomona.org/ and share your tasting notes. It’s a people powered database we’re trying to build of tasting notes for different varieties. There is no wrong answer!
Ideally you would be drinking these with some protein – like cheese – which will help unbind the tannins from your tongue, letting you taste each cider ‘as fresh’ as you go through, to get the full intensity of flavour.
Happy tasting!
VARIETY | Reinette d'Obry |
---|---|
ORCHARD | Strawberry Field |
PRESSING DATE | 5 November 2020 |
BOTTLING DATE | 6 February 2022 |
ABV | 6.8% |
APPEARANCE | Banana yellow |
AROMA | Tropical fruit, floral |
TASTE | Pineapple, Melon, Lemon zest, |
VARIETY | Bisquet |
---|---|
ORCHARD | Gameoolands |
PRESSING DATE | 26 September 2020 |
BOTTLING DATE | 6 February 2022 |
ABV | 6.3% |
APPEARANCE | Bronze |
AROMA | Cut grass, honey, ripe apple |
TASTE | Green fruit, lime, hay, round tannins |
VARIETY | Bulmers Norman |
---|---|
ORCHARD | The Old Orchard |
PRESSING DATE | 20 October 2020 |
BOTTLING DATE | 7 February 2022 |
ABV | 7.4% |
APPEARANCE | Amber |
AROMA | Fresh apples |
TASTE | Low acidity, ripe fruit, tannic |
VARIETY | Tremletts Bitter |
---|---|
ORCHARD | The Old Orchard |
PRESSING DATE | 7 October 2019 |
BOTTLING DATE | 9 February 2022 |
ABV | 6.5% |
APPEARANCE | Amber |
AROMA | Red fruit, cranberry |
TASTE | Fruity mid palate, petrichor, tannins |
VARIETY | Ashton Brown Jersey |
---|---|
ORCHARD | Strawberry Field |
PRESSING DATE | 13 November 2020 |
BOTTLING DATE | 8 February 2022 |
ABV | 7.2% |
APPEARANCE | Amber |
AROMA | Fleshy orange, tropical fruit |
TASTE | Leathery tannin, cloves, spice |
VARIETY | Bristol Cider Shop Blend |
---|---|
ORCHARD | All of them! |
PRESSING DATE | Various |
BOTTLING DATE | 9 February 2022 |
ABV | 6.8% |
APPEARANCE | ??? |
AROMA | ??? |
TASTE | ??? |
Ciderganza
Ciderganza at the yew tree inn
Friday 29th March – Sunday 31st March 2024
A cider festival over the Easter weekend in our renovated pub and large pub garden, featuring over 20 draught ciders and 60 bottled ciders.
Guided cider tastings will be led by fourth generation cidermaker and farmer Albert Johnson at 3pm on Friday, 2pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. These tastings will be held in our beautiful Event Room with stunning wall mural of cidermaking through the seasons on Broome Farm. Tickets are available here.
Firebird Kitchen will be serving wood-fired pizzas (core menu plus Ciderganza specials) on Friday 5-9pm and Saturday 12-9pm, with a special menu on Sunday afternoon (12-3pm).
Live music every day:
Friday 9pm – Will Killeen.
Saturday 4pm – Mansel Davies.
Saturday 9pm – Whisky River Duo.
Sunday 4pm – Gordy’s Ridge.
Free entry for the whole weekend except the ticketed cider tastings.
Camping and Caravanning is available for the weekend on Broome Farm or at the Yew Tree Inn. Click here to book.
New Releases
Ross-on-Wye’s Festival Releases 2023
Pre-order now ready to launch/begin selling on August 31st. We can send stock to you in advance but ideally you would start selling it on August 31st.
Raison d’Être 2021 – 8.4% – £28.50+VAT
The first vintage of Raison d’Être to be feature cask fermentation in Irish barrels as opposed to Scottish, the 2021 Raison is defined by big, intense apple flavour, concentrated orange, and is at the beginning of a long journey where the flavour will continue to grow, develop and evolve.
We have decided to return to the original Raison d’Être labelling – a front and back label on artisan paper, with the year anointed in gold foil, and each bottle hand-numbered by Becky.
Shall we take a walk through time? – 6.6% – £28.50+VAT
Perhaps the most sophisticated and refined cider we have ever made – a very delicate blend of 2017 Foxwhelp, 2019 Ashton Bitter and 2021 Somerset Redstreak, fermented together in bottle to create a natural sparkle. With artwork by Albert and Martin’s grandma, a full-wrap label on artisan paper.
Foxwhelp s.v. cider ‘c1 2022’ – 6.0% – £27.00+VAT
A remarkable Foxwhelp – the OG on this pressing started at 1.068, meaning this is made from apples with about 30% more sugar than in a typical year. That extra sugar is all packed into this cider as flavour. Just a remarkable expression.
2022 handsome norman cider – 7.4% – £27.00+VAT
Named for Albert and Becky’s dog, Handsome Norman is a fruit-forward blend of varieties. Just bursting with freshness, this one is a crowd-pleaser, and an amazing showcase for just how fruity, easy and tasty dry cider should be.
2021 yarlington mill s.v. cider – 6.2% – £27.00+VAT
Yarlington Mill at its very best after two years of maturation and patience. Delicious.
2020 – flakey bark s.v. perry – 7.7% – £28.50+VAT 6x75cl
The iconic variety – more tannin than any other pear, more patience required than any other pear, fewer trees than (almost) any pear!
2022 – green horse s.v. perry – 6.7% – £28.50+VAT 6x75cl
The final vintage of our tree, as our Green Horse trees have been pollarded now, so this is a precious perry for us!
Everyone Welcome
The Everyone Welcome Initiative
- The Ross Cider Festival will not accept any form of discrimination on any grounds including, but not limited to, gender, sexuality, race, religion or belief, social class, health, age or disability
- Ross on Wye Cider & Perry will exclude people who discriminate against anyone else attending the festival on any grounds
- Customers engaging in conversations that involve derogatory comments or words and phrases that we feel are discriminatory, or that make our other clientele or staff uncomfortable, will be warned once, if it continues you will be asked to leave
- We will not stock products with sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or any other discriminatory branding
- We will always seek to protect our customers/visitors in the event of any form of discrimination or concern for safety; if you feel unsafe at any point please say ask any volunteer to see “Angela”, and our volunteers will immediately move you to a safe area and ensure your well-being
- Any and all discriminatory comments made to the staff/volunteers in this venue will result in immediate removal from the site and a possible life ban
- We seek to make the cider festival as accessible as possible, if you identify anything that we could improve, please know that your input is welcome and we will do our best to act on it – you can email us at events@rosscider.com
- If you feel our staff/volunteers haven’t met your concerns with sufficient urgency, please let Albert Johnson know immediately in person or email events@rosscider.com