Our Story
Our home here in Bromham and the adjacent 2.5 acre orchard together make up Bromham Cider Farm from which Shed Cider operates.
Our cider apple and perry pear orchard has been grown over the last fifteen years, re-introducing a long lost feature of the Wiltshire countryside. The orchard consists mainly of West Country cider apple cultivars from Somerset and Devon but we were thrilled to find one native Wiltshire apple first recorded in the late 19th century called Roundway Magnum Bonum, just down the road from our orchard.
The Orchard
Our orchard of cider apple and perry pear trees has over 20 different cultivars and is designed to crop from September to December each year when they are all picked, washed, milled, pressed and fermented on site in our cider shed adjacent to the orchard. We have renowned single variety cider cultivars such as Kingston Black, Dabinett , Yarlington Mill, Stoke Red, Tremletts Bitter, Fair Maid of Devon along with other bitter-sweet, bitter sharp, sharp and sweet cider apples. This allows us to make a variety of typical full bodied and flavoursome West Country cider and perry.
The orchard has grown in number and types of cultivars over the last 15 years but has not been without errors on our part and problems that we never envisaged which had to be overcome.
However, with improved orchard management techniques over the years including annual mulching and the introduction of our own apiary, the vigour and the yield of the orchard improves year on year.
Local & Sustainable
We care about the environment and work with nature rather than against it. We don’t use pesticides or fungicides, harvest and store rainwater from the shed roof and the apple pomace (crushed apple left over from pressing) is used to feed local pigs just up the track from us. Making our cider and selling it here at Bromham Cider Farm keeps food miles to a minimum and apart from the use of electricity for the mill, press and pasteurisation, all other features of our cider making process is by hand.
We encourage the use of reusable bags/containers and re-use our own glass bottles and , where practicable, the boxes from our bag in box sales.
Planting the orchard has significantly increased the biodiversity of the area and the addition last year of the wild life pond has attracted more birds including cranes, kingfishers, yellow wagtails and bats who feed and drink at the pond. Newts and dragon flies in abundance!
Cider Making
Our hydraulic oak framed cider press was crafted from a fallen oak at nearby Roundway Hill by local craftsman Charles Bentley. Bentley, our name for the press, enables us to deal with more apples more efficiently whilst using a traditional cider making technique.
For us, aspiring to make the best cider relies upon keeping the microbial count to a minimum from the outset and monitoring/managing the acidity of the juice and cider from fruit selection to final product.
We do not use artificial sweetners, colourings or flavourings and will never use concentrate.
Because we use natural sugars to sweeten our cider we have to pasteurise most of our products which is more complicated and time consuming but, we feel, this results in a better cider drinking experience.
We ferment cider apple juice using natural and/or introduced yeasts to vary the speed of fermentation and to vary the taste of the base cider.
Once fermentation is complete the base cider is matured over winter and spring ready for drinking the following year.
At Shed Cider we make and sell farmhouse cider, bottled sparkling cider, apple juice and cider vinegar. When produced by our bees, honey and cut comb is also available.
We offer customers the opportunity to sample our ciders at our orchard in Bromham. To find out more see Our Cider.
As a member of SWECA (South West of England Cider Association), Shed Cider is bound by their rules for making good quality cider using traditional handcrafted methods whilst keeping within strict legal parameters.
If you like what you read and want to try our cider, why not pay us a visit? Opening times and directions are on our contact us page. We are on site most of the time. Also, head over to our Instagram to get a peak at what we do here at Shed Cider.
We offer group tours / visits to the orchard that explains craft cider making - "Orchard to the Glass" and can include a tour of the orchard, cider shed and equipment and a cider tasting session. Please call or email roger in advance to confirm availability, size of groups and costs. (See contact us page)
We have a premises licence for on and off sales at Bromham Cider Farm and look forward to welcoming you!
Roger