Cider Update

Our ciders are now available in 330ml and 1litre bottles from Origin8 Deli, in St. andrews Street Cambridge.
We are supplying several ciders to the Cambridge Beer Festival (19th-25th May, Jesus Green, Cambridge), including a Festival special, 'Oakey Coakey' conditioned in oak rum casks and made slightly sweeter than our usual ciders. Enjoy!!

Yarlington Mill cider now being delivered to our usual outlets and Hereford Chisel Jersey also to be found on draft around town.

With the warmer weather we are looking forward to a great summer for our award winning ciders.

Red Lion Histon

The Red Lion at Histon held abeer festival over the Easter weekend including Cassels Stock cider, medium dry version and the good news is that they still have a few pints left on draught.

Check out the new extension and enjoy a good pint of cider or the great ales on offer there.

Cassels at Beer Festivals this Weekend 1st March

Cassels Fine ciders will be available at two local Festivals this coming weekend (1st March 2008).
The Camra 6th Elysian Beer Festival takes place Friday 29th February and Saturday 1st March at the Larkfield Resource Centre on High Barns, Ely CB7 9DD.

At the same time a second opportunity to taste Cassels cider is available at the Cambridge Rag 2008 Charity Beer Festival at the University Assistants Club on Mill Lane. Dates are also 29th February and 1st March. The Festival is raising money for the Cambridge Council for Voluntary Services which allocates funds to local Voluntry groups.

Website Update and More

We are in the process of updating the whole website since our move to new premises, (see last Blog) and while some pages are fully updated we await photo's and stuff to complete.

Since our move in Autumn 2006 we have upgraded our pressing and processing to allow us to be more efficient in both time and juice extraction. With larger premises we have the luxury of additional space that was always a problem at Stapleford. We can now do all our pressing and cider making inside the barn rather than suffer in the elements during the pressing period.

The new barn also gives us more opportunity to make additional single variety ciders and we have again expanded this side of our business. Available now in selected outlets is Dymock Red Single Variety and coming soon is a fine dry cider made from Browns Apple, this has been stored in oak for a year and the cider is a very pale colour, with full apple flavors.

We have invested in additional equipment over the past year including new fermenting vessels, an additional pump and a pressure washer. All these help to make our cider production more efficient and allow us to maintain quality, while introducing additional ciders to our customers.

Look out for our new 330ml bottles in off licences around Cambridge.

Cassels Moves to Harston

Autumn 2006 was a very hectic period. We wanted to expand our facilities and decided to relocate to new premises at Harston, just outside Cambridge. We chose to move in September before the apple harvest started and when our stock levels were at their lowest. With help from friends and family we duly loaded and transported everything from the Stapleford barn to the new barn in Harston. Despite various incidents the move was successfully completed over a weekend, in time for the first apple pickings to take place.

A big thank you to all involved, especially Pete 'dances with cider' Twitchett!

Stop Press! The Press Has Stopped!

We've finally finished our 2006 apple pressing and despite the hard graft we had fun and have hopefully made some fine ciders for next year. We have pressed some single varieties that look very promising and they are all bubbling away.

Our thanks to Pete, Mike, Grassy and above all Jerry for their help and sweat during the last 6 weeks. Thanks too, to our technocrat Simon, who runs the website, takes publicity photos and fixes cars.

We used a local supply of Stoke Red and Dabinett to make anamed blend early in the pressing plus a few gallons of Bulmers Norman apple, don't know how we can market that! Maybe a fancy bottle and high price! We also made some single variety Dabinett, always areliable cider apple that will augment our Stock cider through 2007.

Other single varieties will be Yarlington Mill and Browns apple. Our Stock cider used local cookers and eaters plus Michelin, Court Royal, Dabinett and Stoke Red in the blend and looks to be a fine dry cider.

We had our last keg of 2005 Yarlington Mill at the recent Live and Let Live Beer Festival and some may still be available.

Let the Pressing Begin..!

Cassels 2006 Vintage is in the process of being created!

This week sees the start of the pressing for the Cassels 2006 vintage. This year we're using locally-sourced cider apples plus more from the Hereford area. The varieties include: Yarlington, Browns Apple, Dabinett, Michelin, Bulmers Norman, Stoke Red and Court Royal.

In other news, our fine cider will be available at the 29th Norwich Beer Festival, organised by the Norwich & Norfolk Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) The festival is held at St. Andrew's and Blackfriars' Halls, from Monday 23rd October to the following Saturday (28th).

We will also be at the Cambridge Botanic Garden Apple day on Sunday 22nd with our award winning Yarlington Mill plus our Stock cider and selling a special winter warmer, Mulled Cider.

Cassels at Histon Beer Festival

The Red Lion in Histon is currently enjoying its 10th autumn Beer Festival, and three Cassels Cider have been available through out:

Cassels Knotted Kernal (7.0%+)
Cassels Naturally Dry (7.0%)
Cassels Medium Sweet (7.0%)

This year will also feature about 30 award winning cask ales along with a choice of Belgian and German bottled beers. Each evening will offer different food options and live music of varying styles.

The Histon Beer Festival runs until Friday 8th September and is open 12.00 - 3.00pm and 5.00 - 11.00pm.

This year will see the total of charitable donations from the proceeds pass the £30,000 mark.

Started in 1996 by landlord Mark Donachy, the festival contributes to the funds of the Histon Feast Committee that supports nominated local organisations. It has also been a significant contributor to the project to regenerate the brook and the green in the village.

Mark Donachy commented "What started as a bit of fun has become a permanent feature of the village calendar and it is good to see that we have been able to contribute to village life with the proceeds of the festival."

Photos to follow...