Our Story
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Years in Business
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Varieties of apples
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Different Ciders
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Awards
Wise Owl Cider is a family run business based in the heart of the Kent countryside making award winning artisan craft cider.
It all started with Richard Wise who with over 20 years’ experience in the fruit industry produced his first batch of cider in 2012. He along with his wife Paula then went on to have their first batch of cider bottled in June 2014. After many years of making their craft cider along with winning many awards Richard and Paula decided to retire at the end of 2021.
With the prospect of Wise Owl Cider being closed for good, Martin Moss and his family couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the reins and keep the doors open.
With Martin’s mother owning and running her own public house and his stepfather owning and running his own microbrewery, Wise Owl Cider made a great fit in the family that has many years’ experience, within the industry.
The secret to Wise Owl Cider creating its award-winning line up is using a blend of 8 different varieties of apples all grown and harvested locally. These are then milled and pressed in house and left to naturally ferment before it is ready for bottle, pouch or can. Due to this process all ciders are vegan friendly and gluten free. No water is ever added to the mix either, making it 100% Kent apple or pear juice.
Still ciders are available in pouches and bag in a box, while lightly sparkling ciders are available by the bottle.
Wise Owl’s well-loved core ciders are still being produced along with the increasing range of flavours. We are bringing back old favourites such as mango and cherry and along with the 2022 flavours of blood orange and blueberry, there will be new seasonal flavours to be introduced in the coming years.
How Wise Owl Cider is made
LOCAL FRUIT WITHIN 5 MILES
The apples and pears that we use for our ciders are all grown locally to us – Most within 5 miles.
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PICKED BY HAND & MACHINE
A lot of the fruit we use is picked by hand when ripe. Some are harvested by tractor mounted tree shakers, air blowers & mechanical brushes.
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TRANSPORTED & SORTED
The fruit is then loaded into bulk bins for transport. It’s placed on the sorting table & is sorted by hand to take out any rotten /unusable fruit.
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WASHED & MILLED
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PRESSED & SQUEEZED
It is then hydraulically pressed using a rack & cloth press giving 24 tonnes of pressure to squeeze the juice out of the cloths.
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STERILISED
The juice is then pumped into sterilised fermentation tanks. Fermentation usually starts within a few days depending on temperature.
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FERMENTATION
Naturally occurring or cultured yeasts then convert the fruit sugar into alcohol.
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STERILISED
Once fermentation has finished (2-3 months) the cider is then racked (pumped) into second sterilised tank for maturation.
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BOTTLED
After 6-8 months, the cider is then ready for bottling/kegging or second racking into bulk store tanks.
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READY TO DRINK
Our Wise Owl Cider is now ready to drink! Buy some online, visit the shop!
WE’RE ROSY WITH PRIDE
We are very proud of our product’s achievements and endorsements and so happy that you all enjoy our Cider so much. Here are some of the awards that Wise Owl have won over the years.
