Meet… The Collaborators!

by Susanna Forbes January 29, 2022

Forget The Avengers, we have The Collaborators, a super limited trio from our recent, exciting collaborative projects.

We are lucky to meet and sometimes wind up working with some amazing people, such is the wonderful world of cider and the even wider world of fermentation.

Felix Nash of the Fine Cider Company is one of those people. He has built an enviable reputation as the leading distributor of fine ciders from his base in East London and we’ve been working together since our first ever release in 2017.

The Epergne-Russet 2020 was the result of a blending session we did together that resulted in liquids from five different barrels being brought together into a complex, thrilling, insanely aromatic and fruit-laden cider that works beautifully by itself but also with food.

North of the border, another visionary, Grant Hutchison, owner of the cider distribution company re:stalk and Fife-based cider shop Aeble (pronounced “o bla di o bla dah “I believe) was keen to make something together. His dream cider would be a super intense, jangly pét nat, especially one that had been nowhere near a bourbon barrel. What did we end up with? A brilliant, gloriously jangly pét nat, that had spent about a year in a bourbon barrel! Called First Waltz.

The final drink in this collaboration bonanza was born from the mutual love of carbonic maceration we share with the insanely talented team from Pastore, a mixed fermentation, wild brewery based in Cambridgeshire. Armed with her keenly astute palate, our fellow collaborator, the Burum Collective's Helen Anne Smith, headed to the brewery. From the many casks we selected one to be refermented on a heap of foraged, carbonically macerated plums. This bottle conditioned beer, La Susina – Italian for plum – is the very concentrated essence of plum, wild, sour and absolutely delicious.

We have put these together in a special price for those buying all three, but you can of course buy singly too.

And Cider Club members should check out their Club page for the Club Collaborators Pack.