Help establish Craigans Cider!

We are CRAIGANS CIDER: a small scale craft cider makers based in West Wales - and I am Olly Craigan, scrumper, scratterer, presser and apple enthusiast. Since 2014 we have pressed several batches of (mostly delicious) cider, pressing our apples under the wise guidance and mentoring of John Whitfield at Rous Lench Cider Co., near where I grew up in Worcestershire. Ten years later we live on a burgeoning community organic farm and cohousing project in Pembrokeshire, with an opportunity to set up our own permanent community apple press and cider workshop - but we need help buying the stuff!

Apple pressing and cider making is a community sport and for years we have relied on the generosity of other people like John - using their equipment and sometimes even their orchards! - to enable us to make our own cider, and the equipment is not cheap! Well it’s high time we got our own apple press, giving us long term security of making something we love, and the opportunity to pay back that service and create a functioning space to serve our local community with everything you need for pressing apples and making delicious juice, cider and even vinegar.

To do this we’re asking you to help us get that equipment. A beautiful press has been secured (with a temporary loan), and its gorgeous! An old parisian hydraulic ram press (see video) came up for reluctant sale by a lovely cider maker in Dorset and we couldn’t refuse, but that alone costs £4,500. Some of the other necessary equipment includes: a scratter apple mill (£1500); pump, pipes and filterration (£950); variable capacity stainless tanks (£2500) and bottling equipment (£1000) and ultimately renovating an old cow barn into our desirable workshop (min £2000). In many ways this is just the start, and doesn't include any day-to-day running costs. Any funds exceeding our target will massively help support running future community workshops and education.

Thank you for considering supporting us, we are grateful for any amount of support, even only if you can help by sharing this campaign so it goes a long way.

To say a proper thank you in person we would also like to invite all supporters of Craigans Cider to a day on the farm in late winter grafting apple trees (details TBC) and take away a bottle of cider and an apple tree of your own making. Wassail!