Founded in 2021 by Will Harris and James Horrocks, Balance Brewing are the only brewery in Manchester who focus exclusively on producing mixed culture barrel fermented drinks, aged in oak barrels.

Theres nothing quick about the processes employed by Will and James, with each beer spending at least 6 months in barrel, sometimes longer, before blending onto dry hops, fruit and other foraged ingredients. Everything that they use in creating their drinks is sourced from the UK, something that’s really important to them, either sourced directly from the producers or bought from local cooperative wholesalers, and where possible picked by their own fair hands.

The Balance Brewing range of drinks is impressive and wonderfully experimental. There’s a house Saison, beers blended with raspberries or blackberries, beers infused with elderflower or fresh pine tips, there’s even a Greengage Wild Ale.

Given that this is Cider Review and not Beer Review, you might be wondering what I’m doing writing about Balance Brewing.

Well, in 2024 Will and James added cider making to their list of drinks, buying 1200l of juice from North Down Farm in Somerset. After a wild fermentation and spending a period of time in ex Islay Whisky Casks, they’ve released two exceptional single variety ciders, a Yarlington Mill and a Chisel Jersey.

I’ll talk about the two ciders in a bit but before I do, earlier in February 2025, I had the chance to catch up with Will to find out more about their new adventures in cider and what the future might hold for the Balance Brewing Cider project.

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Cider Review: Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions Will. Really good of you. I’m curious to know what made you decide / want to diversity into the world of Cider?

Will Harris: I’ve always been into cider as well as beer. Cask beer and still cider were very much side by side when I was exploring the world of fermented alcoholic beverages and the diversity of flavours has always really excited me. I really enjoy the complexity, nuance and the sense of place you can get from ciders, especially the differences from year to year and the effects of weather conditions and fermentation differences in naturally fermented traditional ciders and perries. At Balance we specialise in wild fermentation and we want to continue to explore as much as we can – cider was something that really differs from beer in some aspects and we wanted to experiment with a less familiar fermentation process and really put our own stamp on the cider that we create.

CR: So how did you go about selecting your juices? Did you have set criteria for it? Was your juice selection based on the type of cider you wanted to make?

WH: The first two varietal juices that we chose were based on what we’ve enjoyed in the past. We know that Yarlington Mill and Chisel Jersey are varieties that have distinct characteristics and we wanted to explore these first hand. Our criteria generally are – what do we like the sound of and what would be interesting to experiment with? We’re choosing to do single variety fermentations so that we can begin to understand the varieties and learn from them to create better ciders as we evolve. Firstly, we wanted to create drier, more champagne like ciders and once we’re more familiar there are plans to play around with multiple rackings, keeving and more.

CR: Yarlington Mill can produce a really lovely complex drink with wonderful rich notes of orange and spicy tannins. It can make a really bold cider. Was this something you were looking to create and was it in any way influential in settling on using this variety? All part of the plan so to speak?

WH: Yarlington Mill is one of my favourite varieties to drink because of its complexity and really wide-ranging flavour profile, which brings a roundness to the final cider, whether it’s dry or sweet and everything in between. Differing levels of sweetness just seem to amplify certain aspects of the variety wonderfully! Bold and assertive flavours also present a challenge in terms of ensuring a well-rounded final product so having this as a challenge is really rewarding when the final cider actually fits with what you first imagined.

CR: What about the Chisel Jersey? What made you select this variety to work with? It’s another full-bodied bittersweet, with fairly astringent tannin.

WH: The tannin in this variety is superb, I’ve had some face meltingly dry, tannic ciders made with Chisel Jersey, but as with Yarlington Mill, this variety maintains its fruit character anywhere from dry to sweet in the final product. There’s peachy delicacy, floral notes and some tropical and pineapple character which really set this variety apart for me. It really worked well in barrel as well, cutting some of the astringency and amplifying that fruit character.

CR: This is fascinating stuff. Thanks, Will. Can we talk barrels? Why the Islay casks? They’ve worked incredibly well here and really add to the complexity of the two ciders but it’s a bold choice for a first-time foray into cider making.

WH: Both of the varieties we’ve used are bold and assertive and complementing/contrasting these characters can have a synergistic effect, melding, transforming and highlighting flavours from the apple and from the barrel used. When we think bold whisky, we think Islay. Integrating this character with that of the base cider was a challenge but we monitored the extraction in the barrels up to the point we wanted to move the ciders into package. Relatively short contact time gave superb, heady aromatics, allowing the varietal character to become integrated with the whisky character, such that the whisky doesn’t dominate throughout the experience of drinking.

We weren’t looking to tame the wildness, we really wanted to bring harmony and, you guessed it, balance. Balance exists along the spectrum, from subtlety to bombastic boldness, being able to ensure all of the flavours are represented and brought together to make something greater than the sum of its part is a continuous learning process for us and one that we dive into feet first every time.

CR: Is cider making something that you see as a becoming a bigger part of the Balance Brewing Portfolio?

WH: Absolutely, for now we’ll be continuing to buy single variety juice in and ferment/process it in house so that we can understand it better and eventually, who knows, we may be able to plant the Balance orchard…

CR: An orchard? That really would be quite something! Now, you’ve obviously got a direct route to market via your tap room, how’s the cider gone down with your regulars? (Hopefully quite well given that you’re now playing host to Manchester Cider Club).

WH: Both of the ciders have gone down really well in the taproom and beyond. We’ve had multiple people that don’t like cider or Islay whisky say that they really enjoy our Islay aged cider which has been quite funny. Our regulars are very much in the game of wild, weird and wonderful flavours so they’ve taken to it like ducks to water and yeah, Manchester Cider Club have set up home here for their monthly meets and there are some discerning palates for sure. Thankfully it’s been thumbs up all round.

CR: What are you looking forward to making this year? Any new styles or varieties of fruit to work with?

WH: This year on the cider front we’ve got Dabinett, a quintessential variety that we’ve fermented down to complete dryness. The challenge and fun bit is now trying to make sure that we create something from it that highlights the apple character without being too overly astringent – this will happen in the form of barrel ageing, fruiting, blending and more. It’s an exciting prospect.

On the beer front, we’ve been working with grapes, both must and pomace, to create beer/wine hybrids which has been very exciting. As ever, foraging will be playing a part in our releases this year including a project with Salford University Graphic Design course which is inspired by the ancient folklore and herbalism of the UK.

And to really tantalise, I’ll just list a few ingredients that we’ve got going into beers and ciders this year: beetroot, chillis, gooseberries, sea buckthorn, nettles, rosemary, quince and more!

CR: Finally, what’s next for the Balance Brewing Cider project? Will you continue down the route of aging in Islay barrels or will the next offering be something completely different? Possibly a beer and cider co ferment?

WH: We’ll still have the Islay barrel aged ciders as part of lineup but we’ll also be releasing some wine and other whisky barrel aged ciders too, as well as using fruit, foraged herbs and more. We do have a beer/cider co-ferment in the works too. There’s so much scope it’s tricky to pick what’s next but what we can say is that it’ll be an interesting take on cider through our unique lens.

CR: Thanks Will, I really appreciate your time here.

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So, now for the moment you’ve been waiting for, lets dive into the two ciders (if you’re interested in trying one of the cider’s you can pick up a bottle of the Chisel Jersey SVC from the Balance Brewing webshop at £17.50 a bottle).

Balance Brewing, Yarlington Mill – Islay Barrel Aged Cider

This is the first release from the Balance Brewing cider project, wild fermented and aged for three months in an Islay whisky cask before bottling with champagne yeast. Intense peat smoke and heady calvados aromas lead into bone dry funk. Refreshing, crisp acidity, notes of straw, vanilla and marmalade all have their moment before a dry finish with moreish, woody tannins.

How I served: Cellar temperature (12-14 degrees).

Appearance: Clear, Deep Gold / Amber, very lightly sparkling.

On the nose: Smoke, wood, hints of orange peel, dried fruit and orange peel. You can tell exactly what this cider has been aged in.

In the mouth: This cider is bone dry but still very juicy. First sip and there’s the Islay barrel – heady with smoke. It’s big and bold. After a while the barrel character gives way to subtle hints of vanilla, leather, rich brown sugar and hints of cloves and all spice. It’s rounded off by a long lingering smoky, tannic finish.

In a nutshell: This is a complex, full bodied dry cider and it’s superb. The guys at Balance Brewing have really nailed it with the blend of barrel and cider. Any longer and the barrel would have started to dominate.

I’d recommend taking your time with this, allow it to warm through so you get the full experience of the flavours in this incredible drink. It’s probably worth saying that the cider inside the bottle is still quite young and it’d be interesting to come back to this bottle in 18 months’ time (stock allowing) to see how its aged. 

Balance Brewing, Chisel Jersey – Islay Barrel Aged Cider

The second release from the Balance Brewing cider project. Once again this is a wild ferment that’s been aged for three months in Islay whisky casks before bottling with champagne yeast. 

How I served: Cellar temperature (12-14 degrees).

Appearance: Clear, golden straw, very lightly sparkling.

On the nose: once again, it’s all about the barrel but it’s not as intense as the Yarlington Mill which allows more delicate floral notes, citrus and dried apricot to shine through.

In the mouth: Another dry but juicy cider. There’s the instant hit of peat smoke followed by dried apricots and a touch of vanilla. The bottle label suggests notes of pineapple and as the cider warms up it’s there, but only ever so slightly – the barrel character keeps it under wraps. Fairly low acid with a long tannic finish.

In a nutshell: The Chisel Jersey Cider feels lighter than the Yarlington Mill. It’s still a very bold cider but feels a little more accessible than the Yarlington Mill SVC (I expected it to be the other way around). The delicate floral notes really lift the smoky barrel characteristics – it’s wood fires on an early spring day with the first signs of spring flowers.

TL/DR – If you’re into barrel aged cider (specifically whisky barrels) then these two bottles are must haves. They’re both beautiful expressions of the fruit and perfectly blended with the barrel character. Big and bold but very well balanced. I’ll be following the Balance Brewing Cider Project with keen interest. If the next releases are as good as these, I think we’ll be in for a bit of a treat.

Cover image courtesy of Balance Brewing. All other photos by Ed Brown.