Hello there, and welcome to the end of Harvest 2025 – hasn’t it gone by in an absolute flash! It seems like no time has passed at all since I was helping Albert top-grafting apples trees in Broome Farm in early Spring or moving house throughout August, right at the time that Discovery apples were ripening up (I missed the boat on these this year). However, despite a year that at times felt like it was running on 5x speed, and to quote Wicked: For Good: “I couldn’t be happier.”  I’m sure a lot of producers feel the same way about the last few months as well. For a lot of us here in the UK, August through to start of November has presented very pleasant picking and pressing climatic conditions. There’s been the odd storm, but not as many as previous years for the earlies and mid-season fruits. Later season (November onward) and the gloves have come off the meteorological sage that watches over cider and perry makers. Shorts and t-shirts have been swapped for attire more suited towards a fisherman than a cidermaker. But that’s also part of the fun of fruit that chooses to ripen a little bit later into the season! We wouldn’t have it any other way now, would we?

It’s been two years since our last set of Producers Summaries here on Cider Review. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 were all very well received back then, and I hope you enjoy the accounts from Harvest 2025, presented on these digital pages every Wednesday throughout December. I have my own assumptions about the Harvest just gone here in West Norfolk, with it clocking a lot closer to that of the sunny 2020 and 2022 vintages for me. This is an international set of results from producers all across the globe.  As all the results come in, I anticipate we should have a divergence of harvest highlights and SGs from a range of producers from all different territories. Something to keep everyone happy and hopefully inspire a few more readers to take the plunge and consider becoming cidermakers themselves in future years. Without further ado, let’s delve into the first tranche of responses from producers to see how they fared across Harvest 2025!

Swift Cider and Perry Co. Lea, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: I picked my first perry pears off the ground on 24 August 2025 and finished with a batch of cider apples on 9 November 2025.

Total amount of cider/perry made: This year I’ve made 900 litres of perry and 180 litres of cider, way more than expected. I had access to so many interesting varieties of perry pears, with trees groaning under the weight of fruit, and it seemed too good an opportunity not to capitalize on.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Being my first proper season, anticipation levels were extremely high in the build-up and it has been one hell of a learning curve full of highlights. I made it my mission (probably not the wisest move for a novice) to seek out the rarest perry pears that I could get my hands on and having access to the heritage perry pear trees at Hellens Manor in Much Marcle was a real privilege. However, the real highlight was stumbling across a veteran Merrylegs pear tree, laden with fruit in a local orchard and making a good volume of perry with this unusual variety. Harvesting fruit from challenging varieties like Moorcroft, Yellow Huffcap Merrylegs, and New Meadow has been extremely insightful. Making numerous visits to the same trees due to short ripening windows, although time consuming, paid dividends in the end. 

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Given the amount of sunshine we had during the growing season, I was expecting sugar levels to be extremely high – this turned out to not necessarily be the case. Despite high SG readings of around 1.066 in perry varieties such as Moorcroft, Water Lugg and Yellow Huffcap, average sugar levels for the season were around 1.056.

Eden Ciders. Newport, Vermont, USA

First date and last date of Harvest: We started picking Kerr Crab and Ginger Gold on a beautiful warm sunny September 5th. Completing the harvest on a chilly rainy October 23rd picking Harrison, Reinette Clochard, Golden Russet, and Benjamin Pippin

Total amount of cider/perry made: Eden Cider’s home orchard in Northeast Vermont produced 1500L fresh juice of mostly sharps and sweets to be frozen for ice cider to yield ~300L of Ice Cider and 300L of dry cider from mostly cider varieties. Our overall production was down 53% compared to other years. The state of Vermont as a whole was down in production thanks to poor pollination from a long cold, wet and cloudy spring, followed by a severe late season drought which caused many trees to stress drop their unripe fruits, regardless of variety.  Some orchards even experienced their worst harvest in recent times, with one of our close partners having their lowest harvest in over 50 years.

A highlight of harvest 2025: This was an off year for our orchard, and due to a very long cold and wet spring, pressure from raccoons and porcupines, and a late season drought we had an even lighter harvest than usual. But emerging from the harvest, our young seedling trees were total stand outs! One of our current goals at the Eden Orchard is to grow more resilient varieties to the ever-changing landscape of climate and diseases. As such, we have over a dozen locally adapted trees from wild seedling apples. Our young Franklin trees, grafted from a locally found 100+ year seedling, have just started to reach production size. Franklin is starting to gain strong favourability with cider makers and growers! When pressed these crabs are, at standard, around 23 brix. However, this year of the few bushels we harvested they measured at 25 brix. In addition, our home grown seedling, Benjamin Pippin, had a larger crop this year. There was an interesting shift in the flavour of the fruit as well, probably due to the drought. Of note, we are now starting to see fruit off of some other young trees, all grafted from seedlings found within 20 miles of our orchard. These trees, with names in reference to their origin, such as Glover Ghost and Sanderson Hill Russet, will be the future of our orchards. We are excitedly and patiently waiting to see our first fruits from these new trees!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? In our home orchard we saw higher brix overall across the board for all of our varieties.  Our dry cider is good quality juice with SG  at 1.0718 and pH at 3.3.  We will ferment with native yeast to dry, in stainless tanks at low temps to preserve the fruity aromatics and allow to rest on lees for some extended time. 

Oliver’s Cider & Perry. Ocle Pychard, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We started our harvest on September 8th and will aim to finish by Nov 28^th.

Total amount of cider/perry made: Circa c. 100,000 litres. Less juice than hoped for but certainly higher sugars.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Good harvesting weather as well as any and all help we got with hand picking fruit.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? I will tell you in 3 years’ time but firstly troublesome for 2026 draft ciders which will necessitate dilution in some form, maybe great for well-balanced ciders 2026-28 as long as it is not just alcoholic strength but flavour and balance that is enhanced. It will be a good season for HMRC whatever.

Duckchicken Cider. London, UK.

First date and last date of Harvest: We started harvest on 20^th September and finished 6^th October. It was a very condensed picking window due to day job travels in middle October.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 980 litres. It was a fairly good crop this year and was much more satisfying to pick trees laden with apples (and the weather was great!) than scavenging as we have the last couple years. Had we more capacity with time and tanks, we would have made more cider for sure.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Having our biggest day of picking for the two of us ever! It was around 800kg of Cox’s Orange Pippin. We still got it. 💪💪

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Overall, it was a pretty average year. We only picked 4 varieties from our two heritage orchards in Kent. SGs ranged from 1.046 for Howgate Wonder to 1.058 with our Bramley’s Seedling.

Redvers Cider. Yarkhill, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: It’s been a long season! Working full time means I can only press on weekends. The first press of pears was on 6th September, and the last press of apples will be on 30th November. 

Total amount of cider/perry made: We’ve doubled production this year compared to last to around 1000 litres. My shed is now overflowing so we’ve reached our limit.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The highlight of the year for me is how much of a family effort it’s been. Mum has hand picked fruit with me in all weathers, Dad on the scratter for hours at a time, and my almost 100 year old Grandad joining us to wash fruit… I think his Dad (my Great Grandfather) – William Redvers Aspey would have been proud. That’s what this is all about for me – preserving the history and heritage of traditional cider making in Yarkhill. 

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Making cider naturally is a slow process so we won’t get to taste these ciders and perries at their best until 2027. However, the volume and quality of fruit has been tremendous. Most varieties are a bit smaller than usual but have made up for it in sugar content. The Blakeney Red pears were about half their normal size but registered 1060 (around 8% abv) on the hydrometer compared to around 1050 the last couple of years). We also pressed a Foxwhelp that will be over 9% abv! Some varieties like Brown Snout were close to normal though. 

Böhm Cider. Mulfingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

First date and last date of Harvest: Harvest 2025 at the Böhm Ciderwerkstatt began unusually late, with the first pressing taking place on September 6th, starting with small wild pears. The harvest continued until November 8th, ending not because the fruit was finished, but simply because there was no space left in the cellar.

Total amount of cider/perry made: It was one of our largest harvests to date, with more than 20 tonnes of fruit picked and a total production of 5,280 litres of cider, perry and related products, plus additional volumes of apple–quince wine, quince wine, juices and winter drinks. For our small, entirely hand-run operation, it was a record year and significantly above average in both fruit quantity and diversity.

A highlight of harvest 2025: In terms of production highlights, 2025 was a major year for perry. Many promising pear trees that are usually overlooked produced well, and we pressed and fermented a wide range of single-variety and blended perries. One of the standout fermentations was a traditional Hohenlohe “Mouschd,” made this year exclusively from local varieties: equal parts Kirchensaller Mostbirne, Brettacher Sämling and Öhringer Blutstreifling. It developed beautifully and represents our most region-typical expression of the style.

Another highlight was our first “Tête de Cuvée,” made from the free-run juice of every pressing throughout the season. This method, inspired by Champagne production, allowed us to capture the most delicate fraction of each batch, resulting in a particularly fine and promising cider. We also continued our orchard-specific approach, producing individual cuvées from each of our meadows: Honigbrunnen, Bergwiese and Müllersberg. Each orchard reflected its own mix of varieties and site characteristics.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? There has been an extraordinary range of varieties available for Harvest 2025. There was no late frost, spring and early summer were warm, and rainfall in summer was well balanced. As a result, almost every variety on our trees performed well. Sugar levels were not unusually high but were remarkably consistent with the typical profile of each variety – almost textbook. Aroma and flavour development were excellent, and the quality of the fruit was consistently high across the season.

Overall, the 2025 vintage can be described as balanced, expressive and highly varietal. Specific gravity values were moderate rather than extreme, but flavours were concentrated and clean, and the ciders and perries show good structure. We expect several of the perries and orchard cuvées to age well due to their clarity, acidity and phenolic balance. With the sheer diversity of fruit and musts this year, the cellar holds more individual character than ever before.

For us as small producers working entirely by hand, 2025 was an intense and exhausting harvest, but also one of the most rewarding.

Rull Orchard. Northdown Road, Devon, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We make fruit juices as well, so our harvest and pressing always starts, what feels like, unreasonably early. We tried to dent the fruit this year to condense the harvest but some very kind folk delivered us some apples on 28th August. First cider harvest was Foxwhelp on 1st September.

We’re still harvesting for the next couple of weeks at least. We anticipate being at vessel capacity by the end of November or early December but we both tend to sneak in some accidental picking, ‘couldn’t see those apples left behind’; so never say never. Last year we were harvesting in T-shirts in early December.

Total amount of cider/perry made: We’re still just tickling the underbelly of 7000L of cider and perry (yet to get to grips with how the new duty allowance will translate to our overall volume allowance). This year there was fruit enough that we could potentially consider increasing this against the new small makers relief but were restricted by fermenting capacity (and physical capacity!)

A highlight of harvest 2025: Meeting a fellow couple of Devon based orchard enthusiasts who have spent 20years working their land with a focus on ecology to increase biodiversity. They share a passion for perry pears as well as apples! Utter admiration for the scale of the planting they have undertaken, independently, and the passion they have for their land.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? The SG that we’ve seen for some fruit has been higher than previous years, perhaps 10-15%, though not as significantly as early predictions suggested and not consistently across all varieties or terroirs.

Purely from tasting as we press and early fermenting; acidity and tannin have felt more gentle than in previous years. Time will tell.

Gregg’s Pit. Ledbury, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:

Perry Pears: Our 2025 harvest began on 5 September with a few bags of indigenous Gregg’s Pit perry pears from our home orchards. We continued picking up these fabulously ripe pears from the ground until we pressed out the first 330 lire vat with a few additional bags of Aylton Red on 10 September.

Then we hit the Thorn perry pears pressing out a 550-litre vat of this single variety on 13 September, before moving onto to press another 1000 litres of Gregg’s Pit, Aylton Red & Blakeney Red.

Our favourite mid-season blend of Blakeney Red, Brandy & Winnals Longdon pressed out 650 litres on 1-2 October, and we finished pressing pears with a 330-litre vat of Blakeney Red, Butt & Oldfield on 30 October.

Cider Apples: We pressed 330 litres of ripe ‘early droppers’ of Browns Apple & Kingston Black on 11 October before blending with another 200 litres on 28 October.

Late bittersweet harvest began with Dabinett & Yarlington Mill on 1 November and we continued picking up these varieties in 70/30 ratio to press out 650 litres for ‘keeving’ over 12 – 14 November, waiting until the weather forecast showed likelihood of ambient temperature <12 degrees Centigrade.

We finished harvesting Chisel Jersey and Brown Snout on 11/12 November and waited to press this blend until Wednesday 19 November which was our final 2025 pressing.

Total amount of cider/perry made: Total Perry made in 2025 = 2800 litres (compared with just 800 litres in 2024). Total Cider made in 2025 = 1400 litres (compared with 2350 litres in 2024).

A highlight of harvest 2025: Leominster Morris dancing to ‘bless our pressing’ and our ‘4 Ways to Sparkle’ tutored tasting with the Ciderologist Gabe Cook at Big Apple Harvestime weekend over 11/12 October were definite highlights – this event held on the second weekend of October is always a highlight!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? What a difference a year makes! In 2024 the weather was wet/borderline ‘foul’ throughout the harvest season and ground conditions became very difficult in November. Whereas in 2025 the weather was benign, dry and often sunny until the end of October. Storm Claudia brought the first heavy rain of the season, but we dodged that to finish picking up late bittersweet cider apples on  11/12 November with our final pressing on 19 November.

Fruit quality in 2025 was very good overall and all our 2025 pressings achieved SG >1055 and the highest was SG1070 for the last pressing of late bittersweet Brown Snout & Chisel Jersey cider apples on 19 November.

We are excited by everything we have pressed into vats and look forward to cold racking in late December/early January and first tasting of the fermented products in Spring ’26.

Brennan’s Cider. Sefton, Merseyside, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We started harvesting fruit on the 28^th August and finished this year on the 8^th November.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 1,800 litres (1770 litres of Cider & 30 litres of Perry). The best volume produced for the last 2 years for us.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The highlight of the harvest for us was the good weather for harvesting and the amount and quality of the fruit available. It was a very good year for us, particularly after the poor harvest of the previous 2years.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? The quality and abundance of the fruit this year has given us SG’s in the region of 1.056, which is the best we have had since the 2021/2 Season, so we are looking forward to the 2025 season being a very good vintage year for us and hopefully for everyone else too.

Druug Craft Cider. Gent, Belgium

First date and last date of Harvest: We harvested our Kriekpeer between July 25^th and August 5^th. Then through September and October it was a range of apples and pears harvested.

Total amount of cider/perry made: It was a very good year for us with 2500 litres of perry and 3000 litres of cider produced.

We make several ciders, including: Pom de Djus – apple cider; Pom Perry – blend apples and pears; Peer Total: Perry with maceration of pressed grapes: pinot noir and zweigelt.

A highlight of harvest 2025: We bought an extra fermentation vessel and we produced more than ever! It was a great harvest year. 

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? High SGs, very good for aging. All our ciders are dry. We only use Belgian apples from the local neighbourhood.

Smith Hayne Cider. Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We started harvest in late October and will finish in early December,

Total amount of cider/perry made: We will press about 2000 litres which is less than usual, but we are getting old!

A highlight of harvest 2025: The highlight of the year was winning the cider maker award at Putley, nothing will ever beat that! We were the overall champion! We won medium cider, came second in sweet and that was enough to be Champion Cidermaker 2025.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? It was a massive crop of high SG apples, no varietal had an off year but Yarlington Mill, Brown Snout, Browns and Chisel Jersey were great. Michelin and Dabinett of average quality. It wasn’t without problems: the wind at the beginning of October brought down quite a lot of unripe fruit, a Lambrook Pippin  I had my eye on burst its fruit on the tree when the rain came. I’m sure people will make lots of lovely ciders this year.

Crone’s Organic Cider. Kenninghall, Norfolk, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:

We had our first delivery of apples (Discovery) on the 13^th August. The last date… some time in December (hopefully soon)!

Total amount of cider/perry made: Around 25,000 litres of our Norfolk Blend (desserts and culinary). Roughly 8000 litres produced from cider apple varieties (Sweet Coppin, Kingston Black, Dabinett and Browns). Perry 1500 litres. We also produced 7 different single variety apple juices and a pear & apple juice.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The sheer number of different varieties of apple we were able to process (illustrated by my attached photo).

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? A good vintage! Small apples generally, but good sugar levels.

Monkey Bridge Cider. Ironville, Derbyshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: Harvest started quite suddenly and abruptly on 8th of September (around 3 weeks earlier than normal) with the early perry pears and the last was 17th of November, roughly the same as previous years with Yarlington Mill.

Total amount of cider/perry made: Around 800 litres combined of cider and perry, which is the most I’ve ever pressed. This however does mean a compromise of volume in cider for perry, but I hope it’ll  be well worth the trade-off come next spring, once early tastings start to happen.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Where to begin…  unseasonably nice warm and dry weather up till the second week of November seemed to make the hard work of picking and pressing less gruelling alongside a full-time job.

More people than ever have reached out, generously offering apples and pears, mainly because there’s been that much, they’ve been unable to make use of it all. It’s been an absolute joy to revisit old friends to pick fruit and share a glass of previous years vintages after the sacks have been filled.

With these discoveries of new orchards, came around 8 new varieties, mainly perry pears, which is thoroughly exciting and will make the racking in the new year seem less arduous.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? The juice from the pears came out with very high SG’s compared to last year which were quite low, as it’s only the second year of making perry. There isn’t another high sg year for me to compared against. From limited experience too draw upon I’d say maybe the tannins were considerably higher and the aromatics lower.
The juice from apples in terms of SG’s was a mixture, some just average and some really high. The apples were noticeably smaller, across all the varieties down lack of rainfall I presume.
Overall I think this year’s Harvest has been pretty good and will result in some great ciders and perries, however  I think it might just need a little bit more time than usual to come into its own, before it’s ready.

Charnwood Cider. Cropston, Leicestershire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: This year’s season kicked off in early September with hunting for local pears and we’re my first pressing on 12th September. I pressed the first apples, early droppers on 16th September… It seemed like a slow start and I didn’t seem to be getting much done as was trying to juggle cider making with work so I made the decision to make myself unavailable for work so I could focus on what seemed like a mammoth task of collecting and pressing the incredible amount of fruit I had in my orchard… it truly was a bumper crop with more fruit than I’ve ever had before on my own trees. I kept going and finished with Dabinetts, the final pressing being done on 18th November- what a relief!

Total amount of cider/perry made: I finished with over 6000 litres of juice this year!

A highlight of harvest 2025: There are several highlights to this year’s harvest, one being just the sheer amount of fruit of some varieties for example Foxwhelp… I must have pressed over 300l of this amazing variety compared to a previous maximum of just 60l! The size of some of them was also impressive and gravity broke a personal record at 1.068. Another highlight was the amount of Knotted Kernel apples I had and also the size of some of the fruit was bigger than I have experienced before… I broke my gravity record again that day as the juice came out at 1.082!! Another highlight was the amount of pears that seemed to be around and as a result I have managed to fill three blended barrels. Fingers crossed for those!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Generally the gravities have been high, the lowest I think was Brown’s Apple at 1.050 which went into a blend but the majority of juices were in the 1.060’s. All the juices tasted good and I’m confident the ciders produced will be good, some really good and hopefully a few absolute crackers!

Temple Cider. Beaminister, Dorset, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: Our first date of harvest was 8^th September 2025, picking up perry pears in Gollop Orchard, a couple of weeks earlier than our usual start-date. But although some varieties have ripened early this year, this hasn’t been the case for all. We should finish harvesting by the middle of December, picking up Porter’s Perfection apples.

Total amount of cider/perry made: By the time we finish, we will have pressed more apples and pears than ever before, but although we’ve pressed more fruit, the yield has been lower, so we should finish with around the same amount of juice as our previous highest figure, circa 7000 litres.

A highlight of harvest 2025: We have had the opportunity to harvest a number of varieties that are new to us, which always produces a feeling of anticipation and excitement. As well as various blends, we have two single-varietal perries, one of which is new to us, and thirteen single-varietal ciders, of which five are new to us.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? The fruit has been plentiful, but the juice yield has been quite low – presumably due to the extremely dry summer. The quality of the juice seems very good though, with generally high sugar levels.