Orchards

Stassen obtains apples from various sources:

Dessert apples

For the production of its flavoured ciders and its Kidibul apple juice, Stassen buys dessert apples from local fruit farmers in the provinces of Liège and Limburg. These apples are mainly of the Jonagold, Elstar and Boscoop varieties.

Bittersweet cider apples

To produce ciders of the branded Fermette, Excellence,…, and under licence “Strongbow” and “Bulmers Original”, Stassen requires large quantities of bittersweet cider apples which give the cider its distinctive characteristics and aroma. The planted varieties are so-called ‘bittersweet’ cider apple varieties from France (Kermerrien, Douce Moën, Bedan, etc.) and England (Dabinett, Major, Ellis Bitter, etc.). These produce small, very firm apples with very high levels of sugar and tannins.

Organic apples

For the production of “Kidibul Organic” and organic ciders, Stassen has long-term contracts with farmer using the organic production methods.

Contracts:

To ensure a reliable, sufficient supply of apples meeting the required technical specifications, Stassen has created 150 hectares of orchards under long-term contracts with some twenty farmers. Half of these orchards are located in the province of Liège in Belgium, while the rest comes from France in the Thiérache region in the north of the department of Aisne.

By contrast with a standard dessert apple orchard (trees 2 – 2.5 m high, planted at an average density of 1600 per hectare), the cider apple orchard contains trees 5 to 6 metres in height, planted at a density of 700 per hectare.

The cider brewery provides its contracting farmers with technical services from an agronomist.

The harvest

In dessert apple orchards, the fruits are picked by hand, whereas in cider apple orchards the fruit’s natural resistance enables the harvest to be gathered mechanically after shaking. The apples are harvested at the point of optimal ripeness, and are processed immediately after undergoing pre-cleaning at the orchard and a final wash in the factory.

Harry Master Jersey: Variety of English origin

Moderately vigorous variety characterised by branches grafted at an acute angle.

Medium-sized green fruits streaked with red producing juice of moderate acidity which is rich in tannins.

Harvesting period: 5 – 15 October.