We tried a new cider made from apples grown in gardens around Sheffield - here's what we thought

And we love to hear about locally grown produce – so we thought we would give this unusual trio of tipples a try. Here’s what we thought.

The Cider Hole opened in Kelham Island last September with grand ambitions of being the city’s only cider-centric bar and micro-cidery.

The venue is so far making good on that promise having just released it’s first three batches - produced with apples collected from 31 gardens around the city!

Mike Pomranz, The Cider Hole’s owner and cidermaker, believes this is the first batch of cider using locally-sourced Sheffield apples for a couple of years.

This past autumn, Mike put out calls on Facebook and Reddit asking if anyone with extra apples would donate them in exchange for free cider.

He received over 70 leads and eventually collected apples – and some pears - from 31 different houses around Sheffield – including plenty of unexpectedly interesting finds in neighbourhoods like Crookes and Pitsmoor.

Mike Pomranz.

He then crushed, pressed, and fermented all of the fruit in his tiny shipping container bar in Krynkl on Shalesmoor.

The results are two batches of wild yeast fermented cider made entirely from Sheffield apples: Cool Neighbours and Too Many Apples.

The third cider – Ask Albert – is a naturally-fermented mix of Sheffield garden apples and proper cider apple juice provided by Ross-on-Wye Cider in Herefordshire.

Now to the taste.

It would be naive of me to say that the apples used gave the ciders a distinctive local flavour never experienced before just because they had been grown in the Steel City.

But there is definitely a novelty affect – it is nice to sit and drink something that you know has been made from fruit grown locally and donated by the good people of Sheffield.

Cool Neighbours is dry with a tarty, funky taste and is named after all the cool people Mike met collecting fruit.

You can expect Too Many Apples to be a tangy, drinkable cider which earned its name after Mike found more fruit than he bargained for.

The third, Ask Albert, is more of a traditional tasting English cider with a touch of tannin.

All three ciders will be served in thirds and halves and will be available from this coming weekend.

Mike himself will be on-site this Saturday, from 1pm to 10pm, and Sunday, from 1pm to 6pm, to pour cider and answer any questions.