The Wards Process
Our Apples

All great cider starts in the orchard. At Wards Cider we truly believe that, in order to craft the best cider, you have to use the best apples. You could say, it’s at the core of our process.

Wards Ciders are crafted using traditional estate grown cider apple varieties: Bramley, Chisel Jersey, Bulmers Norman, Porters Perfection, Lord Lambourne, Belle de Boskoop, and Cox’s Pippin Orange.

These apples have complex flavours and pronounced tannins, which create well balanced, food-worthy ciders with distinctive flavours and intriguing aromatics. The Wards style is fresh and fruit forward with a crisp clean finish.

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Our Cider Making

1. Estate Grown

Naturally Grown Okanagan Apples at our Kelowna Apple OrchardOur cider is made from a blend of traditional cider apples and old growth apples that we’ve been growing for over 100 years on our family orchard.

2. Hand Harvested

Hand Harvested ApplesTraditional cider apples have a high natural acidity which allows for extra hang time and full tree ripening. Extra hang time means plenty of natural sugars and complex flavor development. With the natural acidity of the cider apples, the result is a flavourful, perfectly balanced cider with a bright, crisp finish.

3. Milled and Pressed Fresh

Milled and Pressed FreshAfter harvesting, we wash all our apples and put them through a mill to create what is known as “pulp”. We then run this pulp through our beltpress to extract as much fresh apple juice as possible.

4. Fermented with Champagne Yeast

Fermented Champagne YeastNow, we add our premium champagne yeast to the juice and let it convert the sugars into alcohol. This is a very delicate process and we monitor it many times a day, from start-to-finish. Champagne yeast allows for a slow, cool fermentation which results in complex aromas and flavours in the finished cider.