Hard cider coming to town

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Seventy-seven years after the plant was built, a producer will actually turn out some hard liquor in Berwick.

Hanspeter Stutz of Grand Pre Wineries will base his Cider House Company out of the former Avon Foods plant in the Berwick Industrial Park in the next few weeks.

The province announced October 12 it would lend Stutz $500,000 as a repayable loan to expand into hard cider production. The money comes from the Industrial Expansion Fund.

Stutz will use the loan to expand export markets, diversify products and create up to 30 jobs over the next three years.

“We’ll be ready for this fall harvest,” Stutz said October 15, “to produce 500,000 litres.”

The cider business will use apple juice pressed at Great Valley Juice in Port Williams.

Stutz said Cider House will lease about 13,000 square feet from the Moody brothers in the Avon facility for its processing. Landlord Harley Moody said October 12 he’s “happy he’s coming,” although firm lease details have yet to be made.

The “biggest challenge,” Stutz said, is buying and shipping in the fermentation tanks he’ll need from European or American sources in time. He’s hired his key staffer, who will, in turn, bring on production workers and then other staff over the next few months.

In 1930, the original operator of what are the now former Avon processing buildings built and intended to run a brandy and champagne making line, using low-grade apples. He found actual operation a challenge: despite winning a plebiscite allowing his operation to proceed, community pressure and political changes forced him to spend a few years on non-alcoholic cider and vinegar production before leaving Berwick altogether.