AFTER the price of their grapes halved and intrigue in the growing popularity of cider in Australia grew, three Riverland brothers were inspired to look at more unique ways of using their produce on-farm.
Pyap Produce’s Michael, Tim and Ryan Arnold grow about 120 hectares of citrus and grapes near Loxton.
In 2011, Michael was on a year-long exchange in Hereford, England, when the apple farm where he was working investigated cider production. During a tour of the Bulmers crushing facility, his mind began considering how to value-add to the fruit produced back at home.
“When I got back to Australia, I was keen to get into the cider market, which was just starting to kick off,” he said.
“So we started playing with citrus and cider.”
Michael said they got to a stage where they were happy with a particular formula of lemon cider.
“With the growth in the cider industry, we were finding it increasingly hard to source apple juice,” he said. “We started looking at what we were growing on-farm.”
Michael said it was about this time the winery they supplied halved the price of their gordo grapes from $400 a tonne to $200/t.
“We started trying a new formula using wine from our gordos and that’s when Arnold Brothers lemon cooler was developed,” he said.
The lemon cooler, with 8 per cent alcohol content, uses local fruit, with the grapes processed by Riverland Vintners, Monash, while the lemon juice comes from Nippys Produce at Moorook. It is bottled at Best Bottlers, Mildura, Vic, which was chosen for its location on the SA/Vic border.
“We wanted a location that would be convenient to distribute to SA, and possibly Vic,” Michael said. “We have a warehouse in Adelaide for our stock, but through our website we can still post to anywhere in Australia.”
Arnold Brothers cooler is also available in locations across the Riverland and is stocked in some Adelaide bottleshops.
“We have had the most awesome support locally,” Michael said. “Our first run was 600 cases, which sold out in about four months.
“With running a block at the same time, we have not had the time to really hit the market hard, so we have been pleased with the uptake.”
A second run of 1800 cases was produced for the festive season. Michael said the bigger run, plus a change in packaging supplier, had reduced costs.
“Hopefully as the order numbers increase, the profits will too,” he said.
- Details: thearnoldbrothers.com.au