Monkey HouseCider

Monkey House Cider is a small cider producer on an industrial estate in Berwick-upon-Tweed, founded by Phil Elliott, a former Fleet Air Arm engineer who learned traditional cidermaking on a Somerset farm in the 1980s. The company's name comes from the nickname locals gave the farmhouse he shared with three shipmates -- HMS Monkey, or the Monkey House -- where he first fermented cider using wild yeasts in open-topped oak vats. Elliott later moved the operation to Berwick and began commercial production in 2021, describing the business as Northumberland's only traditional cidermaker using whole apple juice rather than concentrate. The cidery won three bronze medals at the International Cider Challenge in its first year of trading. A taproom on site sells the range direct alongside a rotating selection of beers, and the business has run crowdfunding campaigns to expand production capacity. It remains a single-site operation on the edge of town.