Alde Sider: Bringing Hardanger’s award-winning cider to the world

By Malin Norman | Photos: Alde Sider

Norwegian craft cider is thriving and Alde Sider is renowned as one of its leading producers. A pioneer and a driving force in the craft cider wave, founder Olav Bleie is on a mission to share the joy of cider from Hardanger with the rest of the world.

The Hardanger region on the west coast of Norway is by now a stronghold for cider. One of the leaders in the cider revolution is Alde Sider, located on Bleie Farm in Sørfjorden, surrounded by mountains, the Hardangerfjord and the Folgefonna glacier. Olav Bleie runs the farm, which has an annual production of around 100,000 litres of cider, as well as 50,000 litres of apple juice and 10,000-15,000 litres of other fermented products, such as ice cider.

Bleie inherited the farm from his father 20 years ago, learned how to grow apples and make cider, and eventually took the step to produce cider commercially in 2014. “It was scary to start the cider business, but the product was so great and very different from every cider I had ever tasted. Taking a product that our forefathers were so familiar with, we can finally show how fantastic it is to people in Norway and further afield.”

Olav Bleie.

Cider from Hardanger is well known both in Norway and internationally, with popularity reaching new heights recently and local producers winning heaps of prestigious awards. A leading producer but also an award-winning one, earlier this year Alde Sider won Best-in-Class in the category dry modern cider at The Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition (GLINTCAP), the world’s largest cider competition.

The recipe for success is a combination of the terroir, the microclimate and the apples, as well as the dedicated farmers. “The Gulf Stream ensures a stable climate, similar to southern Europe, which is beneficial for growing apples,” says the cider maker. “Also, the long daylight hours in the growing season, which lasts from May to September or even longer, give the apples the red cheeks but also an acid buildup and a lot of esters and polyphenols – this is the perfect starting point to make some of the world’s best ciders.”

Alde Sider: Bringing Hardanger’s award-winning cider to the world

Bleie is a pioneer not only in producing cider but also in the Hardanger cider wave of popularity and a driving force behind what is now a booming tourism market for cider. “We have a fantastic community of cider makers, who built this market together,” he says. “Our goal is to show what real cider is, to tell the story of the product, and to bring people along on the journey.”

Alde Sider: Bringing Hardanger’s award-winning cider to the world