Formation
Using apples from the orchard at his father's rectory and an old stone press on the farm next door, Bulmer made the first cider, upon which the family fortune would be made.
In 1889 his elder brother Fred (E.F. Bulmer), coming down from King's College, Cambridge, turned down the offer of a post as tutor to the children of the King of Siam to join Percy in his fledgling cider business.
With a £1,760 loan from their father, the brothers bought an 8 acres (3.2 ha) field just outside the city and built their first cider mill. It was little more than a barn compared to the huge modern stainless-steel computer-controlled cider-making plant that has grown up on a 75 acres (30.4 ha) site nearby.
Cider making in those early days was a hit or miss affair, the natural fermentation process being achieved by apple yeast occurring naturally in the apple, more often than not the cider turned sour. It was a college friend of Fred's, Dr. Herbert Durham, who, in the 1890s, isolated a wild yeast to create the first pure cider yeast culture, which would ensure that fermentations were consistent. This was the start of commercial cider making.
Bulmers was first granted the Royal Warrant in 1911 and continues today as 'Cider Maker to Her Majesty the Queen'. It was incoporated as a private company on 27 June 1918. It described its cider as The White Wine of England.
Strongbow was brought in from 1960.
Read more about this topic: H. P. Bulmer, History
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