LOST Pippin, a new premium craft cider brand bottled at the former apple research farm in Tasmania's Huon Valley, is being uncapping.
The Lost Pippin cidery is run by Oak Tasmania, a non-profit organisation that cares for and employs disabled people across several industries, such as recycling, timber processing and horticulture.
Oak runs a fruit tree nursery in the Huon Valley where it cultivates grafted fruit trees, grows rootstock and conducts trial plots for fruit plant breeders developing new fruit varieties.
Three years ago, Oak took over management of the Tasmanian state apple research station, on a 28ha property at Grove, also in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart.
The former research station was set up in the 1950s and maintains a collection of about 850 heritage apple, pear and quince fruit varieties, some dating back to the 19th century.
Lost Pippin is bottling a sparkling cider, a still cider and a perry, which can be tasted at the 2012 Hobart International Beerfest, tomorrow and Sunday.
