A SPECIAL cider brandy will return to the shelves of Hereford's Cider Museum, after a four year break.

The popularity of its Hereford Cider Brandy grew so much, the museum could not cope with demand and took a step back.

But it has now outsourced the bottling of this special liqueur so it will be back on the shelves for the Christmas.

The cider museum was granted the first licence to distil cider in 1984.

Museum director, Margaret Thompson, said: "It was the first licence granted in more than 250 years.

"The cider brandy that launched was a very old craft that had ceased operation due to levy duty implications and in 1987 we produced the first bottle of cider brandy.

"We called it King Offa cider brandy."

They replaced it in following years with Hereford Cider Brandy and sold it as far afield as Derbyshire.

Mrs Thompson said: "It was becoming bigger than the museum could operate. We are a cider museum and we had to consider where our efforts should be applied and that has to be the care of the collection."

They distilled from 1984 to 2010 and the current batch has been sat maturing in oak barrels.

It will be for sale in the £40 region at the Cider Museum's gift shop.