A CIDER expert is set to go big as he takes his cider consultancy business full time and across the globe. Gabe Cook, aka The Ciderologist, has been a public champion of cider for many years.

Now, the demand for this knowledge and skills has grown to such that he will be dedicating all his time to it.

Gabe, from Dymock near Ledbury, has over a decade of experience working in the cider industry, here in the UK and in New Zealand.

He has worked for all sizes and types of cider maker, from traditional farmhouse producers, to the world’s largest.

During this time, he has made cider, developed cider, talked about cider and judged at National and International cider competitions across three continents. He has even presented a bottle of cider to the Queen!

He has received considerable demand for his services, including cider tasting sessions, training opportunities, cider making consultancy and presentations, which will see him travel to Luxembourg, USA and New Zealand over the next six months.

Unsurprisingly, Gabe is excited by these new developments.

“It has been a longstanding ambition of mine to turn my hobby of talking about cider into a full-time profession," he told the Hereford Times.

"To now be doing it is utterly thrilling! It just shows that there is a demand to know more about our indigenous products and that people are becoming more discerning in their drinks purchases.”

Gabe has also found himself in the TV limelight in the last 12 months with a number of appearances on Channel Four’s Sunday Brunch programme as their resident cider expert.

He also spent time with Matt Baker on BBC 1’s Countryfile programme last October as they focussed on the heritage and tradition of perry, of which Gabe has considerable experience.