Making Cider
It’s not as simple as cracking open a slow, crisp cider. Behind the amber bottle is history, process, passion, and craft. Our family comes from a background of brewing and innovative thinking, and we’ve been perfecting the art of making a good cider for almost eight years now. It is our passion, and outside of simply offering a beautiful view and tasting out at our cidery, it’s a process we want to share with all of you.
To create a deeper connection with our cidery, our product, and our community, we came up with the idea of hosting a Cider-Making 101 class, which would help aspiring cider makers to be able to create their own cider at home. We recently held our first class of 2022 and it was a blast!. This class starts with the basics and consists of three major components- education, a tour of our equipment and facility, and exclusive tastings of our ciders.
We don’t want to give away too many juicy details, but here is a quick break down of how our first 2022 Cider-Making 101 class went:
Our talented brewer Nate Lambert led the class out at our Grey Barn on a sunny morning. He began with introductions and then dived into an intricate slide show where he guided sign-ups through the history of apples, more specifically the kinds of apples used for cider, the fermentation process, and what that all looks like. To give you a small taste of what our sign ups learned in the presentation, here is a small excerpt written by our own Maryanna Schane for Neighbors of Kittitas County:
“Apples have stood the test of time, moving and adapting through the different regions it traveled through, finding its way across the world as trade and conquests occurred. It is said that the earliest apples were identified as early as 2000 BC in southern Kazakhstan. As apples have traveled forward in history, the varieties have evolved; terroir, cross-breeding, historical events and more have played their respective parts. You can’t have cider without apples, and you can’t have apples without history!
Colonists brought their taste for cider with them when they moved to the new world. They brought seedlings and trimmings to plant so that they may continue the tradition of cider, in some cases, cider was safer to drink than water! The seedling and trimmings evolved based on its ability to grow and adapt, thus the American apple varieties were born. These American varieties were still fairly bitter, leading us into the conversation of what kind of apples do you use for cider?
The truth is that you can ferment any kind of apple and make cider, however, the most revered apple to create cider with is the bittersweet apple. Bittersweet apples (Michelin, Harrison, Yarlington Mill, to name a few), are fondly referred to as “spitters”, they generally have low acid and high tannins. A tannin provides a bitter and/or astringent flavor that leaves the mouth feeling dry, it can provide an unparalleled complexity and depth to a cider making the drink itself more interesting.”
After explaining the bullet points of cider apples and fermentation, the students were taken around the facility to learn about the equipment we use at a large scale, and substitutes and products that can be operated on a home level. Students had the lucky chance to use the grinder and press, to create freshly pressed juice, followed by a how- to of preparing yeast (a vital variable in cider-making) and inoculating the apple juice for fermentation.
Our 101 class ended with tasty snacks and an exclusive tasting of two new bottle releases- End-Drive, Rodeo City Community, and then two new barrel tastings of yet-to-be-bottled ciders (keep following us to find out what those releases are!)
If reading this blog has sparked your interest about the process of making cider, or you want to learn how to make your own delicious cider at home, please watch out for our next Cider-Making Class! Class sign ups are always located on our home page and you can keep in the know of our seasonal classes and events by signing up for our newsletter.
Cheers!