Apple-pressing

We started harvesting apples weeks ago and this past Tuesday began pressing them into juice (unfermented cider). Fermentations are beginning and will be bubbling for months as the juice transforms into cider. Our first pressing in the new cidery is fruit grown right here that will undergo a spontaneous uninnoculated wild fermentation.

One of our new team members, Ray Henninger, dumping apples into the hopper of the 1950s era OESCO rack and cloth press. This press was found at an older orchard in Pennsylvania via a tip from Eric Shatt at Redbyrd Orchard Cider.

Counting up our estate grown bittersweet cider apples for our singe orchard Full Bloom Orchard Finger Lakes Cider. We like to list exactly what apples are in each of our ciders to compare the changes from year to year due to tweaking blends and biennial bearing.

Bittersweet apples being pressed into juice that will ferment over the next few months into cider. Note the new and old White Oak racks. Thanks to Ben Gould from the thriving metropolis of Perry City for making our replacement racks!