CIDERCRAFT Magazine, CIDERCRAFT Volume 14 2020

HARD PRESSED BY MOLLY ALLEN I t only takes a second to crack open a crisp cold can or bottle of cider As the cider industry booms cider bu s are starting to learn what goes on once the cidermaking process begins But what about going back one step further to where the fruit is actually coming from While many cider drinkers hope theyre getting a freshly pressed product they may not realize 26 CIDERCRAFTMAG COM the months of careful planning it takes to bring that cider to their glass For VIRTUE CIDER in Fennville Michigan thats the dance the maker has been doing for years Virtue maintains three acres of apple trees on site but to reach its yields each year the cidery relies heavily on the tight relationships developed with local farmers With the closest just four miles down the road Virtue works hand in hand with growers to plan its production around an orchards harvest According to Seth Boeve head of innovation for Virtue the process begins in winter as the team starts to think about the next season and how the weather might affect it We begin to talk with farmers in the spring about what type of budding theyll expect to see and what we think well want come fall for varietals and volumes he says But changes can be drastic even just through the course of a week So much can depend on harvest Fruit generally starts coming in during the month of August for Virtue but according to founder Greg Hall a late or cold spring can make for a delayed start and a wet fall can mean theres not enough fruit on the tree We generally do our irst press the second week of September but if its raining and they cant get a crew in to pick that a ects us too he says It all changes that much for us And that statement it all depends is all too true for cidermakers across the globe For Marcus Robert co owner and head cidermaker of TIETON CIDER WORKS in Yakima Washington harvest is all about careful calculation Its de initely a balancing act and every year is a little di erent he says We want the apples at their ripest point but we dont want them falling o the trees Before a cider apple is picked Tieton tests for sugar and starch levels When an apple clocks a low starch level it means the starch has done its job by converting to sugar telling Robert its time to start picking Typically commercial apple varieties are picked in late August through October but because cider apples stay on the trees longer harvest wont normally begin until September and may carry on until November When theyre ripe the stems start getting loose and a few apples will start to drop he says We look at the starch and we also look at the seeds because as they ripen they go from white to brown to black All of this gives us a good idea of when to taste and when to pick Fifty acres of apples typically requires 20 people to pick for several days so once its time for harvest Tietons sta ing numbers go from the typical 30 year round employees to closer to 90 As employees begin to pick they wear a bag designed speci ically to hold the apples throughout the process known in the agricultural industry as a belly bag Once the bag is illed a release at the bottom allows the apples to be dropped into a bin holding about 900 pounds each and its then carried o to a cold storage room According to Robert time spent in the storage room allows apples to continue ripening and produce a natural waxy coating a characteristic given o by the apple to protect itself from dehydration This is when they start getting to the ripest point and giving o those wonderful di erent aromas he says We treat these apples pretty special throughout the whole process We dont want them to be so ripe they fall apart but we want them as ripe as we can before we start pressing them for cider l SEASONAL BOUNTY Behind the Scenes at Harvest