Cidermaking 

At Tilted Shed Ciderworks, cidermaking is a heavily hands-on, labor-intensive process that is done in season and by hand. We typically press apples from August to November, and then over the course of the next year (or two in rare cases) release the blends. Very few do it this way. Often other cider producers will only ferment their juice for a few weeks, then bottle and distribute, but we find that such quick fermentations do not result in ciders of much depth. Other producers take short cuts, doing rolling batches throughout the year from cold-storage apples or bulk juice or concentrate from China or Washington, You get out what you put in, and in our case, that means truly local, truly handcrafted ciders of high quality and exceptional complexity.  

1. Harvest apples from our orchards or pick up apples from our local growers.
   
2. Sort and wash the apples. Only sound apples "meet the press."
   
3. Grind the apples into a fine pomace using a commercial grinder.
   
4. Transfer the pomace to the hydraulic rack-and-cloth press. One bucket equals about one "cheese," or cloth-wrapped slice of pomace. 
   
5. Squeeze the pomace and make juice.
   
6. Measure pH and original gravity, taste, and transfer the juice to fermentation tanks or barrels.
7. Give the spent pomace and culled apples to our sheep or our friends' dairy sheep.
   
8. Allow the juice to ferment coolly and slowly in small batches for up to 3 months, using pitched or indigenous yeasts.
   
9. Rack, blend, age, and sample the cider.
   
10. Depending on the style, hand-bottle, label, and release the cider 6 months to 2 years after pressing.
    

Our apples

We press about 24 varieties of traditional cider and heirloom apple varieties each season. Click here to learn more about them!

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