Today in the orchard
We bottled last year’s cider and pressed about 25 bushels of this year’s best. It was a busy day. The bottle-cleaning crew cleaned while the bottling crew bottled, while the grinding crew ground and the pressing crew pressed. By mid-afternoon we had emptied the old oak barrel and filled it up again. All the while the picking crew continued to pick the last of this year’s crop. It was a well-oiled (well-cidered?) machine.
In the past we’ve bottled last year’s cider a few weeks before pressing, but this was a busy fall, and we didn’t get to it. So we compressed the ritual into one long day. And it worked. We gave up washing our oak barrels years ago so we were able to bottle last year’s cider and then refill the barrel with new juice, right on top of the lees. Any concern about exposing the inside of the barrel to oxygen is probably not an issue since the exposure is less than a few hours. And all that sludge at the bottom of the barrel (the lees) is instantly inoculating the fresh juice with everything it needs to start the fermentation.
What apples did we use? Well, Shavel Sharp of course. And Fuel Service, the bittersweet roadside seedling Cammy spotted on a trip to Castine several years ago. And a few bushels of Grimes Golden just because we had them. And 447 (Frostbite), Tolman Sweet and smaller amounts of about two dozen others, including all our French bittersweets, a few bittersharps and an assortment of seedlings. This may be the universe’s ultimate blend (or not). In any event, stay-tuned. We’ll bottle this batch in October ’26 and begin drinking it a year later. If we can wait that long!