Our Taproom and Cidery are Open the End of May to the Last Week of October
Fridays 6-9 | Saturday 1-9 | Sundays 10-2
Kids and dogs are welcome
Cider Making Process
After the apples are picked, sorted and washed, they get ground down to a pulp that fits into one of our two presses. We use bladder presses that are powered by air. The juice runs down the sides and is then pumped into a fermenting vessel.
Testing, planning and cleaning are some of the most important and time-consuming jobs of the cider making process. Also, resting the fermented cider so it can age is essential for a successful cider batch.
In some of the ciders we use herbs and spices. These additions are put into big mesh bags that look like tea bags. Once the desired flavor is achieved, the bags are removed and the cider is agitated. If the cider is a sweeter cider, we use a cane sugar syrup that we make ourselves by heating the sugar with cider.
Most of our ciders are filtered. Dan uses a plate filter that gets stacked with very fine paper filters. The filter and the pads get sterilized by very hot water to kill any bacteria that could cause a batch to go bad. Being very clean and working with sterile equipment is crucial for making a tasty hard cider.
After the batch is made, the cider goes into the brite tank to achieve carbonation via forced Co2 and after about 3 days the cider is kegged and bottled. Sweet ciders in bottles are pasteurized and all kegs are stored in a walk-in cooler. Finally, the last step left is to just sit back and enjoy the cider! Oh, yeah, there’s always a bunch of clean-up to do.
OUR TAPROOM AND CIDERY ARE OPEN
COTTONWOOD CIDER HOUSE
Fridays 6-9 | Saturdays 1-9 | Sundays 10-2
Kids & dogs always welcome!
Stacy Nelson-Heising
Orchard Manager
701-866-9913
Daniel Heising
Cider House Manager
701-866-9168
Our Location
14481 25th Street Southeast
Ayr, ND 58007