OUR PROCESS & FLAVORS
Our newly released 2015 vintage consists of three flavors of hard cider: Crazy Crow, Screech Owl, and Stellar Jay.
All our ciders are made in small batches, using heirloom, Newtown apples grown on our farm. Fermentation is a two-step process, with the first step taking place in European made fermenting tanks for a period of 30 to 40 days. The second round of fermentation utilizes white oak barrels and gently rolls into an aging process that takes 6 plus months in oak. Finally our ciders receive a splash of local honey for bottle conditioning.
There’s no hiding it -- our ciders aren’t sweet and they aren’t your everyday supermarket cider; they are extraordinary, dry, old world ciders with a new world twist! Each flavor has been influenced by our local flora and fauna, and is an ode to the beauty of the nature that thrives on our farm.
Crazy Crow is a blackberry infused dry hard cider with a refreshing and crisp flavor.
Screech Owl is our purest and simplest cider, taking much of its flavor from the oak barrels themselves. It has a subtle oaky flavor and vanilla notes. This dry cider’s barrel aged nature gives it a characteristic similar to that of a fine white wine.
Stellar Jay is made by fermenting our Newtown cider alongside Italian plums to infuse a unique, yet subtle plumy backdrop.
Topknot, our newest cider, is an apple-cherry cider, made using single varietal cider, barrel aged for six months in used European port barrels, with an infusion of cherries and honey. This process results in a dry cider, with rich notes of Port wine, cherries, and crisp apple.
We are always looking for fun and interesting new ways to craft cider and collaborate with other local vendors. We hope to roll out new and seasonal flavors regularly. So check your local seller of Rivercider and check back here often to see what we are working on.
BUILDING DETAILS
Our 1,500 sq ft facility houses all the equipment necessary to take the fruit from the tree, directly to the bottle. We hand select each apple or pear prior to washing to ensure you are getting nothing but the best fruit for cider. We then grind our fruit and turn it into a mash before it is put into an Italian balloon press to extract delicious juice from each and every apple or pear. The juice is then transferred to European made fermentation tanks where it is carefully and painstakingly monitored to ensure the highest quality of cider is crafted. From there the cider is transferred to American oak barrels for further aging and fermentation. Finally, once the cider is matured and ready it is hand bottled and labeled in our cider barn.
