A different brew – Farnum Hill Cider

I’ve spent a lot of time here talking about craft beer and brewing, but there is another traditional product that has been having a renaissance in the last decade, that of small-scale, traditionally produced cider. In the autumn of 2008, I found myself in a beautiful apple orchard in New Hampshire tasting fresh-pressed cider from Poverty Lane Orchards and just soaking up the sight of row after row of apple trees heavy with fruit going by names that I’d never even heard of.

At the time, I purchased a few bottles of their semi-dry sparkling cider and enjoyed them later that evening with a meal of braised pork and roasted potatoes and the meal was simply perfect. Recently, the memory of this made me revisit the ciders themselves as well as their producer – Stephen Wood. Stephen is a passionate man and passionate about his apples and the drink they produce. I recently interviewed Mr. Hill about the state of cider production today and the work he’s doing at Farnum Hill.

The interview

JM – What inspired you to begin making artisanal cider and why did you choose Lebanon, NH as your base of operations?

SW – We don’t make ‘artisanal’ cider. We just make cider. We started grafting trials here in the early ‘80s, of several hundred ‘heirloom’ and cider varieties, thinking that we might start a small sideline to our wholesale/retail apple business. About ten years later, our final selection of varieties from those trials just about coincided with the collapse of the wholesale New England apple industry. We decided to grow cider apples and make cider because what we had always done had ceased to make sense. I’ve been working at this orchard since 1965, so it slightly made sense to grow and make the cider here.

JM – I had no idea that you have been doing this for so long… that is a pretty amazing feat in terms of longevity.

SW – I’ve been doing some of ‘this’ for a fair while, i.e. growing apples on this piece of dirt. The cider is more recent. I first visited Hereford and Somerset cider orchards in 1984, and grafted the first cider trials here in the next year. We planted our first cider orchard (1000 +/- trees) in 1989. We’d made goofy hard cider in whisky barrels before that, but it was only after we got our first apples from cider grafts that we started doing it in earnest. I think the first round of a dozen or so carboys of proper cider fruit was in 1990. The cider was all disgusting, though we forced some of it down. We learned a few things, and got bonded in 1995, with commercial production of about 350 gallons. Now we make about 10,000, and remain tiny in the big picture.

JM – Poverty Lane Orchards (a beautiful spot by the way) sells both hard and sweet cider as well as apples for eating/cooking. How large is the orchard here and how much of that production goes into your different products?

SW – We make very little sweet cider anymore — 2-3,000 gallons. We used to make more, but regulations forbidding wholesale of unpasteurized sweet cider have changed that. We only make what we sell at the orchard retail stand in the fall (we don’t pasteurize, and don’t intend to). The orchard (including young preproductive trees) wavers around 80-90 acres, depending on what we’re taking out and what we’re planting. About half the total acreage is devoted to (hard) cider fruit.

The process

JM – Briefly, describe the process of cider-making.

SW – I’ll describe the process at Poverty Lane — it varies a bit from operation to operation, and our press is small by comparison to those at most other commercial operations. The physical principals are pretty much the same anywhere, though.
Apples are dumped from the bins (into which they were picked) into a hopper, from which they ride up an elevator to a hammermill. There, they are smashed up into a mash, called pomace, which falls from the mill into another hopper. The pomace is pumped from that hopper to the press, where a person stands building the ‘cheese.’ The cheese consists of a stack of alternating square wooden slatted racks, and layers of cloth-wrapped pomace. When the cheese is made, it is moved along rails to the pressing station of the press, which consists of a hydraulic piston-driven plate below the cheese that compresses the cheese very slowly against a top plate. The juice is expressed through the cloths, and the dried-out pomace remains behind. While one cheese is being pressed, another is being made. The juice falls from the press into a catch tank, then is usually first pumped into plastic holding tanks.

There, depending on the acidity and condition of the fruit, we usually lightly sulfite it. Within a few days, the juice moves to the stainless tanks, or wooden barrels or puncheons in which it will be fermented. At this stage, we pitch yeast, and usually pump the juice over a bit to encourage the yeast to wake up and get working. We sometimes add yeast nutrients, shortly after pitching. After a few days, the cider starts to work furiously. After a few more, it settles down to happy gentle bubbling, at which time we add an airlock to the vessel. The cider takes anywhere from two weeks to two months to ferment to dryness. Sometime thereafter (with occasional exceptions), the cider is racked off its lees into the barrels, puncheons, or tanks in which it will mature. Then we turn our backs. We let it mature (again, occasional exceptions) for anywhere between 8 and 16 months before we blend it (or not) and bottle or keg it.

JM – Many of us have had a fairly simple hard cider at one time or another from one of the larger cider companies. What is different about your product compared to those produced by larger cideries?

SW – I’m not sure the difference has as much to do with size as with market. If you mean the ‘six-pack’ hard ciders, sold in the beer cooler, the chief differences are fruit and time. Fruit: in this country, no six-pack hard cider manufacturer can afford the cost of proper cider fruit. In fact, I only know of one who uses 100% ‘single-strength’ (i.e. actual fresh apple juice), and that manufacturer buys the very cheapest juice it can. Almost all six-pack hard ciders are made largely of concentrate.

In the UK, more real cider fruit is used in mass-produced hard ciders than in the US, because more cider apples are grown there (chiefly in Hereford, Worcestershire, Somerset, and Devon), but almost all of the apples are made into concentrate (for ease and economy of storage) before it is fermented. Time: six-pack hard cider makers can’t afford to tie up their tanks in extended maturation. The longest I’ve ever heard of one of them taking, from apple (or concentrate barrel) to bottle or keg is 10 weeks. In addition to fruit and time, the other differences have to do with stabilization (pasteurizing, filtration, chemicals, etc.) — this varies from operation to operation — and levels of sweetness and carbonation. Some of those ciders are sweetened to 30+ ppm sugar; our sweetest cider is about 7.5 ppm. Please understand that I’m not denigrating any of these beverages — for what they are, many of them are very well made. Most of them just aren’t real cider, any more than wine coolers are real wine.

Growing cider

JM – We all know that cider starts from apples, but what is the main difference between an eating apple and a cider apple? What qualities do you look for in a cider apple and what types of apples make good cider?

SW – This is a big question, and the answer is highly subjective. In my view, very few apple varieties have all of the qualities, in proper balance, to make a really good cider. And, of those that do, many are made even better by blending. One element we seek, and grow certain varieties for, is tannin. The tannins from these bittersweet and bittersharp varieties provide the bitterness and astringency we like in the background of cider, and a sort of structural undergirding. But phenols are complicated — not all tannins are the same, nor are the tannin complexes in all tannic apples the same. Some of these varieties have a hard, harsh bitterness and astringency; in others those elements are softer and rounder. I can’t easily explain how I’ve chosen which of these varieties to grow (I’ve made plenty of mistakes), or how exactly I decide which go together in a fermentation batch, but we are looking for a blend that will have sufficient structure, and pleasant (whatever that is) bitterness and astringency.

Most bittersweet and bittersharp apples are practically inedible, except to the insanely curious. Another important quality we seek, usually from other (usually edible and sometimes delicious) varieties, is acidity. We’re all fond of acid here, as a balance to bitterness, astringency, and sweetness, and as a palate-cleanser in the finish. Acid’s also necessary for a clean fermentation — we want more acid in our fermenting ciders than most bittersweets can provide. The other characteristics we seek have to do with fruitiness, and with floral and other aromatic elements. These are the things that change the most in fermentation — what you taste and smell in a fresh apple or its juice can be very different from what you find three months later. The last thing we’re looking for is plenty of fermentable sugar — we ferment all of our ciders to dryness, so the sugar in the apple only contributes to the alcoholic strength of the cider.

JM – Many of your ciders have what I’ve always considered to be a slightly “wild” taste. Do natural yeasts contribute to the fermentation of the finished product, or is that flavour a consequence of the types of apples used?

SW – It’s all in the fruit.

An American product

JM – Do you consider your ciders to be made in more of the French (Norman) tradition, the English or are you doing something uniquely American?

SW – When we first started, we were hoping to make our ciders in various European/UK styles — this drove our early plantings of English and French bittersweets. Our first ciders reflected this hope — we were particularly trying to make a sort of softer version of the bittersweet-based farm ciders of Somerset and Devon. But, a few years into actually making cider to sell, we had a happy moment, on which those of us who tasted together realized that we were regularly encountering aromas and other characteristics in our ciders that we’d never encountered in France or England, and we began to ask each other why, here in New Hampshire, we felt compelled or even inclined to follow any cider tradition at all. Practically on that moment, we decided to just try to grow good cider fruit on our very best ground, and make delicious ciders by our own lights. I think our style, such as it is, was sort of born on that day. Anyway our ciders are American, New Hampshire, Lebanon, Poverty Lane/Farnum Hill. We try to make delicious cider in the regional Farnum Hill style!

JM – Where did all of the different apples here come from? Are you an apple collector as well as a cider-maker?

SW – We aren’t exactly apple collectors, but we’ve grafted hundreds of varieties here over the years, to discover how they will behave in our climate and soils. The varieties came from all over the world. The scionwood came from various sources in the US and UK. The latter was a slight nuisance because of import restrictions, quarantine requirements, etc. But, fortunately, an enormous number of varieties has been imported to the US over the years, and most of the ones we have wanted to test have been available domestically. Meanwhile, all of our cider and heirloom trees are made from scionwood grown here at Poverty Lane — we want to be absolutely certain that the tree we plant is genetically identical to the variety we liked in the grafting trial.

JM – You produce a number of different products, including several blends based on sweetness and a single varietal apple cider (the very tasty Kingston Black)… do you have any plans to create other singal varietal ciders?

SW – Not in any organized way. We’ve released a couple of Ashmead’s Kernel ciders (2003 and 2008), in very small numbers. There are a few others that we like well enough on their own to consider an occasional single-variety bottling. But, as I said before, the most delicious of them can usually be improved by blending. In any event, all of the single-variety ciders that we’ll ever release will be pretty acidic.

JM – Cider is very much an agricultural product, do you produce cider seasonally or can you store the apples and continue to crush all season long?

SW – All of our cider is made of extremely ripe fruit, which doesn’t store very well. We even let many of the varieties rest on the grass for a time before we pick them up, to achieve the last degree of ripeness, and to dry out a little. I think the best cider (like wine) is made from juice pressed during the harvest, or shortly after, from the ripest possible fruit.

JM – I’m familiar with aging beer and wine, but does cider age well? How does it change over time?

SW – Aging is always a tradeoff, even with the most ageworthy wines. I haven’t yet met a cider that will compensate for what is lost in the process of bottle aging. The ‘high fruits’ (tropical aromas, citrus, etc.) and floral aromas diminish over time in bottle, while the heavier aromas are enhanced. Sometimes the tannins and acids round off a bit. Maturation in tanks and barrels before bottling is important; thereafter the cider may get more interesting (to some), but not more delicious (to me). But I hope I still have many ciders to meet, and my mind may be changed by one of them.

The future

JM – There is a very strong sense of community within the craft beer community, whereby new brewers can often draw on some of the experiences of older more established brewers. Do you see the same type of thing in the cider community?

SW – I dream of a real cider community, but it’s not here yet. There are various cider associations springing up, but the atmosphere everywhere is somewhat guarded. And the country is full of new expert cidermakers who’ve sprung from the ground over the past decade or so, and are already asserting that their own cider represents a regional style, or the true nectar of the gods, or whatever. I wish more folks would pay attention to their land and climate, and to growing and fermenting the right sort of fruit (rather than whatever is available on their first day). And I wish more would be willing to accept that none of us (including ourselves) has been at this long enough to assert real expertise. Still, there are a few of us (scattered across the US) who are trying to grow good cider fruit, and who are happy to taste one another’s ciders, and speak frankly about them among ourselves without fear of giving offense, in the interest of mutual improvement. There will be more of us, by and by.

JM – Thank you very much for your time, Stephen – I really appreciate it.

Tasting Farnum Hill Cider

In preparation for writing this article, I invited a few fellow cider aficionados to sample a lineup of Farnum Hill ciders.  These ciders are pretty well-distributed throughout New England and New York at fine wine stores.  You can check their availability here: http://www.farnumhillciders.com/Where_main.html

The ciders in our lineup included Farnum Hill Extra-Dry Sparkling, Farnum Hill Semi-Dry Sparkling, and Farnum Hill Farmhouse Ciders.

The Farnum Hill Extra Dry cider was first.  Unlike beer, which is normally tasted from lightest to darkest, we elected to try these in reverse order, since we reasoned that the residual sweetness in the lower ABV ciders would actually contribute a bit of complexity.  At 7.4% ABV it was the strongest of the ciders we tasted.  It pours with a pale golden colour and just a touch of light carbonation.  The aroma was quite simple with a fairly straight-forward apple aroma.  Some tasters got a touch of lemon as well.  Although it starts out with a bit of light sweet fruitiness on the front of the palate on the finish this cider is bone dry.  There is a touch of rustiness in this bottle as well.  Simple but nice.

Next on deck is the Sparkling Semi-Dry cider.  In appearance, there is little to distinguish it from the extra-dry… a lightly carbonated, pale golden pour.  The aroma is quite a bit sweeter than the extra-dry and there is a bit less tartness as well.  A bit funky with a touch of band-aid/phenolic flavour and some Granny Smith character.  All of the tasters agreed that this cider was substantially sweeter, although still quite dry.

The final Farnum Hill cider was the Farmhouse cider.  The nose on this was quite appley and substantially sweeter with more apple skin funkiness than the previous two ciders. Fairly clean finish with a bit of lingering minerally character and a little bit of a light floral note.  Another, simple tasty cider from the folks at Farnum Hill.

In general, all of the ciders had a similar apple profile with the main changes being in residual sweetness and the level of funky wildness.  They are fairly simple tasting, but their clean flavour profiles would really make them a wonderful match with food.

I hope that I’ve managed to convince you that the world of cider is one that is well-worth exploring.  As with beer, there is a lot of stuff to explore out there and I would encourage you to do so… you won’t be disappointed.