#craftbrew; cider; family; history; hoppytrailspod

[hoppytrailspod]

Making Cider - Making Memories

I've been a homebrewer for well over a decade, and I've been a member/owner of California's first and only cooperatively owned brewery, Umunhum Brewing, for almost as long. In that time I've experimented with a pretty wide range of fermented beverages, including all styles of beers, wines (grape and farm), distilled beverages, and of course cider.

Cider is one beverage that I've gone back to again and again, and has become one of my favorite brews. I've made cider with store-bought juice, adding sugar to get the necessary abv, with juice fresh pressed from the orchard, and even by crushing and pressing the apples myself with my wife, brother and sister in law using apples from trees my sister in law's grandfather planted decades before. What I've found is that it's not so much the method you choose, as the adventure you have along the way, that determines how much you love the end result.

This story is about one such adventure back in 2016. My wife and I had been married for almost 6 years, and I had graduated from law school the year before. I had been unsuccessful at the bar exam like so many others, and I was having a very hard time finding work as a paralegal law school graduate in the Bay Area where we lived. On a whim I had looked in Monterey for work, and found a job at a law firm where I still work today. We moved to a farm town called Salinas that you've probably never heard of, but if you look closely is printed on the packaging of so much of your produce, especially cole crops and leafy greens. Salinas is an amazing but complicated city, with a rich history and an essential role in both California and the nation.

My wife was travelling back to the Bay Area 3 days a week to finish her Master's degree, and would return to our new home with a couple free days while I was at work. She got to work exploring our new area and finding fun activities for us to do. That's how she found Gizdich Ranch.

Gizdich Ranch is a place I hadn't heard of before, but the more I talk to people from all around the more I realize it's been a pillar of the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and more of California for longer than I've been alive. The land was first purchased in 1937 by Vincent John Gizdich with 5 acres dedicated to growing apples, and another 5 acres for the farm house, some livestock, and a family garden. Today it's approximately 50 acres of apples and berries, with a pie shop, gift shop, antiques shop, and more.

My wife had discovered that Gizdich had both a "you-pick" apple orchard that was in season, as well as fresh pressed apple juice that we could buy fresh off the press if we got there early. That's all I needed to hear, so we jumped in the car and drove out to Watsonville.

When we arrived the pressing shed was in full swing, with a large crusher dumping crushed apples onto an old style press. It was amazing to watch it in action. Workers would stack trays with sheets of burlap as the crushed apples poured onto each level below, creating a tower. Then the press would come down squeezing out a torrent of fresh juice before the spent pulp was carted off and the next tower begun anew. I was enthralled, I had to make cider from this juice.

We went into the shop and saw the golden brown liquid for sale in gallon jugs, but I was stopped in my tracks by the price tag: nearly $10.00 per gallon! In my experience with purchasing juice I was used to paying four, maybe five dollars a gallon. I was not prepared to pay $50.00 plus cost of yeast for a five gallon batch of cider! Disheartened I told my wife that though interesting to see the process, the trip had ultimately been in vain. We prepared to head back to the car.

However, on our way towards the door there was a small table set up with small dixie cups. As we approached I saw that these were free samples of the fresh pressed juice waiting for us to taste. No, I didn't grab five gallons worth of free samples and run for the car, though the thought did cross my mind. But I did grab a sample cup thinking I might as well at least know what I was leaving behind. I'm glad to this day that I did.

The apple juice I tasted that morning has remained the best tasting apple juice I've ever had. It's not just that it was the sweetest apple juice I've ever tasted, and it certainly still is to this day, but it was more than that. There was a complex flavor to it that could not be pinned to any one apple variety that I knew of then or know of today. Then there was the aroma, the sweet and thick character that hit me well before the liquid hit my lips. It was like a landing party clearing the way for the invasion that was to come.

I can absolutely say they know what they're doing putting out samples, because I immediately bought 15 gallons of juice and drove home to clean out a second and a third 5-gallon fermenter. I was eager to get this juice into buckets and let it start bubbling away!

Now when I make cider, I rarely use a hydrometer to determine the original and final gravity (fancy way of saying sugar content at the start and end of the ferment, used to determine alcohol content), and so I usually don't know what the final ABV of my cider is. I'm not that way with any other fermented or distilled beverages, it's just how I treat my ciders. I will usually taste the juice that goes into the fermenters, add sugar if needed, and then add the yeast so they can work their magic. I don't particularly like the taste of fermented white sugar, so when sugar is added I'll usually use a light brown sugar, which adds a bit of fermented molasses flavor that really complements a hard cider in my opinion.

As I mentioned, this juice was off the press the sweetest I've ever had. There was absolutely no need to add any additional sugar content to the ferment, or to add anything else for that matter besides yeast. I tossed in a packet of champagne yeast into each fermenter, stuck the airlock in the lid, and left the buckets alone for two weeks. I came back to rack into fresh buckets to clarify for another 2 weeks, then I bottled everything up into 16 floz flip top bottles.

Most of the bottles I stashed away to age for a few months, but I kept a couple bottles for tasting early. Even green (unaged) this was the best cider I've ever made. The cider had fermented completely dry, as I like my ciders, but it still somehow created the idea of sweetness. It's very hard to explain, but I could tell the apples still wanted me to know how sweet they had been going into the process despite the fact that all the sugar had been converted to alcohol. That pervasive flavor and aroma of apples was still there, having seemingly lost nothing of the aroma out the airlock. Each swallow brought on a strong aftertaste that was reminiscent of biting into a ripe apple. Needless to say the aged bottles only improved with time.

I've gone back for juice many times since then, as well as for pies and to spend the morning picking apples just for fun and relaxation. Meandering down the rows of apple trees in the sunlight, stopping here and there to pick a perfect apple to toss into your basket, then meandering on again. There's no better way to start a day on the Central Coast.

It was picking apples that I realized there was more to this amazing juice than I had originally realized.

You see, Gizdich Ranch has a huge variety of apples. They have many more varieties than I had ever heard of, all separated by rows, with only a small number of varieties ready to pick at any given time. The wide variety of apples ensures a very long and gradual picking season, but makes for some very different apple combinations and characteristics at any point throughout the season. How then were they able to recreate a juice with seemingly the same characteristics throughout the season, and throughout the year?

One morning when I was waiting to fill my cleaned and sanitized fermenters with freshly pressed juice, I was able to ask that very question. If the varieties and characteristics of the apples are changing month to month, and even week to week, how is it possible to make a consistent juice?

To answer my question, an old and worn notebook was presented filled front to back with handwritten notes, formulas and ratios. This notebook was the key to consistency. Over 4 generations Gizdich Ranch had perfected the exact rations and blends of any of their apple varieties that happen to be ready for juicing at any time. All one has to do is find the proper page with the combination of apple varieties you have ready for pressing, and then blend the apples going into the crusher with the corresponding ratios and you will produce this perfect and consistent juice every time.

It has now been over 6 years since that first batch of cider. I still go to Gizdich Ranch when I want to make something special. No juice that I've used before or since has ever come close either going in to the fermenter or coming out. If you're interested in making cider and you're able to make the trip, I highly recommend bringing your own container to save a couple of bucks and trying it out yourself. Grab one of their famous pies and some jam while you're there, bring the family for you-pick apples and berries if they're in season, and grab a sandwich for lunch from the deli. I can't wait to bring my daughter there for her first time next season, and I hope Gizdich Ranch is as special and memorable in her life as it has been in mine.

-Travis