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Camino has long been known for its apple orchards. Now, Apple Hill’s Barsotti juice family has put its freshly-pressed apple juice to spirited use. In October, they opened their new hard cider house, North Canyon Cider Co., next door to their juice place. There, surrounded by rolling orchards and tall pines, cider maker Mike Barsotti ferments and ages each batch to his exacting specifications.
The cider mill is solar-powered, there’s a burger truck parked out front and people can also get bites at Apple Pantry, one of the farms across the road. The cidery is open to the public from Labor Day through the end of October for tastings, but the operation runs year-round and you can find those ciders at 50 bars, restaurants and bottle shops in the area. We recently caught up Barsotti to find out more.
Q: How long have you been making ciders?
A: We started about three years ago. We’re a family business and we thought it would be fun to make a good dry hard cider in a few styles. Many hard cider companies use our juice for their brews, so we thought we should, too.
Q: How many different apple varietals go into a can of cider?
A; We typically use our standard Barsotti apple juice, which is a blend of Goldens, Grannies and sometimes Pink Ladies. But overall, we have a dozen apple varietals on 40 of our 90-acre orchard.
Q: What’s the basic process for making hard cider?
A: We add yeast and then ferment to dry in stainless-steel refrigerated tanks for two to three weeks. Then it takes another three or four weeks for the juice to mellow. At that time, we add back some fresh cider, then bottle and can.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge in going from making juice to hard cider?
A: You want to know it’s made from apples when you taste it, but you don’t want it to have that Jolly Rancher sweetness. You want it to have a dry, complex style. It’s similar to wine. I’ve noticed people new to cider start with the sweeter ones, but when they get past that, they move on to the drier, more complex styles. That’s what we want to make.
Q: Tell us about the two styles you make. There’s a third in the works, too, right?
A: Yes. Right now we do our flagship dry cider and another cold-brewed with hops. We’re looking at doing a pineapple-ginger for the next pressing in September. We also planted a bunch of heirloom apple varietals specifically for making cider — bitters and bittersweets — so we’re looking forward to making those in the near future.
Details: Open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 31, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekend in September and October. 3541 N. Canyon Road, Camino; northcanyoncider.com.
