How we make our Cider

Redwood Coast Cider sources our juice from Apple Hill in the Sierra foothills. We send up a truck to fill IBC totes with fresh-pressed apple juice. It’s a melange of varietals, often cold-stored (so we can get juice all year round!), that’s pressed day-of. From there, we drive the truck back to San Carlos to transfer the juice into the vessels we’ll ferment in.

We pitch the yeast starters into the juice within hours of it being pressed. We have a few regular yeast strains that we use, but frequently we like to experiment (come ask about Gail’s Emblem and the story behind that yeast strain!).

The special thing about Redwood Coast cider is that we always ferment fully dry, and we serve our straight ciders that way. No sugar added back in, nothing to mask the interesting tastes we get from the yeast itself. Tasting a cider made with a white wine yeast against some made with a kölsch yeast really brings home the varied nature of yeasts and the amazing things they can do!

With some of the cider, we have a bit more fun: we add herbal tisanes, fruit purees, or spice blends. One of our favorite blends is the Strawberry Bobber, a cider with strawberry puree added!