Untreated Cider Source - Wisconsin (MKE)

[In_Vino_Veritas]

As a Fall 1st annual tradition now that I have a keg setup and can back sweeten to my wife's desired level, I would like to make a cider sourcing from a local to Milwaukee apple orchard or within reasonable driving distance. Does any one know of an orchard that will sell a 5 gallon batch worth of untreated cider? Or is any one going in on a group buy.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JMack89427]

I'm interested in this as well!

 

[In_Vino_Veritas]

@JMack89427 I emailed a couple orchards. How much are you looking for? May have a little more leverage with a greater amount.

 

[ciderWI]

Hey guys, just joined the forum in the hopes of finding others in SE Wis who are interested in finding a good source of juice. We want to find something with more character than sweet drinking cider, although that's what we're using now with pretty good success. I'd like to get cider that is a little more tart and tannic to make English style dry cider.

We have used Brightonwoods Orchard cider (Burlington) which is UV pasteurized and makes pretty good hard cider and apple wine. They sell at farmers markets around Milwaukee and will sell bulk at the orchard if you bring your own container. I have contact info for the owner and will call him if we can put together at least a few people for a quantity buy. I'm thinking that we'll ferment ten to fifteen gallons this year.

 

[JMack89427]

I'd be in for 5 or 10 gallons.

 

[ciderWI]

Talked to Bill at Brightonwoods Orchard and while they do grow some "spitters" - cider apples - they are all allocated to the ÆppelTreow, their onsite cidery.

They will sell their drinking cider bulk for $5/gal which save a couple bucks/gal if you drop off your carboy/bucket the weekend before they press and pick it back up the following weekend. They press on Thursday and will keep it in the cooler until you pick it up the following Saturday. Cider pressing starts tomorrow, but they recommend buying later in the year like mid to late October to get the best sugar content.

He did offer that if we would be interested in 40-50 gallons of Russet (golden I assume) that he would do a single pressing. This was a good Russet year and Russet is supposed to make good cider. If you're interested post here and if we can commit to that much I'll give him a call and set it up.