Making Cider at Home

Many home fermenters get excited about making cider in the fall, and there is so much more to discover! This panel, moderated by the Cider Institute of North America, provides tips for getting started, making cider year round, and scaling up production. Hear from commercial producers that have different techniques and approaches to making cider.

Learning Objectives

• Walk away with an equipment list for new cider makers
• Instruct on making cider with a variety of different apples and other ingredients
• Hear an overview of different approaches to commercial cider making, including wild fermentation and modern-style production
• Learn tips for sourcing your apples and/or juice, as well as developing different flavor profiles
• Gain resources for scaling up production, including going pro

About the Speakers

Brighid O’Keane is the Executive Director of the Cider Institute of North America (CINA), a non-profit organization with the mission to support a quality-driven and sustainable cider industry through education and research. Steered by the industry for the industry, CINA offers cider-specific training and certification for every stage of a career as a cider maker. Brighid joined CINA in 2017 with 15 years of experience in non-profit organization development in the agricultural and specialty beverage industries.

Dave Carr is an owner and partner, cider and meadmaker, and orchardist with Raging Cider & Mead Co. He spent 23 years homebrewing beer until his wife had to go gluten-free 17 years ago. After a couple failed gluten-free beer trials, he started messing around with cidermaking as he had loved cider since his youth visiting family in England. He started utilizing store bought juice but then began making cider from the apples he grew on their property. During this experience, Dave fell in love with the idea of native fermentation, without knowing it was a movement, and began learning methodology to deal with the challenges of native fermentation. Eventually, he founded the company in 2015 and began making cider professionally at Julian CiderWorks in 2016, in preparation for opening to the public in 2017. Since then, he’s continued his education into winemaking techniques which he has applied to their processes.

Rick Moreno, a San Diego native, is the Founder and Head Cidermaker of Newtopia Cyder, a 20,000-square-foot production facility located in Scripps Ranch, San Diego. Currently, Rick handles all new recipe development, new product development, brand strategy, and raw material sourcing. Established in 2017, Newtopia Cyder was recently voted San Diego’s Best Cidery by CityBeat Magazine and has taken multiple medals at the San Diego International Beer Festival, ranking high against some of the best hard ciders in the world. The first award-winning, locally-based San Diego cidery since prohibition, Newtopia distributes to 10 states and three countries. With production capability to become a large regional cider producer, the future is bright!