Angry Orchard is often credited with sparking the rebirth of the craft cider movement in the East Coast of The United States. With 20 years of production under their belt, they are a benchmark producer across many styles of hard cider. Located in the Hudson Valley of New York, their orchard land has been a farm since the 1700s and has an apple growing tradition that stretches back about 100 years. Ryan Burk, Head Cider Maker, describes how this new location integrates with their business: “In 2015, we established a home on a 60-acre orchard in Walden, NY to focus on our tradition of experimentation and innovation.”
Almost as impressive as their history is the number of ciders they produce. In addition to 5 core expressions, they offer seasonal and experimental bottlings as well as their Ciderhouse Collection, a line of oak aged ciders made from Italian and French apple varieties. Production for the different ciders can vary widely, though most of their ciders are made from a combination of local, national, and international apples. “There’s a lot of care that goes into our ingredient selection process at Angry Orchard – from sourcing our apples to selecting the right varieties for the hard cider flavor profiles we’re aiming for – and we’ve traveled the world to find the highest quality ingredients,” shares Burk The intentional blend is designed to pick the best from all possible worlds to make the ideal cider. Apples are generally processed into a juice at the site of their orchards, which then gets concentrated by removing some of the water content. This process allows year round cider production while retaining the fresh flavor of just picked fruit. This is also how they are able to achieve a consistent flavor profile for the higher volume core products.
From there, the process is very similar to wine, and in fact uses wine yeasts to kick off fermentation. Different ciders are fermented to obtain different levels of sweetness and residual sugar. In some cases, unfermented apple juice is added back into the blend to balance acidity and sugar levels. From there, the ciders are rested to achieve a smooth profile before being released.
Above all, Angry Orchard tries to elevate the category of craft ciders: “[We are] committed to drinker education and awareness-building to help grow the category for all craft cider makers,” says Burk, “and because we’re always experimenting with ingredients and ciders at our cider house, the future will also bring plenty of new and interesting ciders.” As the interest in craft cider continues to ramp up across the globe, Angry Orchard is also focused on supporting local varieties; in an effort to pay homage to the apple and cider traditions of the Northeast United States they are working with local growers on dedicated areas of their orchard to new plantings of heirloom apples.
