Nope, I'm not planning on deep frying a turkey; this stainless steel beauty is perfect for beer brewing and (drum roll please) hard cider making!Now we need to pick a cider mill. The cider can be pasteurized (since we are adding champagne yeast to the cider to ferment it) but cannot have any preservatives (most of the stuff you get at a standard grocery store will have preservatives. So when Meijer's is having a sale and cider is $1.50 a gallon, go ahead and get it for mulling, but don't expect it to ferment).
The closest mill, Dexter Cider Mill, fits the bill--they don't even pasteurize--but unfortunately, we bought a half gallon there a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't impressed with the flavor. It was pretty bland stuff, lacked the spicy kick that I crave and tasted like it was overloaded with bland, sweet apple varieties, like red delicious.
Right now I'm tempted to try Erwin Orchards, in South Lyon. I wouldn't be tempted to go apple picking there because they don't have my favorite apple, the Jonathan, available. But I have heard good things about their cider from an email list I'm on.
The other three mills under consideration (all of which I'd have to call to find out if they add preservatives) are:
- Parmenter Northville Cider Mill
- Ostbaum Orchards (also in Northville)
- Wasem Fruit Farm (in Milan) which I'm feeling quite warmly toward because they got my fruit-o-phobic kids to try different varieties of apples on their respective school field trips to the farm last week.
1 comment:
One other place to consider is the Plymouth Apple Orchard and Cider Mill. I know they don't pasteurize their cider, and I don't think they use preservatives. And they have goats! you can't go wrong with goats. ;-)
I've always liked their cider, but even more so their cinnamon donuts. Mmmmm....doooonuuuuts....
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