Virtual Tour

Bottling

Only when the cider is perfectly ready is it put into bottles. We do not use fining agents or other chemicals to clarify the cider because we believe you can taste them. Instead, we use a wine-style pad filter where the cider is pushed under pressure past the filter pads. Wines are often filtered down below 1/2 micron to ensure that no residual yeast remains. This ensures that the wine will not begin to referment in the bottle. However, apple solids are not as fine as grape solids, and we believe that filtering down to 1/2 micron filters out some of the colour and flavour that makes our ciders so enjoyable. Therefore, we filter only to about 1 micron, and take the risk that some dormant yeast cells may remain.

The filtered cider is pumped into 500-gallon stainless steel ‘bright tanks’ in the cold room. Over the next 48 hours, it is brought down to a bottling temperature of about 34°F. This cooling of the cider accomplishes three things: First, it stops any further fermentation. Second, it keeps the cider fresh, and third, it helps us carbonate the cider.

From this point on, our cider is kept refrigerated, to maintain freshness and also to ensure that it does not begin to referment. You will note that some of our ciders are packaged in plastic bottles. This is to ensure with 100% certainty that no one will ever be hurt by a glass bottle exploding. Only ciders that have no risk to you are bottled in glass. However, we are actively researching ways to stabilize our other ciders for glass bottles without compromising the flavour.

After the cider has been cooled to the desired temperature, it is pumped from the bright tanks to the carbonator. The carbonator uses a process called ‘force’ or ‘pinpoint’ carbonation to force CO2 into the cider at high pressure. If the cider is carbonated at a warmer temperature you get larger, coarser bubbles which tend to overpower the taste. We use a cooler temperature to produce smaller, more refined bubbles which enhance the taste and tickle your tongue.

From the carbonator the cider is pushed to the keg filler or bottler. Our bottle filler is a 1960 German Champagne filler that will handle anything from our single-serving size to our one-litre bottle. It is called a counter-pressure filler because it pressurizes the bottles to remove the air before filling. We then cap by hand, wash off the bottles, and return them to the cold room. Our labels are applied one at a time so that we can quality inspect the bottle one last time. The bottled cider is kept in cold storage until it is shipped to the distributor.

Our license is the same as the one for Estate Wineries and allows us to do direct sales of our products without going through the liquor Distribution Branch. You will find our ciders at better private liquor stores, restaurants and pubs on Vancouver Island and the lower Mainland. Now, please join us in the tasting room to sample the results of our traditional craft cider making process. We hope you’ll agree that they are the Best Premium Craft Ciders anywhere!