Goronson Viking Cider

• Ken operates his antique Buckeye cider press.

Cider House Blues

It was a miserable year for apples - many attacks by squirrels and chipmunks and for some orchards, the disease was rampant. Our orchard is still young and our usual suppliers got hit hard so Maureen had to scramble to find local apples!

The Buckeye press operates like a dream, but as you can see there is a lot of cleanup both before and afterward. This year we pressed cider much later than last year. It was frigid but there were no yellow jackets to torture us. We decanted and racked last year’s cider, and this years took its place in the basement.

We added juniper berries to the already fermented cider, let it ferment another 2 weeks and then added a little corn sugar right before bottling to create nice, fizzy bubbles. Maureen worked with our webmaster Aprylle to create labels and a logo and the Goronson Viking Cidery was born! Gotta love those Scandinavian roots.