Cider mill

A cider mill is the location and equipment used to crush apples into apple juice for use in making apple cider, hard cider, applejack, apple wine, pectin and other products derived from apples. More specifically, it refers to a device used to crush or grind apples as part of the overall juice production.

The mills used to manufacture, ferment, store, and ship juice products are usually located near apple orchards. Historically, the types of structure and machinery have varied greatly — including horse powered, water driven, and machine operated mills. The presses can be fixed or portable.

Cider mills were subject to legal proceedings in New York state in the 1800s over whether they were "fixed to freeholds" and other cases addressing legal designation as to what kind of property a cider mill is.

Cider-making takes place in numerous countries and regions. As with the cider itself, the various techniques used in milling and pressing the apples vary with each cider-making tradition. In most traditions, cider milling traditionally takes place in two stages: first, milling or grinding the apples into a pulpy mass called pulp, and a second stage, pressing the pulp to release the juice or "must". The remaining solids after juice extraction is "pomace" or "pommage".

Some mills provide custom pressing of a farmer's apples. In this way, apple varieties can be blended to make a cider of mixed juice types, for instance, a combination of sweet and aromatic juices. Various types of apple are recommended for cidering. Alcoholic cider can also be produced and is known as hard cider or applejack. Cider is stored and fermented in wooden barrels, carboys, stainless tanks, or glass jugs.

In 19th Century New England, apple farmers paid a mill owner a fee to crush apples into juice. A typical cider mill would look like many other small barns and sheds, with a set of large doors in the center of the longer side. Most cider mills were 20-30' long by 20-25' in width. At Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, 19th Century cider mill equipment is still used to make cider. In The Marble Faun, author Nathaniel Hawthorne contrasted the wine-making in Italy with the cider-making process of "New England vintages, where the big piles of golden and rosy apples lie under the orchard trees, in the mild, autumnal sunshine; and the creaking cider-mill, set in motion by a circumgyratory horse, is all a-gush with the luscious juice."

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