Carr's Ciderhouse

Carr's Ciderhouse produces small-batch hard cider, apple cider vinegar, cider syrup, and switchel. Our young orchard of 1500 apple trees was planted in 2007 on the north-west slope of Mount Warner in North Hadley, Massachusetts. A spectacular view of the Connecticut River Valley spreads out below the orchard, but more importantly, our shallow sandy-loam soil, underlain with quartzite and feldspar bedrock, enables us to grow intensely-flavored apples of high sugar content.

We press our apples on a refurbished century-old Mount Gilead cider press (one of the oldest working presses in New England, we suppose) in the ciderhouse on the hillside when the weather starts turning cold. After a long, slow, relatively cool (50-60 degrees) fermentation, it is allowed to settle before being racked, blended and bottled.

We don’t rush this process by force-filtering or other strong-arm methods because we think our ciders are very special. They are complex, crisp, and rich and pair beautifully with appetizers, farmstead cheese, pork or chicken dishes, and fruit desserts.