I am planning to make a cranberry apple winefor next years Thanksgiving dinner. Soon a local cider mill be be in full operation and I will be paying them a visit to get me some great sweet cider.
Is it wine or is it hard cider I have been asking myself? They sell both and I guess the hard cider is higher in alcohol than the wine. I always wondered what the difference between apple cider and apple juice since they both are the same thing but apple juice is normally filtered and cider is not! They do pasteurize their cider only because the Feds made them do it because of the health risk of E. Coli.
It is a awesome operationand it is the oldest working steam powered cider mill in the US...est 1881. If you ever come to Southern New England in the fall you have to stop and check this place out!
A little background:
Clyde's mill in Mystic, CT, is a rare survivor of a once-commonplace seasonal rural industry. As the New England colonies prospered a cider mill could be found in every community where apples were grown. In the fall, mills converted the fruit of the orchard into drink just as the grist mill converted the grain into flour. A centrally located mill became popular for farmers who would sell surplus apples to the mill and bring back the juice to ferment into hard cider. In 1881 Benjamin Clyde began pressing his apples at local mills and in 1897 he purchased the mill and installed the screw press (No. 2) from Boomer & Boschert of Syracuse. Boomer and Boschert also supplied the apple grater, apple elevator, and cider pump, as well as the plans for the building. This mill featured a sophisticated method of grinding and a press capable of applying pressure at three speeds. Using all steel construction, it is considered the finest screw cider press ever made. The Cider Mill has an "Mechanical Engineering History" award by the Society of Mechanical Engineers for being the first steam operated cider press in the country.
The mill has stayed in the family and is currently owned and operated (seasonally) by Benjamin's grandson, John K. Bucklyn. His ancestor (a Bucklin of the Squire Bucklin of Rhode Island line) deliberately changed his family's spelling to Bucklyn.
John (call him "Jack") keeps the 1887 boiler and machinery in top shape, and it still powers the 1887 cider press. The 12 kinds of hard apple cider [alcohol content of 25 proof) in the United States are impressive, but most impressive is the history this mill shows us of the cider operation of Connecticut in the 1700 and 1800 centuries of this country.
The front of the Cider Mill. It faces the newer, but still authentic old structure that houses the general store selling merchandise.
The famous "first boiler to operate a mill".
Jack Bucklyn and his wife Barbara, ready to do business.
The door leading to the cellar from whence the wine is sold.
Edited by: masta
Is it wine or is it hard cider I have been asking myself? They sell both and I guess the hard cider is higher in alcohol than the wine. I always wondered what the difference between apple cider and apple juice since they both are the same thing but apple juice is normally filtered and cider is not! They do pasteurize their cider only because the Feds made them do it because of the health risk of E. Coli.
It is a awesome operationand it is the oldest working steam powered cider mill in the US...est 1881. If you ever come to Southern New England in the fall you have to stop and check this place out!
A little background:
Clyde's mill in Mystic, CT, is a rare survivor of a once-commonplace seasonal rural industry. As the New England colonies prospered a cider mill could be found in every community where apples were grown. In the fall, mills converted the fruit of the orchard into drink just as the grist mill converted the grain into flour. A centrally located mill became popular for farmers who would sell surplus apples to the mill and bring back the juice to ferment into hard cider. In 1881 Benjamin Clyde began pressing his apples at local mills and in 1897 he purchased the mill and installed the screw press (No. 2) from Boomer & Boschert of Syracuse. Boomer and Boschert also supplied the apple grater, apple elevator, and cider pump, as well as the plans for the building. This mill featured a sophisticated method of grinding and a press capable of applying pressure at three speeds. Using all steel construction, it is considered the finest screw cider press ever made. The Cider Mill has an "Mechanical Engineering History" award by the Society of Mechanical Engineers for being the first steam operated cider press in the country.
The mill has stayed in the family and is currently owned and operated (seasonally) by Benjamin's grandson, John K. Bucklyn. His ancestor (a Bucklin of the Squire Bucklin of Rhode Island line) deliberately changed his family's spelling to Bucklyn.
John (call him "Jack") keeps the 1887 boiler and machinery in top shape, and it still powers the 1887 cider press. The 12 kinds of hard apple cider [alcohol content of 25 proof) in the United States are impressive, but most impressive is the history this mill shows us of the cider operation of Connecticut in the 1700 and 1800 centuries of this country.
The front of the Cider Mill. It faces the newer, but still authentic old structure that houses the general store selling merchandise.
The famous "first boiler to operate a mill".
Jack Bucklyn and his wife Barbara, ready to do business.
The door leading to the cellar from whence the wine is sold.
Edited by: masta
