Al tells me cheerfully. He’s right, one tiny bite of the apple makes my mouth dry out with the astringent flavor. The apples that Al grows are not meant for eating, but strictly for hard cider.

Hard cider has become increasingly popular over the last few years, with national brands making an appearance in local stores. Hard cider is created by fermenting cider with yeast and letting it age. It is an amazingly flexible beverage. Cider can be served that tastes almost like wine, known as still cider, or as a bubbly drink that is more like a beer, which is what is easily bought locally in bars and stores.

This was the first lesson I had in cider: it is the most flexible beverage I have ever had. My first experiences with hard cider were growing up, where my dad left a gallon or three to ferment in the back of the garage. It aged there until the bottles bulged as they fermented. I loved the fizzy tang of that cider. The first bottle of cider that Al sent home with me was a craft cider, which was more like a wine than a cider. It was a clear golden color and tasted like a semi-dry wine. If I didn’t know it was made from apples, I don’t think I would have guessed. We went down to Wicked Warren’s in Warren and filled a growler with Shadow Cider’s craft Cranberry Cider, which Al describes as refreshing, crisp and subdued. It was completely different than the more wine-like ciders.

Apples for Shadow Cider are grown more like grapes than typical local apples. Most local orchards are made of larger trees planted further apart. Al grows his apples on short trees planted close together supported by high tensile wire trellises. The trees are 10 feet high and planted 6-10 feet apart. The branches are supported by the trellis and, in heavy fruit years, wired onto the trellis to prevent broken branches. There are over 300 trees in the orchard.

Apples grown for hard cider, like this Yarlington Mill variety, are often too bitter to eat.

These apples are not the same as the ones that you get at the store or farmer’s market. They have names that few have heard of: Yarlington Mill, Redfield, Chisel Jersey, Tremlett’s Bitter and Dabinett. Most are traditional European varieties that have been used to make hard cider for centuries. The apples tend to be astringent and bitter. They sit on the tongue in a rather unpleasant way, but ferment delightfully well into a hard cider.

An exception to the “tastes horrible” apples is an apple once thought to be extinct: the Harrison apple. This variety was central to New Jersey hard cider in colonial days. One tree was found in 1976 near an old cider mill, not long before the tree was due to be cut down. Cuttings were taken from the tree and grafted onto rootstock. Today, Harrison apples can be found in spots around the country, all descendants of that last tree. In Warren County, Harrison apples can most likely be found only in the orchards of Shadow Cider.

The barn at the cidery is more like a food lab than a barn. Sanitized hoses and stainless steel fittings line the walls. Containers of fermenting juice are carefully labeled in one room, where over 800 gallons of juice can ferment. Cement floors gently slope to trench drains for easy cleaning. A modern stainless steel apple chopper, apple washer and hydraulic cider press are stored to the side or lifted for storage on an elevator to the attic for the off season. A variety of lab equipment measures everything from sugar content of the apples and juice to precise mixtures of different juices and natural flavors to create tasty cider combinations. All of the apples used to make Shadow Cider are either grown onsite or come from Pennsylvania orchards.

Ciders are currently available only in kegs. Traditional cider, and several flavors are available, including cranberry, ginger, lychee, and peach. The cranberry cider is a crisp, sweeter cider with a light cranberry finish. The ginger cider is drier and less fruity, with just a hint of natural ginger flavor in the background. Lychee and peach ciders are refreshing fruity ciders. They can be found at Wicked Warren’s in Warren. Shadow Cider is currently looking for other outlets to sell cider.

The Shadow Cider orchards were planted in 2010. In the years since, Al has been experimenting with different mixes of cider, and fine�’tuning his production and orchard management skills. The science and engineering that have gone into the operation is impressive. As a creative problem solver and engineer, Al’s barn is full of creative solutions. Most doors can be adjusted to accept a fruit bin moved in on a pallet jack so that everything is adjustable for new situations. Extra equipment can be stored in the attic using an elevator to get it up there. Carbon dioxide storage equipment recaptures carbon dioxide released in fermentation for later use to provide an oxygen-free environment in juice storage containers to prevent cider from turning to vinegar in storage.

Warren Counties Shadow Cider is made from short trees grown close together on trellises.

The barn is so full of creative workarounds and solutions that I could spend a day just looking at all the ways things have been adjusted to make work easier, from quick release hoses to winery fittings repurposed for cider pressing. Al also has a YouTube channel, @Neighbor_Al, where over 600 videos detail the ins and outs of cider-making as well as creative solutions for small batch cider makers.

Shadow Cider is registered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, PA Liquor Control Board, and inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. If you are interested in distributing Shadow Cider, you can reach Al at info@shadowcider.com.