GUIDE TO CIDER
Cider Production
The production of cider is a simple, traditional process, based on natural ingredients. A lot of time, care and labour are put into the making of cider, from the time the apples are harvested, to achieving the end product.
Similar in ways to the wine production process, the following is a step-by-step guide to the making of cider:
- The best apples are selected during the harvest at the 250 acre Magners Orchards in Clonmel and from the Apple Growers in Northern Ireland.
- After the fruit is weighed and checked for type and quality, it passes through a water bath.
- The apples are pushed along canals by streams of water to the presses where they are reduced to a pulp and the juices are extracted by pressing.
- The pressing is done using the traditional 'cheese' which consists of slatted frames woven with envelopes of pulp. Building a 'cheese' is one of the core skills of a cider-maker. At Magners, the very same presses used to make Magners 50 years ago are still used today. This accounts for the consistency of the quality of Ireland's most popular cider.
- The squeezed apple juice flows to a small vat picking up wild natural yeast on its way and it passes through a series of filters. It is then pumped into a Vat House for fermentation.
- The apple juice ferments for eight weeks and is then drawn off from the residue into another vat. Here it may be held indefinitely, provided the vat is made airtight by topping up with additional cider.
- Magners Original Cider is fermented in the Vat House between 18 degrees and 24 degrees Celsius.
- Magners Original Cider matures over a period of several months. Samples are then drawn off and laboratory tested for purity and alcohol content. They are then put through several filtering processes.
- Careful blending of bulk ciders is essential to produce the consistent product that consumers enjoy.
- After chilling, further filtering and carbonating, Magners Original Cider is then packaged and ready for distribution.
To learn more, see our Production Process.
