258: Ragged Hill Design| Building a Cidery Part 4

Ragged Hill Cidery since 2017

Steve Garwood is the Head Cidermaker at Ragged Hill Cidery. He and his daughter Anne Garwood Hampp who manages Sales and Marketing and orchardist Keith Arsenault form the Ragged Hill Cider Company in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Keith began planting the orchard back in 1984. Find Apple Varieties at Ragged Hill Orchard on their page at New England Apple Association There are 15 acres of apples which are all dwarf tree (predominantly) and they are trellised.

Anne Garwood Hampp, Louise and Steve Garwood. Photo taken in November 2020

Building Out Ragged Hill

Apples trees had to be removed (gasp!) to be build the current cidery alongside the Farm Store.

• The shed roof cidery dimensions are 20' wide x 75' long x 12' high
• The cold room stores around 20,000 bushels which allows for apples bin to be stored 4 at a time on top of each other

Steve ideal storage area would be 40' wide x 60 long x 15 high with no posts to maneuver the fork lift around

The cidery is very well insulated: 6 inches of foam in the walls and 12 inches in the ceiling.

Says Steve, "Since one long wall is shared with our cold storage which has a tremendous thermal flywheel effect , we figured the cidery wouldn't get TOO cold in the winter, but the first summer we realized that we needed to keep the cidery cool because mold was growing everywhere. So we installed a wonderfully efficient Mitsubishi mini-split system with this fantastic gadget called a COOLBOT. The coolbot allows us to hack the mini-split and operate it below its normal operating temperature to keep the cidery at 55 degrees year 'round.

At the same time it gives us heat and AC in the tasting area. We generate all our own electricity (and sell it as well) so it's all 100% green energy."

Ragged Hill also "farms photons". In the way back of the orchard there is an array of solar panels that allows the farm to sell back energy into the grid.

Ragged Hill Cidery and Orchard - Tasting Room to the left and Farm Store to the right

Ragged Hills 3 Key Cidery Fundamental

1. Apple processing
2. Fermenting and cellaring
3. Bottling and Lab.

Plus, #4 & #5 - Laboratory and Tasting Room

Contact Ragged Hill Orchard and Cidery:

• Address:
  • 94 John Gilbert Road, West Brookfield MA 01585

Mentions in this Chat

• CiderCon2021 February 3-5, 2021 - A virtual trade conference for the cider industry hosted by the American Cider Association
• New York International Cider Competition - February 21, 2021 3rd Annual New York International Cider Competition for commercial makers. Judges are real buyers making this competition stand apart from all others in cider. Send in your ciders now.
• Fermentis by Lesaffre -This week's Q&A with Kevin Lane from Fermentis:
  • Q: What temperature should one's apple juice be at before pitching yeast?
• Eliza Greenman - grafting orchards - https://elizapples.com

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