What Makes us Different…
Region (Terroir)
From blossom to bottle, our hard cider production is done completely onsite at our historic family farm. Los Rios Rancho, Southern California’s iconic apple farm, dates back to 1906 and has been continuously operated for more than 100 years. We sit at about 5000 ft above sea level. This gives us a true 4 seasons and plenty of snow and freezing temperatures that apple trees require for fruit production. Using our more than 10,000 apple trees and 300 acres of gorgeous foothill land we are situated in a unique Southern California environment perfectly suited for our cider production.
Wild Fermentation
All of our ciders are crafted in a wild fermentation practice. We allow the wild yeasts that live on the surface of our apples to change the sugars in our fresh cider into the alcohol that is found in our Hard Cider. Our wild yeasts in the Oak Glen Micro Climate have proven to be reliable and full of flavor. We have to take care of our yeasts with care but the reward for all this care is a more flavorful cider with a character that is unmatched.
Apple Varieties
We farm about 35 varieties of apples and pears. This wide variety of fruit allow us to produce ciders that only have one variety of apple(Single Varietal Cider) that showcases the particular characteristics of the fruit. Each year we plant more trees to slowly fill back in the orchards that have gone into disrepair in the previous decades. We also harvest from other properties in Oak Glen that we manage for the property holders. This gives us access to apples that are in different microclimates in the Oak Glen Valley. Each micro climate has a different harvest compared to the others.
Tend the trees, harvest the fruit, press the juice, wild ferment, bottle the cider, sell and taste all on site.
This beginning-to-end method of production enables us to ensure the quality of our cider while offering a unique sipping environment.
How Our Cider Is Made
Step 1 - The Harvest
We start the process with the best quality apples that we can produce. We are located on the historic Los Rios Rancho Apple Ranch and have the distinct advantage of growing our own fruit for cider production. The whole process begins with a small apple tree being planted in the rich mountain soil of Oak Glen. The tree is tended by Devon Riley and his orchard maintenance crew for about 3 to 5 years before it becomes a productive tree. Once the tree is mature and starts producing, it will then be harvested each fall for the next 150 to 200 years if all goes well.
Step 2 - Fresh Cider
The Harvested apples are picked by hand and are brought to the apple packing barn where the apples are cleaned sorted and prepared for sale. Cider is made from the "C" Grade apples that may have bruising or major skin blemishes. The Cider Apples are transported to the Refurbished 1910 Cider Press and are ground up and made into Fresh Cider. Fresh Cider is just the juice of the apples and nothing else. The Fresh cider is not pasteurized and dosen't receive any other ingredients to be Fresh Cider. This Fresh Cider is the base for making Hard Cider.
Step 3 - Wild Fermentation
Fermentation begins almost immediately after the fresh cider has been pressed out of the apples. The fresh cider is fermented in vats that can make a batch as small as 35 gallons or as large as 275 gallons. We are constantly making experimental blends and single varietals while still producing large quantities of our standard blends. Fermentation is the part of the process that takes the longest but requires constant supervision. The Cider Ferments and we use wild yeast to produce our cider. Wild yeasts or compounds in the cider can have both positive and negative effects on the process and take a delicious drink down a dark path. It is imperative that the cider maker is taking samples and analyzing the fermentation process from start to finish.
Step 4 - Final PREPARATIONS
Once the Fermentation Calms down and comes to an end the Cider is tasted and then prepared for bottling. To help make some hard cider sweet we add a little of the fresh cider back into the finished hard cider. This is known as back sweetening. Some Hard Cider tastes better mildly Carbonated and is given extra Carbon Dioxide in our pressure tanks. The final process is to bottle the cider and to Pasteurize the finished bottles to ensure that no more fermentation occurs.
Step 5 - Sit Back and Sip
Who we are
Devon Riley Family
Chris Ross Family
Devon Riley has been farming apples since he started working his first orchard when he was 16 years old. Having grown his business and incorporating new opportunities and avenues of business in Oak Glen over the years, Devon has booming apple business that the next generation is enthusiastically part of. The passion runs deep. As Devon’s son Seth put it, “We love the work we do. Getting to see the smiling faces each year of all the customers that enjoy the atmosphere that we can create is its own reward.”
Devon has over 3 decades of sweet cider blending experience and has made the sweet cider an integral part of Los Rios Rancho’s History. Every apple season we gather up the produce and combine the 31 varieties on the farm to create a refreshing sweet cider. Using the refurbished 1910 Cider press, Los Rios produces over 20,000 gallons of juice year. This sweet cider has been a family favorite for years and now we have partnered with the Ross Family to bring you a whole new version of our cider.
Chris Ross, a longtime grant writer, and his wife Lisa, a local teacher, are the vintners that have had the longstanding dream of being able to produce wine and cider. Lisa’s childhood near Paso Robles helped to shape her desire for the romance and mystery of the wine making process. Having lived near Oak Glen for many years both Chris and Lisa enjoyed the rustic charm of visiting their friends, the Rileys, and enjoying the apples and sweet cider.
This sparked an idea in the Ross Household, “Could their passion for wine and cider be directed to a venture in Oak Glen?” Chris began to make micro-brew batches to find the potential for this Idea. After refining the process in his free time over a few years and attending cider conferences and classes, the Ross’s were ready to begin production. With tanks full of fermenting cider and a notebook full of recipes the adventure had begun. The Ross Family and the Riley family joined forces to produce the best possible Hard Cider in Southern California.
Join us on this journey and visit our Sales floors and tasting room in Oak Glen and Check back in with our website regularly to see what new things are happening with us or just come on up and say hello. You can follow our Blog with the link below or get onto our mailing list with the button below that.