Detailed History and How Apple Cider is Made.

We love visitors! We are one of the most popular local attractions for those who live in our area as well as tourists from all over the U.S. and around the world. School and scout groups love to tour our facility and eat our yummy goodies. WE ARE HERE TO SERVE YOU!

You are the reason we make cider!

Visitors are able to watch cider being made from start to finish and then purchase the freshest cider and snacks possible! Our unique atmosphere offers a place to rest, a place to make memories and for many, a place to indulge! Thousands of visitors pay us a visit throughout the fall it’s a festive atmosphere for an experience that doesn’t disappoint. We are a ‘piece of the country pie’ amidst a fast growing suburbia in Oakland County.

The apples we use at our mill are exclusively grown in Michigan. When you drink our cider, eat our apples, enjoy our pies and crisps you are enjoying good ole fashioned Michigan hospitality.

Our visitors can learn our history and see our process. With our 26-inch water turbine providing direct power for the complete cider operation it’s an experience young and old are thrilled by. This very turbine was installed in 1894, making this a hundred-plus year legend! Our 58-inch culvert carries the water underground from a diversion dam right across the street to the mill, providing water power for the turbine.

The process of cider making starts with apples arriving on a flatbed truck from Michigan orchards near and far. These 20-bushel boxes are unloaded by a forklift – each weighs about 1000 pounds! The apples are then unloaded into a dumper-washer inspection area where cleaning, grinding and pressing begins!

As a visitor at Yates Cider Mill we LOVE TO MAKE YOU a part of our process by letting you have a birds eye view!

The apples not scheduled for direct use are placed in cold storage at the mill.

The rest of the apples are cleaned, taken up on an elevator and dropped into a hopper. This cone-shaped box holds 150 bushels and is located on the second floor of the cider mill. Below, on the first floor, the remainder of the operation takes place.

A trap door on the bottom of the hopper is controlled by a handle on the first floor, allowing the fruit to fall thru to the first floor chute. On their way down the chute, the apples are chopped into small pieces, about four bushels at a time, then placed in a special nylon blanket. This process continues until up to 12 blankets are stacked.

The layers of chopped apples are on a large turntable that rotates under the apple press. The Yates Cider Mill press is called a ‘screw press’ because large screws turn to make the press go down. Putting 50 tons of pressure on the blankets of chopped apples makes some FINE CIDER! As the press goes down on the blankets, the cider comes thru the weave in the cloth leaving the seeds, peelings and pulp to remain inside the blanket. All by-products are then discarded down a chute in the floor and into a small railroad car under the mill. Periodically, the car is transferred to the dump area.

The cider flows from the press to our chilled mixing tank. From here, the cider is filtered to remove any and all small apple particles. Lastly, the cider is flash pasteurized before bottling.

Yates cider is made without preservatives. “Flash pasteurization" is now used for your safety. Please remember-
refrigeration is still required.

See additional tour information under the “Tour Tab” to find out more about bringing your group to Yates for a special look into the Yates cider-making process.