Our Story

Hello! I’m Dan Greene! This is my story of how a love for making cider became a dream and then a reality, 603Cider! In the early 2000's, my wife and I moved into the family farm shortly after her father passed. A beautiful plot of land with a 1783 era farmhouse and barn. A generational farm from the beginning with a dirt floor basement, it was a perfect place to start learning how to make hard cider. The first attempt was with an oak barrel and 50 gallons of fresh cider from a local orchard. It ended up being a somewhat dry cider. The next year I decided to alter my recipe and make it sweeter. I achieved this by adding honey for the extra sugar in the recipe. Thinking that I had created something new, it was only later (15years!) that I was told from a winery that what I was making was acutally called Cyser. Cyser, is in between hard cider (with apples) and mead (with honey). So after working the recipe for almost 15 years or so, I took my love of cider making and started the process of making a business out of it. Countless searches on the web gleaned me lots of information.

I first started with the TTB. This is the federal entity where I needed to get my license to operate a winery. Wow, wait a minute, I thought that I was making hard cider/cyser. Yes, I was, but because of my alcohol content is ABV 18% it put me in the wine category, sometimes called Applewine. Some people say that's kind of high don't you think? Until they taste it! After it passes over the lips, I've gotten all kinds of compliments... “WOW! That's so smooth” , “That's really refreshing!” , “Oh my GOD!” . After that license dealing with the state Liquor Agency was next. After getting that license, which seemed hard at first, things started rolling along just fine. In the winter of 2021-2022 I committed to be all in and started remodeling our 24'x20' garage. I made a 10'x12' temperature-controlled fermentation room that mimicked the conditions of the farmhouse’s basement. With an air conditioner and a used Miller furnace I was in business, so to speak. Things came together after a lot of work and I was ready for my state inspection.                                               

Over the years I've developed a few recipes with a natural approach to flavor. Currently 603CIDER has available dry cider, sweet cider, semi-sweet, spiced apple and one I call apple crisp cider. They are all delicious. The orchard that I use makes my fresh cider from their orchard with MacIntosh, Cortland, and Red Delicious. More varieties will be used in the future as we continue to grow