Tim Hileman was a little behind on cider making this year, but production on his Kistaco Farm in Kiskiminetas was in high gear one recent morning, producing the golden brown liquid sold in stores in the Route 30 corridor and into Pittsburgh.

Before 9 a.m., helpers David Akins, a 30-year Kistaco employee, and Terry Heckman, a retired insurance agent, were pushing four 18 bushel-size crates of apples into a washer and grinder after sorting through them for bad spots.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette David Akins moves apples toward the washer at Kistaco Farm in Armstrong County. Click photo for larger image.

The apples bounced up a belt and through a machine that sprayed juice and pulp onto the sides of the hopper and the scent of fresh apples into the air. Below the hopper, clear apple juice dripped from three chutes, which fed a tank equipped with what looked like the mother of all juicers.

Then, Mr. Akins pulled the bottoms of the three chutes out, letting the pulp of what used to be 72 bushels of Macintosh, Cortland, Jonathan and Gala apples drop into the tank of the juicer.

The juicer, which is an inflatable bladder the size of a small dolphin, does its work, reducing the juice and pulp to more juice. The juice is brown as it's pushed through hoses into a stainless steel holding tank.

"Oxidation," Mr. Hileman said. Just as when you cut an apple and let it sit for a few minutes and it turns brown, so do the juice and pulp of these fresh apples.

From the holding tank, the juice moves to a pasteurization tank and then to bottling. The whole process, from apple to bottled juice, takes an hour and a half.

Mr. Hileman grew up on Kistaco Farm, which was named by his grandfather, Claude Yerger, who farmed only for family consumption. The name of the farm is an acronym for Kiski Township, Armstrong County.

Mr. Hileman's parents, Bill and Jean, worked the 230-acre farm commercially, then, when Tim and his wife, Suzanne, took over, Bill Hileman continued to help.

They have more than 30 acres of fruit trees, including 24 varieties of apples, and another 30 acres of vegetables. There are no farm animals, just the family dogs and cats.

Tim and Suzanne Hileman met at Penn State, where he was an agriculture major and she was an English major. They married 21 years ago and have three teenage children. Each is 44.

Their farm store sits beside Route 56 outside of Apollo and, in addition to fresh vegetables from their farm, they sell their cider directly to customers, some of whom will buy only Kistaco cider.

"They say it's sweet," Mrs. Hileman said.

That's a result of the right mix of apples, flash pasteurization and the immaculately clean equipment Mr. Hileman uses to make the cider, she said.

Some people tell him that unpasteurized cider tastes better than pasteurized, but Mr. Hileman doesn't agree. When state regulations mandating pasteurization were phased in a few years ago, he was already doing it.

The flavor was changed very little, he said.

He tells the story of his father who, years ago, took bushels of the farm's apples to a community cider press, on which a number of farmers would have their fruit processed.

The day his mother went with his father was the last day the Hilemans used a community press to make their cider.

"She said it was filthy," her son remembered. So they bought the basic stainless steel machinery their son uses today.

It takes about two hours to clean the machines and tanks once they're done making juice, but cleanliness is important, he said.

The mix of apples used for the cider depends a lot on what apples are ripe, Mr. Hileman said. So, though people might not notice, the flavor of the cider he makes from early fall through late winter or early spring changes. But he always tries to have a good mix of sweet and tart apples to give the cider its flavor.

He's expanded his customer base from his own and a few local stores to Giant Eagle supermarkets in the Route 30 corridor in Westmoreland County, in Murrysville, the East End Food Co-op and the East Liberty Farmers Cooperative.

The cider has no preservatives, so Mr. Hileman recommends buying a very cold jug of cider, keeping it cold and drinking it within a week or so after it's opened.

In the unlikely event there's some left in the fridge and you know it's past its prime, take it out, remove the lid and let the container sit .

In about six weeks, tasty apple cider vinegar will have formed. Strain it and pour it into a bottle and tell everyone you made the gourmet vinegar.