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In the 1970s, she said, the province decided to make an industry out of cider and issued licenses to large com- panies. "They began making very bad cider," she said. By the late 1980s, these permits were pulled, and artisan cider permits were created. "It's a growing industry now, with around 50 producers," she said. The Demoys are transferring ownership of their business to their two adult children, Alan and Audrenne. Audrenne guided the IFTA tourists through the processing side of their facility. Each year, the family uses all the apples from their 120 acres of orchards to make cider. They grow McIntosh, Cortland, Lobo, Melba, Empire, Liberty, Trent, Geneva, and Golden Russet varieties and use them in various combinations to make 11 ciders of four combinations, still and sparkling, plain cider and ice cider. Their first cider was called Crémant de Pomme Du Minot, a sparkling cider that in 1989 became the first handcrafted alcoholic cider to be sold through provincial liquor control board outlets, regulated by the Société des alcools du Québec. In Quebec, only low-alcohol beverages like beer may be sold at stores and supermarkets, and 7 percent alcohol is the cutoff. They sell most of their cider through their ciderie, equivalent to a winery tasting and sales room. The two leading cider-consuming countries in the world are the United Kingdom and France. The eastern Cidrerie du Minot has a test orchard that contains apples being tested for their ice cider qualities. Eden and Diva are two such varieties that were bred at the nearby research station at St-Jean-sur-Richeleau. That breeding program was terminated by Canada's federal government this year. United States once shared that tradition, but it was virtu- ally stamped out by 15 years of Prohibition that some- what sobered the Roaring Twenties, now nearly a century ago. Quebec also felt Prohibition's sway. The SAQ was formed in 1921 to control sales of alcoholic beverages. Robert and Joelle don't share that history. They emi- grated to Canada from Brittany in northern France in the 1970s, bringing that area's cider tradition with them and transplanting it in Quebec. He was part of the movement to create artisan ciders. Robert is an oenology graduate from the University of Bordeaux in France. He worked as a consultant oenologist in Bordeaux, then as an industry consultant in cider and wine in Quebec. He was a technical advisor Audrenne Demoy talked to visitors as she stood next to the stainless steel equipment in the fermentation room. Ciders are sold in many different sizes of containers, with ice cider coming in the small 200-milliliter size. Here, cider is being labeled and packed. Oak barrels of cider line the wall of this rustic cellar in the tasting and sales room at Cidrerie du Minot. for many small-scale producers in the province. He teaches handicraft cider production at the Institut de Technologie Agroalimentaire de Saint-Hyacinthe. The process of making cider at Cidrerie du Minot starts with grinding the apples and squeezing out the juice using a belt press. It has a capacity of about two tons per hour, Audrenne said. The pomace is composted and used in the orchard. Juice is pumped into stainless steel tanks in the fermentation room. Some of the tanks are equipped to keep the juice cold and retain carbon dioxide in making carbonated (sparkling) ciders. • 26 OCTOBER 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com