Fresh Fruit Wines and Hard Cider Apple Pressing
Apple Pressing & Custom U-Brew Services on Vancouver Island 2026
"Turn your backyard harvest into world-class wine and cider. We are Located in Nanaimo, we provide apple pressing services and a full U-Brew (Ferment-on-Premises) experience for Vancouver Island residents. Whether you have heritage Gravenstein apples, backyard blackberries, or a surplus of pears and grapes, our industrial-grade equipment ensures the highest juice yield and quality.
Apple Pressing services is for making hard ciders only as the raw apple juice has not been pasturized.
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Ubrew and Fruit Pressing: How It Works
Welcome to the harvest season! We are excited to help you turn your backyard bounty into delicious cider and wine.
Fruit Quality & Safety To keep our equipment and your juice safe, we strictly enforce the following:
- No "Grounders" (Windfalls): We only accept fruit that has been hand-picked from the tree. Fruit harvested from the ground carries a high risk of E. coli and other pathogens.
- Sound Fruit Only: Please sort your fruit before arriving. We cannot process fruit that is rotten, heavily bruised, or shows signs of bird/pest damage.
- Pre-Washed: While we provide a sanitizing rinse, fruit should arrive free of heavy dirt, leaves, or twigs.
Upcoming Fruits for Summer Wine Making Season
🍷 SUMMER FRUIT WINE MATRIX (JULY & AUGUST HARVESTS)
🍓 THE JULY BERRY BATCH
Blueberry Wine
Style: Light, ruby-red, or rich rosé style. Excellent when aged for 1 year.
Source: Highly abundant around Cedar and Yellow Point in mid-to-late July.
Raspberry Wine
Style: Intense, highly aromatic, and brilliant red. Great on its own as a dessert wine or used to blend with tarter fruits.
Source: Mid-July to early August.
Sweet Cherry Wine
Style: Deep, rich jewel-toned wine with a bold cherry profile. Benefits from a minimum of 1–2 years of aging.
Source: Late-July harvests from local and Okanagan sources.
Tayberry / Loganberry Wine
Style: Highly acidic, deep crimson wine with a distinct wild-berry punch. Needs pectic enzyme to clear.
Source: Specialty growers and garden plots in South Nanaimo.
🍑 THE AUGUST HEAT WAVE
Desert King Fig Wine (The "Breba" Crop)
Style: A unique Vancouver Island specialty. Yields a light golden, highly complex dessert wine with sweet, honeyed undertones.
Source: Backyard trees and local urban farm stands throughout August.
Peach & Nectarine Wine
Style: Incredibly fragrant, medium-to-full-bodied white wine. Best fermented in small batches as it can be pulp-heavy.
Source: Locally sourced or brought fresh from the Okanagan in August.
Plum Wine
Style: Vibrant, sharp, and highly colorful (from deep yellow to dark purple depending on the variety). Easy to ferment and matures quickly, ready in under a year.
Source: Late August home gardens and local orchards.
🌿 THE AUGUST WILD CARD
Wild Himalayan Blackberry Wine
Style: Heavy, bold, dry red wine resembling a light Pinot Noir. Best when aged 1 to 2 years to let the tannins soften.
Source: Abundant and free to forage across Nanaimo trailways starting in early August.
🧪 WINEMAKER'S BLENDING CHEAT SHEET
If you want to create highly balanced wines, try these classic, tried-and-true summer blends before the fall apple crush begins:
Summer Sangria Blend: Blueberry + Sweet Cherry
Island Blush: Raspberry + Green Fig (The acid in the raspberry balances the rich sweetness of the fig)
The Sun-Ripened Classic: Peach + Apricot
The Hedgerow Special: Blackberry + Blueberry
The Pressing Process
We use a traditional No. 40 & 45 Italian Rachet Hand press system paired with a motorized crusher for maximum yield and flavor.
- Yield Expectation: On average, 20-25 lbs of apples will yield 1-1.5 gallons of juice. Depending on how juicy your apples or fruit are.
- Strickly For Fermentation: Because we do not pasteurize, all juice pressed at our store is intended for fermentation into alcoholic beverages.
- Sanitation: All fruit is treated with a food-grade Potassium Metabisulfite (KMS) wash prior to crushing to ensure a clean start for your yeast.
Take-Home Juice
Bringing your juice home to ferment? Come prepared.
- Container Requirements: Please bring food-grade pails or glass carboys. We do not carry spare buckets or carboys at this time. Canadian Tire has 5 gallon Food Grade Buckets as Well as Industrial Plastic.
- Stability: We add a standard dose of Potassium Metabisulfite to all take-home juice to prevent oxidation. Wait 24 hours before adding your own yeast at home.
Brewers Corner
The Backyard Brewer "Vancouver Island Edition": Small Batch: a Guide to the Edible Backyard for the Vancouver Island Homesteader
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