Orchard Hill Cider Mill began, as many endeavors do, as a hobby. While traveling with a musical theater production, Karl duHoffmann and Andrew Emig bonded over Karl's interest in apples. On these tours, Karl says, "You travel kind of like a family, so you get to know everyone in the show very well." Little did Karl know at the time that he was bonding with a future business partner.

Specifically, Karl was researching fermentation and distillation, and Andrew decided to go along for the ride. As soon as they were back in New York, they bought some unfermented apple juice from nearby Soons Orchard and began distilling brandy. Everyone who tasted what they'd created was pleasantly surprised, no one more so than one Jeffrey Soons, the proprietor of that apple orchard, who soon invited them to begin distilling on his property.

That is the story of how two actors parlayed their careers into a burgeoning business, crafting spirits from the humble fruit known as the apple. What began as a hobby turned into so much more.

Cider Craftmanship

According to Karl, "Apple cider is basically a wine made from apples—when fruit is fermented it becomes wine." Therefore, though customers often lump cider in with beer, the way it's crafted—fermented slowly in carefully selected barrels—is much more akin to the way wine is made.

"People who are new to cider, a lot of their experience is with a popular style that is extraordinarily sweet," Karl says. But he believes that cider is actually more nuanced. At Orchard Hill, most of its cider is made with modern variety apples that are "like culinary apples," so the cider is much like a sparkling wine, ranging from "bone dry to medium dry . . . refreshing [and] food-friendly."

On the docket now are limited-edition ciders made from heritage apples, which offer higher tannins. Where modern-apple ciders are like white wines, Karl says these heritage-apple ciders will be like red wines, with a "beautiful body, more richness and greater complexity, and sometimes a more challenging profile."

There seems to be no end to what the mill can do with this dynamic little fruit. But no matter what, Karl and Andrew won't forget how they built their success. As Karl says, "When you can go into a restaurant by Jean Georges and have a glass of your cider, that's pretty cool."