EAST LANSING, Mich. – Turning water into wine is not quite the goal but juice from apples one day might produce a hard cider more appealing to craft beverage drinkers.

A researcher at Michigan State University has already succeeded in developing an apple giving the desired red juice. Steve van Nocker is now shifting his genetic engineering gears to try and give the juice from his new line of apples a much better taste.

“It’ll stain your fingers it’s so red,” he said. Van Nocker, a professor at MSU’s Department of Horticulture, has been working on the project for about 10 years.

The cost of his research is being partially funded by the Michigan Craft Beverage Council (MCBC) looking to tap into a growing consumer trend.

MCBC Director Jenelle Jagmin said a rose color in wine and other craft beverages has become increasing popular in recent years but hard cider is pretty much restricted to the light gold color of the commercial juice from apples.

“We’re definitely interested in what the market is interested in,” she said.

Right now, Van Nocker said the juice from his newly developed line of red fleshed apples tastes bitter and biting into one of the apples is also out of the question.

The challenge is discovering the genetic combination for unlocking in his apples the natural ability of fruit to produce their own sugar.

“You can’t eat it.  It dries up your tongue,” he said.

He’s confident of finding the right key, though, because of how far he’s already come and the time often involved in developing new varieties of produce.

“Some breeds have been 15 to 20 years in the making. It’s a long term commitment,” Van Nocker said.

He also wants to increase the size of his apples which are too small for processing machines to squeeze out the juice. He wants the size more appealing for grocery stores to carry because of how consumers prefer biting into larger apples.

“The best highly colored fruit we have now is only about the size of an egg,” he said.

He plans to place his new line of apples – once they’re commercially acceptable – into the hands of farmers to raise and profit from the sales to hard cider makers and grocery store buyers.

Currently, some hard cider makers are churning out their own rose colored brands.

However, they’re using blueberries, vegetables and flowers like hibiscus in small amounts to achieve the desired color while preserving the taste as much as possible.

Van Nocker said some of his red fleshed apples are used already by a craft brewer in northern Michigan which adds just a slight percentage of the red juice to attain a “hard pink” colored hard cider.

He’s also striving to find a way of making his new line of apples disease resistant.

MCBC, an extension of Rural Development under USDA, awarded nine grants worth nearly $275,000 this year to support research as it related to craft beer, spirits, wine and hard cider. The grant is helping to further the development of a new apple line was for about $35,000.

Similar grants for the apple research were awarded by MCBC in previous years.

“The results have been promising, so far,” Jagmin said.