PROVINCETOWN — In a converted storage bay tucked behind Yardarm Liquors on Conwell Street, a strange transformation is taking place.

Lift up the corrugated garage door and you’ll find a mysterious world reminiscent of Mr. Wizard’s lab. Step into the cool interior, making your way among giant vats insulated in shiny space-age foil, PVC pipes traversing the ceiling, and a workbench carefully laid out with pipettes, beakers, and precise digital thermometers. Here Rob Brosofsky, founder of Shoal Hope Ciderworks, masterminds his liquid alchemy, turning clear, fresh apple juice into a fizzy, potent libation with just the right alcoholic kick.

Though the resulting hard ciders are easy to imbibe, the process is far from simple. On Tuesday mornings, Brosofsky drives from his home in Provincetown to New England Apple Products in Leominster, where he picks up 250 gallons of freshly pressed juice. Back in his workspace, he tests the batch for acidity and sugar content to determine what concentration of yeast and pectin to add. By 2 p.m. the juice is in a fermenting tank, slowly warming to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the right temperature for the yeasts to begin their work.

Then the waiting begins. Depending on the weather, the cider ferments for three to four weeks, longer in cold winter months. Once the mixture has hit the right alcohol content, Brosofsky adds brown sugar or honey as needed, and carbonates it by forcing CO2 from big cylinders through the brew. The cider-in-progress rests for another 10 days to allow the flavors and bubbles to distribute evenly. Then it’s a final taste test and last-minute tweaks, adding a bit more sweetness or acid to achieve the perfect balance.

At last, the finished cider is measured into brown glass bottles, pasteurized in an enormous crawfish boiler and labeled by hand.

Brosofsky’s passion for cider has quickly grown from a basement project to a full-time operation. In the past 18 months, he says, he’s produced and sold 35,000 pints in both bottles and kegs to restaurants and package stores on the Cape and in other areas of Eastern Massachusetts. He recently signed a distribution agreement with Berkshire Brewing Company, which will extend those sales throughout the state and New England.

Brosofsky, a Rhode Island native, got into cider because he wasn’t a beer guy. While hard ciders were once looked down on as “the wine coolers of beer,” Brosofsky says in the past 15 years there’s been a revolution of craft production in the U.S., which has significantly raised the standard. More and more brewers are producing crisp, dry European-style ciders with an almost Chablis-like finish. In fact, he says, hard cider has more in common with wine than with beer.

“Hard cider is basically wine made with apples instead of grapes,” he explains. “In Germany they still call it ‘Apfelwein,’ or ‘apple wine.’ In order to make it, you use a wine yeast, not the kind used for beer.”

Though cider production is heavy on science, Brosofsky didn’t get his start as a chemical engineer. His professional background is in computer programming and marketing, and he worked for many years in sourcing and production for the oil and gas industry. That background has proved surprisingly useful.

“Writing computer code trains your brain to figure things out,” he says. “If I know what the end result needs to be, I can work backwards to figure out how to get there.”

As he neared retirement, he began experimenting with making cider in his basement. “The first few batches were vinegar, but I wasn’t disappointed. I just wanted to figure out, why did this happen? I realized that temperature control is key. So I figured out how to rig up a cooling system. It became a problem-solving thing, which is what I love doing.”

Although Brosofsky says he was never much of a reader, his quest for the perfect cider led him to devour thousands of pages on home brewing systems, apple varieties, yeasts and carbonation techniques. In addition, he found support from other craft brewers, both amateur and professional.

“In the cider world, everyone wants everyone else to do well,” he says. “Even larger companies understand that a good product only expands the market. It’s really refreshing and wonderful, especially after so many years in the oil and gas industry, where all innovation is so secretive.”

Before long, Brosofsky began taking his work to local and regional competitions. “I was like a kid in a candy store with my first honorable mention,” he says. Those contests helped him sharpen his game.

“Afterward you get the judges’ scoresheet, so you know what you need to improve on,” he says.

“Like a dog show, cider is judged to a standard, not against the other entrants, so sometimes you have to balance the feedback with your own taste. But it gives you a lot of pointers for improvement.”

As he delved deeper into the competitive cider scene, Brosofsky couldn’t shake the idea of taking his hobby further. “I was walking on the beach and it just hit me — hard cider in P’town,” he says. “Hard cider is new and hot. P’town has its own mystique about it. I knew it was right.”

With the help of landlord Mark Silva, Brosofsky converted the Conwell Street garage space to an FDA-approved beverage facility. “Mark has been great,” says Brosofsky. “I was still working full-time and he helped me with the zoning and the set-up. Mark saw my vision and became my partner in bringing that to fruition.”

That walk along the beach also inspired the business name — Shoal Hope Ciderworks. “Someone had already taken the name ‘Monument Brewing,’ so that was out,” Brosofsky recalls. “Then I remembered Bartholomew Gosnold, who came here in 1602, 18 years before the Pilgrims. He named Martha’s Vineyard after his daughter, and named many other places, too. He thought the Cape was a giant shoal, and he thought the dunes were mountains of sand. The ancient word for a cleft between two mountains was a ‘hope.’ Though he quickly caught a massive load of fish and changed the name to Cape Cod, the story is that for about 18 hours this place was called ‘Shoal Hope.’ ”

For Brosofsky, cider is more than a beverage — it’s a way of life. Bringing that passion to Provincetown has been a dream come true, he says, especially since he’s able to add to the year-round economy. He hired several part-time employees, including a few foreign students, all of whom lived in town at the time of their employment. He loves sharing his knowledge with his workers and watching their excitement bubble as they grow invested in learning the process.

Shoal Hope Ciderworks currently produces four year-round ciders: Monument, the original basement brew; Honey Baby, flavored with honey; Little Tart, a blend of apple and cranberry that won a 2018 bronze medal from Cidercraft Magazine and was named one of the 98 best ciders of the year; and Empty Barrel, aged in whiskey casks for a smoky, bourbon-tinged finish. In addition, there’s the limited edition Hops and Glory, which Brosofsky calls “a transitional cider for beer drinkers.” Many of these ciders can be found at local restaurants and pubs in Provincetown and the Outer Cape.

As Brosofsky says, “P’town is the right town for cider, and cider is right for P’town.”