Cider Chat

This is Part 1 of a two part chat with the founders and cidermakers at Farnum Hill Cider, in Lebanon New Hampshire.  The cidery sits on the slope of Farnum Hill. Like many New England orchards and farms there is not necessarily open continuous land, but small acreage here and there, wherein the case of FHC- cider apple trees are planted in large and small fields of 3 to 4 and 20 acres plots. Farnum Hill is highly regarded for their cider, producing select cider apples, and is one of the key tap roots for moving cider out of the back room barns and into the minds of craft libation connoisseurs for the first time post prohibition. (Not that there is anything wrong with "back room barn cider".) Founded by Steve M. Wood and Louisa D. Spencer, the cidery and orchards are what one can call an American Heritage Cidery. Make sure to note during this chat how many scions have passed out of this site and across the US.  For this chat, we walked up the hill to the top of the orchard. Steve provides the backdrop of histo

Sam Reid is based in Tasmania, a state of Australia. He is a partner at Willie Smith's Cider and President of Cider Australia. Tasmania is what Sam calls the smallest state of Australia which by the way is equal in size to the continental United States. It was colonized by the English who used it in the 1700's as a penal colony. It is also in the southern hemisphere so the apple growing region is found in the south on both Australia and Tasmania. It use to be well known as the Apple Isle a claim to fame that I suspect will in time return. There are 30 apple growers in Tasmania. When asked what would best describe Australian cider, Sam described the overall market for the country as a New World commercial style, with fresh apples, filtered (crossed flowed filtered), carbonated and a bit sweet to please the current customer palate - with an overall ph of 3.6. Whereas for Tasmania ciders Sam says, "There isn't one specific style". Willie Smith's where Sam is the CoFounder/Managing Director they tend towards the

"There is always something going on" say Nat West at his Reverend Nat's Taproom in Portland Oregon. I spoke with Nat before I headed over to CiderCon2016 later that same day. This chat provides a tour of the taproom and production space. And we discuss some of his crazy ass fermentations that aren't cider, but does show Nat's passion for - Fermenting! The facility has both a Taproom that shares space in the front room which is 3500 square feet. You can hear the cider workers in the background bottling and getting the site ready for a 100-person bus tour that was rolling in later that same morning. Nat chats on how many of the Pacific Northwest cidermakers use Juice from: Hood River Juice and Fruit Smart  We discussed non cider fermentations: Tepache - a fermented pineapple drink Kumiss Mongolian Milkwine And the Fermented Lamb Leg Cider made with an 8-pound lamb leg. Listen to 019: Neil MacDonald | Orchard Parks Farm, UK discuss how the Brits have had meat added into ciders in the past and his mention of la

Tom Oliver chatted on hopped cider and the best of what the US and UK have to look forward to in the cider market. What he saw in US hopped ciders back in 2013 ignited his desire to try his hand at adding hops to his bittersweet cider. He worked with 3-different cider blends and Cascade hops and in turn "ramped up" the bittersweet element to give a bit more of the drying finish.  The hop from the Czech Republic Kazbet was also used and provide a very different profile and balance to the Cascade. I had a chance to taste his At The Hop and it was delicious. What makes cider unique? "Sharing our techniques or what some might consider trade secrets." Tom's "Free suggestion" for cider that will conquer the world - "If you make a bottle fermented cider with Wickson Crab Apple and put it in small bottles with just enough sweetness to balance it out - it will be the perfect celebratory wedding drink! What does the US cider offer that is different than the UK ciders? The "massive fruit aroma" which helps compensate

John Bunker teaches us that identifying an apple tree doesn't begin with the apple, it always goes back to the root of the tree...unless it is one of the Eric Clapton apples, i.e., you immediately recognize it as a variety that you all ready know. John provides a great metaphor for recognizing apples that you have learned to instantly know, much like you would a riff from your favorite musician. The core of the issue is your knowledge base of beginning to recognize key attributes that stand out during the identification process.   Where to start? As John says it, Begin by learning at least 24 varieties. Two to learn first: Macintosh Cortland "You want to obsess over a Dingaling Sweet, not a Mac or Cortland apple." Is it a seedling tree? How old it the tree? I need to see the tree to determine if it is a seedling You learn what are the attributes or the characteristics of the tree Even a hundred years later you can see the graft. Determining the age Trunk diameter. Is it hollow. All old trees are hollow,

Austin Eastcider is helping to make Austin Texas a cider mecca in a land where the apple root faces harsh growing conditions. Aaron Anderson is the R&D Coordinator at this growing cidery. He sat down for a chat with me at CiderCon2016 in Portland Oregon during the United States Association of Cider Makers conference. The head cidermaker is Preston Nickens.   Austin Eastcider opened in 2011 and is distributed in cans and draft throughout Texas and into Oklahoma, New York and New Jersey. The cider is selling so fast that come June of 2016 they will be moving into a much larger production facility. Austin Eastciders ciders available Texas Honey Cider, with wild flower honey sourced from Texas 5% Original Dry Cider 5% An English cider called Gold Top was produced but at that point Texas cider drinkers weren't ready for a bittersharp/sweet cider. That cider is still being produced, but is barrel aging. There is also a hopped cider made with Falcon hops. The juice from the cider is sourced from the UK, France

Neil Worley's of Worley's Cider makes cider in the area of Great Britain called Somerset. Climb the high hill at the farm and your can see the Bristol Channel. It is a remote location by UK standards and the soil at the farm is only 3 inches in depth before you hit limestone. Instead of growing apples at the farm, the apples are brought up the hill. When Neil traveled to Portland Oregon in February 2016 to speak at the United States Association of Cider Makers annual event called CiderCon, I caught up with him to chat about a very specific cider making technique called "keeving". What is Keeving? It is a process, whereby the nutrients of the sweet cider (before fermentation) are removed from the juice. During this process the nutrients float to the top of the juice forming a brown cap that Neil says looks like a "brown omelette". The brown cap is punctured and the juice is rack over into a new container to then be fermented into cider. As there are no nutrients in the juice that was keeved, the yeast will not

Jim Wallace is a cheese maker and cheese tech a.k.a the "Cheese Guru" at New England Cheesemaking Supply in Ashfield Massachusetts. When not helping the cheese world sort through problematic cheeses, he teaches classes at his home...in his cellar where he also ferments wine, beer, and cider and has his beloved cheese cave. Our goal for this chat was to have a cider and cheese pairing and discuss a baseline approach for discerning between the right cheese to choose for a pairing. Find the full show notes to this chat at ciderchat.com Go to Episode 25 Jim Wallace | Cider Pairing with a Cheese Maker Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

Leonard Koningswijk owner/cidermaker of Bear Cider in the Netherlands is turning his country towards cider one palate at a time. The idea was sprouted at his family home in the rural village of Beerze on the border of Germany. (Beerze means bear in Dutch.) Like many cider folk he saw the bounty of apples laden on the trees and thought something must be done with those apples. Via the internet he learned how-to press apples and make cider and took a course with Peter Mitchell on cidermaking.    He knew his country was great for growing apples, but there are not any large volume of cider apples being grown. (Note this is changing as the demand for cider increases, most notably south east of Amsterdam where UWE Betuwe Cider has an orchard.)   The cider revival is slowly gaining speed in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, and Rotterdam. Listen to Cider Chat episodes 002: Wouter Biljs | CiderCider, Rotterdam and 010-Margot Sanderse | Het Ciderhuis, Utrecht and see how two importers are making craft cider cool again.  

Alec Steinmetz, Will Correll and Matthew Meyer are sharing their story of starting an urban cidery. This is Part 1 of what will be an ongoing story of the start-up Buskey Cider of Richmond, Virginia.  The cidermaking tanks arrived in February 2016. 5 wine tanks 4 brewing tanks, which are conical They pitched the yeast for Buskey's first cider on March 16, 2016 2 - 30 barrels tank pitched with one strain 4- 15 barrel tanks all have different strains 3- 4.2 barrel tanks for specialty ciders Opening date is expect in late April when they hope to be serving  the first cider to the public. They are working towards a 20-24 day production time. Full show notes and Alec's startup tips at ciderchat.com Follow on Twitter: @ciderchat

Getting to cider for Gregory Hall, was one part luck and a whole lot of beer. When his father John Hall founded the Chicago based Goose Island Brewery in 1988, it took only 3 years before Greg was at the helm of brewing.Twenty years later in 2011 the brewery would be sold to Anheuser Busch-B InBev. The 2011 sale set Greg free to move on to his next great adventure - Virtue Cider.  I was curious to ask Greg about what a cidermaker should consider for the long run if they want to parlay their business to the next level as father Hall's did with Goose Island and Greg did with Virtue only 3 years later again - this time selling Virtue's majority stake to A-B InBev. Obviously one must have a good product and as Greg tells it he looked to the European cidermakers for inspiration and direction.   "I went with my laundry list of question that I was use to asking at breweries,most of which were fairly technical and found out very quickly that I was asking the wrong questions.Traditional cider making is a multi generat

Bill Bradshaw is a photographer, an author of three cider books and consider by many to be a Cider Ambassador for UK ciders.  I met with Bill at the United States Association of Cider Makers annual conference in Portland Oregon in February 2016. Later that same day, Bill was to present an overview of UK ciders to the conference attendees.   For this chat I asked Bill to give us a peek on some of his highlights for the OMSI presentation and to discuss what a cider tourist might find or where to go when seeking ciders in the UK. Find the full show notes at www.ciderchat.com Follow on Twitter @ciderchat

Curtis Sherrer is barreling aging single variety apples at Millstone Cellars. An old grist mill dating back to the 1850s houses the Tasting Room."If you are looking to save money, all you need is a barrel. You don't need chillers."Instead of pressing multiple apples and creating the sweet cider that will then be fermenting - Curt keeps apple varieties separate until he finds the perfect balanceAt the "Old Grist Mill" they use a cloth press on site that dates back to 1850s.Says Curt, "Let's take apple juice and see how close we can get to making a chardonnay" of their goal in choosing to become a cidermaker.Curt recommends looking at bending much like ones does with spices and ingredients: See what will make the most savory cider.The learnings garnered from making cider from single variety apples, until the final blend are abundant. You will learn about:- How maturity ( of the apple and cider) matters- How does maceration change it? Maceration is what happens when you wait to press the pomace (crushed apples),

Neil MacDonald is a self described "man of the soil". He co-launched Orchard Pig Cider in 2004 in the Somerset region of England. His specialty is apple growing and the primary process of the cidermaking at Orchard Pig Cider.I spoke with Neil while at CiderCon (United States Association of Cider Makers annual congress) in Portland Oregon in 2016.Neil was granted a scholarship from the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust which has helped him hone in on his apple growing passion and helped him travel around the world.Neil uses what is a called a "Bush Orchard" in the UK, which works well with the mechanics of harvesting within high density orchards for a maximum harvest.He is sharing what he thinks US cidermakers and orchardist may be very interested in doing in the states.Neil chats about UK cider traditions and there is a bonus chat on the specs for a paid internship at Neil's farm.Follow Cider Chat on twitter @ciderchat

Cider Cocktails are hot...again. That's right, again! Yes, mixing spirits with cider has been favored by farmers to royalty alike (okay, not sure about the royalty, but I know my gramps used to love to age his cider in a bourbon barrel) ever since cider and spirits have been pouring?Yes, Ciderville we are both going to become a bit more "in the know" with this special chat with Darlene Hayes on how to make cider cocktails. You might know Darlene, by her blog All into Cider where you can find some quick cider cocktail lore and recipes.Find out more about this episode and see photos of Darlene making us some cocktails.at  www.ciderchat.comFollow Cider Chat on twitter @ciderchat

Juice suppliers Fruit Smart & Kiril Mischeff give their perspective on the global juice market and how they are watching the current cider trend in the US.Getting the right blend or single variety juice to make the perfect cider is part of every business plan for cideries both in the startup phase an ongoing. If you are not growing your own orchard, getting apple juice could be a real constraint  these chats are informative.And even if you do have your own orchard there is much to learn about how juice suppliers see the current market.show notes and contact info for the suppliers can be found at ciderchat.comFollow on twitter @ciderchat

John Bunker in this chat helps to trace the lineage in the US between cider apples and cidermakers. If you ever doubted whether you are on the right track with your cidermaking skills, Have no fear. Not only does John affirm even one's most basic cidermaking skills, but our basic love of the apple. When I asked John what he would give himself as a job titled, he thought for a moment and then said, "Friend of Apples." That friendship is helping apples throughout the US find their rightful place in history as they get identified one apple at a time. 8 minute Bonus clip only at ciderchat.com with John speaking about ep15 chat with Chris Jackson | FreedomFarmTC, Georgia on growing Antonovaka apples from seed. copy and paste this link to go directly to this chat. http://wp.me/p6S28K-7i Find all the shownotes and photos to this chat at CiderChat.com Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

Chris Jackson is new to cidermaking and his enthusiasm for fermenting is contagious. At Freedom Farm his family is working towards sustainability and he is blogging about it all, via his website FreedomFarmTV. Chris had shared his photos of his homemade Peach Cider on Twitter and I liked him immediately. Finding out that he was blogging about grafting fruit trees made it a natural fit of a Cider Chat. In this episode we chat about the different types of graft one could do to get a different variety of apples on an apple tree. Follow Chris @freedomfarmtv Follow this podcast on twitter @ciderchat

Kurant Cider co-owner and head cidermaker, Joe Getz's business is expanding, just after one year into producing cider commercially in the eastern region of Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. Besides making cider at Kurant, Joe is also the Vice President of the Pennsylvania Cider Guild, the commonwealth's organizing body for cider producers and apple growers in PA. In this chat, Joe and I discuss his ciders and why he calls them untypical American style ciders. We also look at the upward movement of cider in one of the largest state in the Union.

Mechanical engineer and entrepreneur Ryal Schallenberger is helping cidermakers throughout the northwest by providing a mobile juicing service. He drives truck and trailer right in to the orchard and in 30-minutes is ready to start moving through 3 bins of apples an hour with a yield of 150-200 gallons of juice per hour. Northwest Mobile Juicing offered services to cidermakers for the first time in 2015 and there is no looking back. [caption id="attachment_370" align="alignnone" width="225"] Ryal Schallenberger[/caption] In 2016 Ryal is looking at expanding his portfolio of juicing trailers. This means dedicated trailers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and a fixed location in Montana. In this episode Ryal discusses the roots of mobile juicing. Where did mobile juicing come from? Think German innovation first with the likes of Kreuzmayr (see link below)...a man from Canada going on says Ryal, "The Canadian version of Shark Tank" securing money and viola a business is born. Ryal expands the whole process fr