Cider Chat

The Way of the Amateur How do you pronounce Amateur? Did you know there is more than one way to approach this word? Do you use "amateur" as a compliment or an insult? If you are swinging back and forth on your answers to these questions, you are not alone. In this episode we explore the use of the word "amateur"...and I share my two cents on the matter. Mentions in this chat February 4th-8th, 2019...

The farmers of Monterey Bay California have been growing apples since the state constitution was first ratified in1849. The primary apple of the region is Newtown Pippin due partly to the demand for this apple by Martinelli's, a 4th generation family run cider and apple juice producer. If you speak to any orchardist in the area, there is a undeniable agreement that if not for Martinelli's there wo...

Please Help Support Cider Chat Please donate today. Help keep the chat thriving! Find this episode and all episodes at the page for  Cider Chat's podcasts . ---------------------- The United States Association of Cider Makers (USACM) works on cider legislation, education, and cider promotion. In this chat: CiderCon2019 with the Michelle McGrath, Executive Director of USACM Why you should attend Ci...

Killahora Orchards of County Cork is located on the southern tip of the Emerald Isle a.k.a. Ireland and was once the center of the world butter market.   Historically it is also known as the "rebel city". Today it is a thriving city with Michelin star restaurants and makers like Barry Walsh and Dave Watson of Killahora Orchards in  Glounthaune. Killahora Orchards began to be replanted in 2011. Rep...

Lees: When should we love them and when should we leave them? And what the heck is "lees" anyways? The main chat in this episode begins around 10 minutes in and features Curt Sherrer presenting his workshop titled "All Lees Are Not Gross" It was recorded at the 24th Annual Franklin County CiderDays. Why rack off the lees? Curt proposes that there are more advantages for aging the cider on the lees...

Sex(ism) in the cidery was a panel discussion moderated by, Franklin County CiderDays committee chair April Woodard on November 3, 2018. The goal was to take the larger context from the MeToo Movement to the cidery community. The aim is to create an egalitarian, inclusive cider community and beyond. These industry leaders shared personal stories and provided actionable steps to thwart sexism. In o...

Matt Oskamp and Amelia Campbell started Apple Falls Cider Company in 2017. The cider house is situated alongside the farm store at Campbell Orchards located in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Campbell Orchards is owned by Amelia's parents Colin and Dianne Campbell. When Colin's father died due to a plane crash, he took on the orchard that was started by his father. That was back in the late seventi...

In this episode author of "The New Cider Makers Handbook" Claude Jolicoeur presents an overview of his trip to Kazakhstan in August of 2017. This presentation was recorded at the 24th Annual Franklin County CiderDays on November 3, 2018. Claude had a power point of slides from this trip, but do note that his descriptions fill in the void of not being able to see the photos. We begin in the Tian Sh...

Teaching Cider Making is fairly straight forward: Have on hand: Fresh pressed apple juice A carboy or some sanitized vessel to hold the juice, with enough room for it to ferment and not bubble over. An airlock to release CO2 and keep out Oxygen That is the basics, but in truth there is more to consider before you start publicizing your Cidermaking workshop. When Matthew Somerville reached out to m...

Dave Carr makes cider using wild yeast and oak barrels (primarily). Raging Cider and Mead is based in San Marcos, California, which is about 15 minutes in land from Oceanside and based in San Diego County, California. Dave Carr Raging is an urban cidery with an orchard based twist, which means Dave is bringing apples from the mountain region to the east and pressing it on site at the San Marcos lo...

In this episode 150 The Nose visits the Cider House Recording studio and helps Ria look at "What is possible" in the coming year. With now a 150 episodes there is a lot to review and reminiscence after meeting so many wonderful people all around Ciderville. Please share a big tip of the glass to commercial makers and businesses that support the Cider Chat #ciderGoingUP Campaign. If not for their s...

Sign up for the New England Cider Tour November 1st! The first Franklin County CiderDays began as a one day event on the first Saturday of November. The year was 1994. It has been held on the first weekend of November every year since for the past 24 years. Much has remained the same, except that the event itself has evolved into a 3-day program. Listen to episode 046: Going to CiderDays to get ev...

Kees Morsink and Margaret Van Helvoort have traveled the world as United Nations aid workers in Africa where they were fermenting everything from yogurt to mango and even doing some distilling. Cider isn't new to these two enterprising Canadians. Kees had his first spontaneous ferment forty years ago when he put a gallon of cider in his school locker and the cider began to ferment. Now-a-days they...

What do you do before a cider tour sets sail from Paris to Normandy? You take in the city of lights, sounds and sights. River Tour by Eiffel Tower This episode is a Cider Chat Live recording - I had limited time, so this one day excursion what the perfect fit. I began the day by visiting Montmartre. It is located within walking distance from my hotel. Montmarte overlooks Paris and is one of the hi...

Cider Touring 2018 Netherlands | CCLive Mini clips of travels and tips while in Amsterdam in September. Anne Frank's house   A visit to Apples en Peren in Amsterdam Then on to the Vondelpark to visit the Medlar tree Medlars have crowns Bicycling around Amsterdam I like renting from Star Bikes, located by Amsterdam Centraal. Nice location and best of all they allow you the ability to drop you bike...

Andy Sietsema comes from a long line of apple growers in the Grand Rapids area of Michigan. He is a fourth generation farmer and now a professional cidermaker at Sietsema Cider. Since launching the cidermaking operation in 2013, the family's cider mill and orchard runed by Andy's parents in the town of Ada has closed operations as of 2018. When news broke on the closing it swept out into the newsp...

New England is comprised of 6 states, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and is home to some of the United States' oldest commercial cideries. In what is known as western Massachusetts, the annual cider fest known as Franklin County CiderDays, takes place on the first weekend of November each year. This year is the 24th annual and takes place on November 2-4, 2...

There is Perry being made in Georgian Bay, Ontario! Windswept Orchard Cider is 2 years old (founded in 2016) and is the creation of Mark Skinner,   wife Courtney and their two kids. This couples background is culinary cooking which is part of the inspiration for the cidermaking and their ability to tend to orchards. The 100 acre farm is located in the souther region of Georgian Bay. They planted o...

Ironbark Ciderworks in Claremont, California opened its Tasting Room doors to the public in November of 2017. The large inviting Tasting Room has conical stainless steel tanks to one side and room for musicians to another, in the back. The front room has tables and chairs and a hot pink bar. There is also outside seating which offers a perfect place to sit and take in the dry, arid air of this sou...

Val Steinmann and Brent Klassen moved from the city to the 42 acre farm that is now called Heartwood Farm and Cidery in 2004. In the past 14 years, they created pasture and now have a herd of 20 cows each summer. They have planted an orchard and raised pigs, chickens and have two work horses. Val inspired the family to worked towards a "regenerative farm" and in short order Brent got into orchard...

Niagara College has two locations in Ontario, Canada. This chat features the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus which has a fully licensed winery on site (which is what is needed to make cider in Canada). It is here that past student and now the onsite winemaker, Gavin Robertson, works with students making cider to sell at the college's Tasting Room. The course work is very experiential in that there is a...

New Zealand's Peckham Cider is featured in this podcast episode #139. I was able to sit down with Alex Peckham at CiderCon2018 held in Baltimore, Maryland. CiderCon is the annual trade conference put on by the United States Association of Cider Makers every year. Because I live in the northern hemisphere, I have long been very curious about the apple growing and cidermaking schedule in the souther...

Richard Liu is the Chair of the  Ontario Craft Cider Association and owner of Ironwood Cider and Sunnybrook Winery . This chat was recorded while I was on tour with Ryan Monkman of Fieldbird Cider (Prince Edward County) who sponsored my cider tour of Ontario's craft cidermakers. Richard's Background Richard was born in Taiwan and his family moved to Canada when he was ten. Before buying Sunnybrook...

County Cider based in Prince Edward County in the Canadian Province of Ontario began selling cider in 1996. It was launched by Grant Howes a formidable man considered the Grandfather of Cider in Ontario. In 2000 Jenifer Dean who had studied winemaking joined up with County Cider. Her husband Grant passed away unexpectedly in January 2017 when he had a heart attack in his sleep. Jenifer Dean tells...

This is a mini version of the main podcast this week - as I am super duper busy - so I call this "Cider Chat Live" which is a mini me version of the main podcast - Subscribe to Cider Chat Live too via  https://anchor.fm/ciderchat In this episode, Nathan details how he made his winning Ice Cider that launched him into the US based National Homebrew Competition that was held in Portland Oregon at th...