Cider Chat

Attorney Lindsey Zahn specializes in wine law, but there is no denying her interest in cider and the laws governing it commerce…and yes these there is a difference between wine and cider! Her wine blog On Reserve has been selected as on of the top 100 wine law blogs by the American Bar Association Journal.   Lindsey A. Zahn In this Cider Chat with Lindsey Zahn   In this chat we discuss: The differ...

Charles McGonegal has been teaches a workshop on Sensory Analysis for cider judges, makers, enthusiasts and at both CiderCon (the United States Association o Cider Makers annual conference) and GLINTCAP (Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition. Charles calls this workshop The Element of Cider. It provides a vocabulary check or what he considers the basics of cider from the sensory an...

Enter the  Giveaway for 2 tickets to Cider Circus August 26, 2017 at Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado  http://cidercircus.com/   Enter by subscribing to eCiderNews and be automatically entered or become a Patron of Cider Chat and be entered automatically to all Cider Chat contests and giveaways. 2 winners are picked on July 1st! Charles McGonegal is full time cider geek who also happens to h...

Kurant Cider is back on Cider Chat discussing the opening of a Tasting Room in the area of Philidelphia called Fishtown. Cider will be available to go in can and growlers at the 436 E. Girard Ave location. The production facility will remain in Perkasie, PA Kurant Cider is co owned by Joe Getz and Michael Meyers. Joe is the head cidermaker at Kurant and the Vice President of the Pennsylvania Cider...

Gypsy Circus Cider Company founders and makers, Stephanie & Aaron Carson, are helping to put cider on the map in Tennessee. They have two facilities with one dedicated to barrel aging ciders and the main production site which is also the location for their Gypsy Circus Taproom. The cidery opened for business in April of 2016 and has produced over 16 ciders each with whimsical names that connect to...

Tin Hat cidermaker Teddy Weber is stewarding a 25 year old orchard in Waitsfield Vermont. This musician by trade got his taste for cider in the UK during his music gigs while there. He teamed up with Sue and Gib Geiger who own the orchard that Teddy has been stewarding and where this chat takes place.  In this chat, Teddy and I walkabout in the orchard in Waitsfield and discuss the beginnings of T...

Tandem Ciders is the result of two hearts coming together in one spot of Ciderville (the east coast) and finding their way to Michigan. In the late 1990's Dan Young who was the co-owner and brewer at The People's Pint in Greenfield was full on with the craft beer scene. It was at The Pint where he met his future wife Nikki Rothwell while she was working towards her Ph. D. at the University of Mass...

The Mayador cider brand came about from a lot hard work and ingenuity. Manuel Busto Amandi born in 1906 founded his cider business originally as M.Busto in 1939. Between that time and 1966, Manuel's ingenuity kept the business growing. He had a number of innovation that were ground breaking for the cider industry. From the Mayador History Book: - He was the first to engrave the brand (M. BUSTO - 1...

The US cider market share in 2017 is growing. This episode on Cider Trends in the US and abroad is a replay of a webinar from April 5, 2017 presented by Danny Brager and Matthew Crompton of the Nielsen Company . The webinar was originally aired by the United States Association of Cider Makers (USACM) for their members. The USACM and Nielsen graciously provided Cider Chat with the main recording so...

Lou and Sue Chadwick of Second Chance Farm in Greenfield Massachusetts are what I consider the "Apple Pied Pipers". For nearly as long as CiderDays (the oldest cider event in the US) has been running I have seen the Chadwicks touting the bounty of apple varieties. This means they have dozen of fresh picked apples on a long table, that they set up outside no less in early November and welcome every...

Alan Shapiro wasn't looking to get involved in cider, being a craft beer enthusiast, one sip at the right time changed his mind and he isn't looking back. He is founder of the widely popular Cider Summits that takes place currently in 4 major US cities (with a 5th city expected to come on board soon). His roots in libations began taking stock while working as one of the first sales representative...

Nicole and Rafe Ward of Forgotten Ciders are celebrating 3 years of cidermaking this April of 2017.   This Michigan cidery has over 1000 variety of apples growing on 16 acres, many of which are cider varieties and red fleshed to boot! Rafe's Grandfather Douglas Eastman and Uncle John Eastman started planting apples trees 30 years ago to what would one day become Eastman Antique Apples.   Eight yea...

The Yeast Whisper's Back Story Having read extensively the books of the day he is, suffice to say, a self taught technical  yeast expert. "You realize you have to get some type of competency in science…basic formulas, concepts, ideas and just get use to it [the language of science]." but…"You can be really good with science and the numbers and still make average wine." In 2011, Shea began focusing...

Lost Apples of the Quabbin is a presentation by Al Sax and Matt Kaminsky documenting their 2016 research and quest for mapping out the apple trees in this historical reservoir region. The Quabbin Reservoir was created to supply water to eastern Massachusetts. This construction required moving out the residents and unincorporating 4 towns Dana, Prescott, Enfiled, and Greenwich. Needless to say, thi...

Jeppe Gents opened Fejø Cider in 1999. He calls himself a "cider farmer" having founded his cidery on an island 200 kilometers south of Copenhagen. You can take a 15-minute ride on a ferry to the island and visit this celebrated cidery. Fejø is an orchard based cidery with 18 hectares or approximately 44 acres of bitter, bittersweet, culinary apples. With nearly 20 years of cidermaking knowledge F...

Mattie Beason's passion for cider led him to open Black Twig Cider House in 2016. This new cider bar is located in Durham, North Carolina right across the street from Duke University. A good location is a key factor as you need the foot traffic to help build the draw that you need to be successful. Mattie should know, as he had just finished presenting Why you should open a cider bar and not a cid...

Araújo Monte, Lda is Portugal's first commercial cidery for the country that borders Spain and its million of Sidra drinking fans. Marlene Sofia Sousa Araújo whom I speak to in this chat, with the help of Anzu Fernandez as translator, was trained to be a scientist. When she and Patrícia Araújo Monte entered into a contest for entrepreneurs and decided to look at making cider as part of this projec...

This week's cider podcast episode is a mini recap of Chicago Cider Week  events, CiderCon , and 20 chats w/Cider Enthusiasts including recordings from the  The Northman  on February 7, 2017. 20 chats! Dang that was amazing. I hope you enjoy going deep into Ciderville like I do. Go to this page  to see the ciderchat.com show notes page with photos Ask for the following 6 #CiderGoingUP Campaign cide...

Cider Chat will be at the  Chicago Cider Summit February 11, 2017 Llorenç Frigola of Mooma cidery, in the Catalonia province of Girona is an Agricultural Engineer by trade who works with a fruit cooperative that has been growing apples for the past 50 years. The cidery started in 2013. This area of Spain, unlike Asturias, the Basque region, or Cantabria has had no production of cider at all. Mooma...

Cider Chat at The Northman (Chicago Cider Bar) February 7, 2017 at 4:30pm Stop on by and let's chat! I have a list of fun cider topics to chat with you for an upcoming podcast.  Cider Chat at  Chicago Cider Summit February 11, 2017 Look for the Cider Chat table where I will be recording mini chats with attendees and offering Cider Chat baseball caps. Luis Ravina Pisaca's title is enology or enolog...

February 7, 2017 at 4:30pm C ider Chat at The Northman    recording chats with patrons on Cider Stories! Brian Rutzen is the Cider Director at Chicago's first cider bar, The Northman managing 20 taps of cider, 5 craft beers and in total over a 100 options of cider to partake at this 63 seat bar. We chat how The Northman helps patrons understand cider, how it is poured, cellaring cider, cider with...

Bartosz Gałka is one of three partner at the Polish cidery "Slow Flow Group".  Along with Łukasz Sobór, Jakub Lorek and Jakub's father,Marcin Lorek, who makes wine and consults to this project  they are helping to put Polish cider on the world map. The cidermaking tradition in Poland dates back to the 16th century, but is only recently gearing up once again.. Slow Flow Group has been making cider...

Alvar Roosimaa turned towards cidermaking after deciding to move out of the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. He bought a country house approximately an hour and a half to the south Tallinn with his wife Veronika. It was at this country house that the name of the cidery was found. Alvar tells the story of finding a copper tube, which is a typical container used by Estonians for holding documents, in a...

Anzu Fernández has been selected as Cider Chat's pick for the Sexiest Cider Dude of 2017! picture credit: La Sidra Anzu Fernández doing a classic long pour This title is not given freely nor is it due to the fact that Asturias happens to have some of the biggest cider cojones around. I mean geez Louise! Roman historian Estraban said sometime back in 60 BC about Asturias "They scarcely have wine, b...

See all the videos of the Musée du Poiré by visiting the Cider Chat YouTube Channel The Maison de la Pomme et Poire (House of apple and Pear) was created in 1983 in Barenton by the  Normandy-Maine Regional Nature Park . In June 25, 2016 it reopened, after a bit of new construction, as the Musée du Poiré. In this episode, we discuss the Route du Poiré which can be followed along in this region of N...