Cider Chat

Danielle von Scheiner is putting the "BIG" back into New York City's apple love, with her new cidery  Big Apple Hard Cider . Danielle von Scheiner Danielle began learning the science of fermentation at the age of 12 while helping her dad make wine. More recently she began experimenting with apples and then after a motorcycle accident (she was hit by a NY cab) she thought of the old saying "We all...

Adam Krakowsk's new book  Vermont Prohibition: Teetotalers, Bootleggers & Corruption  (2016 Arcadia Press) carves out the   state of Vermont's cider, beer, and spirits history in relationship to prohibition. Vermont Prohition: Teetotalers, Bootleggers & Corruption Vermont Prohibition  covers, the politics, policy, economics, religion and social impact that prohibition had on Vermont. Read about th...

Part 2 at Farnum Hill Cider Delve into tasting 7- ciders with the Farnum Hill Cider team. This is Part 2 with this OG cidery and orchard. Steve Woods, whom along with his wife Louisa D. Spencer who founded the cidery, explains how this tasting, which takes place 3-4 times per week, is conducted. Nicole Leibon, Steve Wood, Louisa Spencer In this Cider Chat The descriptors fly, laughter follows and...

Enjoy Part 1 of a two part chat with the founders and cider makers of Farnum Hill Cider, in Lebanon New Hampshire.  This OG cidery sits on the slope of Farnum Hill with nearby town of White River Junction and the Connecticut River to the east. 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 app...

Sam Reid is based in Tasmania, a state of Australia. He is a partner at Willie Smith's Cider and President of Cider Australia. Sam Reid Cider in Australia Tasmania is what Sam calls the smallest state of Australia…which by the way mainland Australia 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 sout...

"There is always something going on" say Nat West at his Reverend Nat Taproom in Portland Oregon. Nat West in the 3500 square foot Packing Room In this Cider Chat Ria met with Nat before she headed over to CiderCon2016 later that same day. This chat provides a tour of the taproom and production space. Discussed are some of his crazy ass fermentations that aren't cider, but does show Nat's passion...

Tom Oliver shares his approach to 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 cider 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 fini...

When John Bunker talks or teaches Apple Identification he doesn't begin with the apple. He 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....

Austin Eastciders 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. Aaron Anderson Austin Eastciders opened...

Keeving Made Simple, but oh so Dandy at Worleys Cider Neil Worley's 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. Thus, instead of growing apples at the farm, the apples are brought up the hill from th...

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...

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 l...

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...

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 t...

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 h...

Curtis Sherrer is barreling aging single variety apples at Millstone Cellars. An old grist mill dating back to the 1850s houses the Tasting Room. "We will have 50 barrels and then settle on 15 to pick from to blend for that one cider that will be bottled" Curtis Sherrer, Millstone Cellars "If you are looking to save money, all you need is a barrel. You don't need chillers." Millstone's Cider Makin...

Neil MacDonald is a self described "man of the soil". He co-launched Orchard Pig Cider in 2004. His specialty is apple growing and the primary process of the cidermaking at Orchard Pig Cider. This recording was taped with Neil at CiderCon 2016 in Portland Oregon. Neil MacDonald, Orchard Park Farms and Orchard Pig Cider The Path to the Orchard Pig Cider Neil was granted a scholarship from the  Nuff...

You might know Darlene Hayes by her blog  All into Cider . There you can find some quick cider cocktail lore and recipes. Yes, Cider Cocktails are hot…again! That's right, again! 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 barre l) ever since cider and spirits have been po...

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 – Thus these chats with two juice suppliers. In this Cider Chat on Juice Merchants At the 2016 CiderCon , two chats were recorded with global suppliers of j...

John Bunker "Friend of Apples" 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 thou...

At Freedom Farm, cider is on! Chris Jackson who is new to cidermaking has an enthusiasm for fermenting that is contagious. At the 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...

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. Cidermaker Joe Gertz Kurant Ci...

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 i...

Who is Randall Grahm Randall Grahm has been rocking the world of winemaking for over 30 years. He began commercially selling wine under the  Bonny Doon Vineyard  label in 1983 when he opened the winery's tasting room in the hills north of Santa Cruz, California in the village of Boony Doon. He authored  Been Doon So Long  : A Randall Grahm Vinthology (2012), and has the title and responsibilities...

Wooden barrels are so 2014. What is old is new again as Castle Hill Cider has brought to the states an ancient fermenting vessel that was used for over 7000 years. Qvevri or Kvevri, as it is called on this Virginia estate, is best known to winemakers in the Georgia Republic. Traditional Methods for Fermentation from the Georgia Republic Where is the Georgia Republic? It is in Europe and lies to th...