Cider Chat

Who is Westwind Orchard and their cider Fabio Chizzola & Laura Ferrara are the owners/farmers of Westwind Orchard located in Accord, New York on the west dies of the Hudson River. The orchard was bought in 2002 and was as Fabio described it "abandoned". Over time her pruned and replanted and open the area for Pick Your Own in 2008.  In addition to offering the apples, pizza was being made and sold...

Who is Ploughman Cider Ploughman Cider is based in Wenksville Pennsylvania on a family farm owned by the Wenks Family for the past 100 years. The farm is called Three Springs and it is exactly 1.5 miles from the ancestral farm that started back in 1818 when the first Wenk arrived from Switzerland. Dave Wenk The farm today has dedicated 6 acres to cider specific varieties. In addition the family gr...

The Publican at Tattiebogle CiderWorks Cidermaker Curt Henry has been envisioning a future cidery in Acme Pennsylvania overlooking the lowland valley in southwestern portion of this commonwealth for years.  In 2017 he had already planted a cider orchard on the site and this year the tasting room at Tattiebogle opened to the public. As Curt says, "This isn't my first rodeo (read: running a successf...

The Makers at Big Hill Ciderworks Troy Lehman and Ben Kishbaugh are long time friends who originally met while working in the automotive industry. Years later they team up on a very new career path as cidermakers! Both men were not originally orchardist, but that didn't stop them from purchasing farms about a 1/2 mile apart (as the crow flies). Troy purchased his farm in 2010 and Ben's family move...

Who is Spacetime Mead & Cider Works Dan Schreffler had been home brewing and fermenting for many years before opening Spacetime Mead & Cider Works in 2018. He is a self proclaimed science nerd, which is part of the reason why he went with the name "Spacetime" (listen to the full story behind his fantastic branding in this episode).  After beating a cancer diagnosis in 2010, he began wondering what...

"Every hand that touches the apple has a story to tell." Who is Elizabeth Ryan? She is the founder of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider, but that is only part of the story. At heart she is a farmer having grown up in Iowa on a family farm. She moved east to Ithaca to study at Cornell University to originally study engineering. Life had other plans for her and she soon found herself involved in farm ac...

The quest to find the Language of Cider Richie Brady is a graduate of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) who also happens to have a love of cider. This scholarly Irishman used his shelter in place time during Covid to take a deep dive into cider's history on the Emerald Isle where the first known writings on cider dates back to 1115! On this journey to he has found that cider and wine both s...

Who is Cider Chat? In Part 4 of this series on Cider's Media it is time to talk about Cider Chat - the podcast that is hosting this series! As you listen to this episode you will hear Ria discussing and reading from her interview for RealBrew a magazine that features Cider in one issue per year. Note RealBrew publishes their hard copy magazine 6 times per year. The heading of the interview is: Cid...

Who is Cider Scene? Identical twins Trevor and Nolan O'Malley launched Cider Scene in 2016. They describe it as not quite a publication, but more of a "focused blog", marketing company, and a little bit of a publication. Cider Scene is designed for the average drinkers who like a little bit of everything. Nolan and Trevor It all began with a winning ticket The O'Malley's entered a contest to win t...

Who is Cidercraft Magazine Cidercraft Magazine was launched in 2014 and provides a wide array of articles on the topic of cider. Kristin Ackerman Bacon the Founder of Cidercraft is not a newbie to the publishing world having worked in the field for 20 years and this magazine is not her only publication. She along with her sister Melissa Ackerman Miller, started SIP Magazine which is geared towards...

Who is Cider Culture Mary Bigham Owner and Publisher of Dishworks LLC , founded Cider Culture in 2014 which is an online publication that has weekly cider news post for newbie cider fans to commercial makers. Mary is a Pennsylvanian who also happens to live in the largest apple growing region of the state, Adams County. Cider Culture is her passion project and having recently partnered with the Am...

Cider Fueled Road Trip Day 1 This episode begins on a road trip to New York state, specifically the west side of the Hudson River to  Stone Ridge Orchards  one of the three farms that is under the umbrella of Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider. The other two orchards are Breezy Hill, on the east side of the Hudson River and Drumlin located in Milton, NY, on the west side of the Hudson River. Ted Knight...

Grab the slippers, the house is on fire! In February of 2021, Nicole and Felix Todd had a chimney fire at the their home and the damage done made it unlivable. Having a fire even in the best of times is an ordeal, but during a pandemic is a whole other ball of wax. Felix ran out of the house in his socks, because fires are that scary and when it is raining embers you don't have time to lace up you...

An Apology? By a Cider Judge Busted! I am the cider judge who has been holding onto a memory from nearly 20 years ago. At that time there were very few commercial makers of cider and in turn there were very few entries into competitions. The apology stems from my time back then when I was one of the rare cider judges here in the states, thinking I knew something about cider. Looking back now I kee...

Gone Fishing Ok, so maybe I'm not full on fishing this week, but if I get a chance you know where I will be - out on the water with my fishing pole...actually the heat is so high this week that maybe I will just take a floaty and leave the pole home. Cider Chat will return with another mini episode on July 7th. Find out in this episode what I have been doing since episode 277 and where we will be...

Getting Cider into the Spotlight This episode is Part 4 of the 4 Part series from CraftCon 2021 panel discussion on Bringing the Bellies to the Bar. In Part 1 we discussed "Who is Cider's Audience?" and "Who would you like the Audience to be?". In Part 2 we delved into Strategy for marketing cider. In Part 3 we we hear what both entices the panelist and what is disagreeable or in other words - Are...

Tempted by Cider This episode is Part 3 of the 4 Part series from CraftCon 2021 panel discussion on Bringing the Bellies to the Bar. In Part 1 we discussed "Who is Cider's Audience?" and "Who would you like the Audience to be?". In Part 2 we delved into Strategy for marketing cider. And in this episode we hear what both entices the panelist and what is disagreeable....anyway you slice the apple it...

Listen to Part 1 of this 4-part series by going to episode 274: Cider's Audience. Brand Strategy for Cider Brand Strategy has the same goal no matter what you are selling. In short it is to get your product or services out in front in the market place. The key is to have a strategy before you hang the "open for business" sign. This episode is Part 2 of a four part series from the panel discussion...

Who is your audience? No matter what business venture, knowing your audience (targeted consumers) is key to one's success and is the first topic of conversation for the panel discussion titled Bring the Bellies to the Bar as presented at CraftCon 2021. This virtual conference was hosted by the Three Counties Perry and Cider Association took place in April 2021. Ticket holders to this conference ca...

Climb Every Mountain Wendy LeBlanc and Patrick Mann met in Washington State before moving to Germany to settle into the 1785 homestead owned by Patrick's parents. One would think that living near the 14,000 foot (4267.2 meter) mountains of the Pacific Northwest made this cidermaking couple inured to big mountains. They on the other hand blame the mountainous route over the highest peak in the Blac...

Blend Cider is Like Building an Orchestra Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider in Ontario has helped Ria sort through the process of getting cider that has been conditon for over two years into the bottle! Now that we have learned how to make sure the cider is completely fermented, know the exact amount of sugar remaining in the cider and have done the math to determine how much sugar and what kind of...

The Yeast and Sugar Slurry Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider in Ontario continue on with helping Ria get ready to bottle cider that has been conditioning for over 2 years! In this episode we discuss the amount of sugar to add, what kind of yeast to use and how to make what is known as a "slurry". The slurry - a mixture of water, yeast and sugar But let's first take a couple steps back....to episode...

Bottle Safely to Avoid Bottle Bombs If like me you grew up in a house where your parents made homemade everything, chances are they also dabbled in making homemade soda, wine, beer, and cider. Mine sure did and I still recall hearing the popping of root beer bottles in the root cellar. Thankfully, we did have a separate room where the exploding glass bottles only left a mess and didn't hurt anyone...

The Ask Ryan Series is back! In Spring of 2020 the first Ask Ryan series with Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider was posted. This year we return with Ryan once again to dive into more  cidermaking questions. In this segment we return to more questions about oak barrels and cider and the technique known as Bâtonnage. The question: Is it okay for gross lees stay in the barrel or is it a good idea to ra...

Cider Canada / Cidre Canada Barry Rooke knows that the Canadian cider market is growing and believes in it so much that he and his partner Wendy co-founded The Cider Crate, a website that hosts their blog, a map of cidermakers in Canada, a podcast.  His full time work is as Executive Director - National Campus/Community Radio Association and he is also an accredited member of the Canadian Society...