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 connoisseursfor the first time post prohibition.

(Not that there is anything wrong with "back room barn cider".)

Founded bySteve 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 history surrounding the early beginnings of Farnum Hill.

Here is a snap shoot of our chat.

• 1965 - Steve was eleven years old when he started working at the farm. His dad was an apple farmer and the local doctor.
• Steve and Louisa arrived back to the farm in 1973...post college
• 1984 bought Poverty Hill Orchards
• 1989 planted the first commercial size cider orchard in the US - a 1000 trees
• 1995 Became bonded to begin selling cider
• 1990s - Steve began studying winemaking
• Throughout the 90s they began planting more and more fruit trees

For patrons of Cider Chat, via Cider Chat's Patreon page there will a YouTube clip available for viewing Steve Wood blending cider. It will go live on Thursday May 26th.It is easy to become a patron and it really helps this chat thrive. Please do consider becoming a Patron of the Chat today!

Findthe show notes and photos at cider chat.com

Go to episode 032

Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

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 French Style of cidermaking, with less emphasis on the acid. Willie Smith's ciders are also unfiltered and oak aged and note that they do have special release ciders in 750 ML bottles which makes a visit to their Tasting Room (The Apple Shed) even more worthwhile.

How to get to Tasmania?

1. Take an hour and half flight from Melbourne
2. Take an overnight ferry from Melbourne to the port in Devon. You can take car on the ferry.

Spreyton Cider is the first cidery that you can get to once off the ferry.

Head south into Cole Valley and look for Red Brick Road Ciderand Two Metre Tall inLaunceston.

Red Sails Cider in Middleton

Lost Pippin cider, Pagan Cider,Frank's Ciderand so much more

Click on the link to Tasmania Cider Trail and put it on your plans for a perfect cider holiday

Huon Valley Mid Winter Festival July 15-17, 2016

Contact Info for Willie Smith's

All of Willie Smith's ciders are produced on site. The farm itself is 150 acres (40 hectares).

Willie Smith's is 30 minutes south of Hobart, Tasmania. Hobart is the capital of this Australian state. The actual region where Willie Smith's is located is the Huon Valley.

Website:http://www.williesmiths.com.au/

Follow @williesmiths on Twitter

Cider Australia

Contact Jane Anderson at the Executive Office for more info on Cider Australiamailto:[email protected]

More Cider Tourist info for Australia

Cider and Ale Trail in the Yarra Valley - Victoria

Thanks to Hugh McKellar at Real Cider Reviews for connecting me with Sam for this chat!

Help Keep Cider Chat thriving by becoming a Patron today via my Patreon page.

Please share this cider centric podcast!

Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

Shownotes and photos at ciderchat.com episode 031

"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 theFermented 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 lamb legs.

Find photos of Reverend Nat's and the show notes at ciderchat.com

Follow this Cider Chat on twiiter @ciderchat

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 hisAt The Hopand 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 for the absence of the bittersweet in the US.

Other topics discussed in this chat:

• The implications of the CiderAct imp
• Concentrated juice's use in cidermaking
• Real cider and a probable definition of craft cider
• Who can call themself a craft cidermaker?

For Tom only one things matters: is it a good cider, which he says is the starting point.

What is good cider?

When you smell it, it does this...

When you taste it, it does that...

and overall this is what you get with it...

What Tom says about getting into the business of making cider.

• Need to look carefully and set your goals. Is it to make cider and perry or to make money?
• AND -Thank goodness for the course he took withPeter Mitchellin 1999 on principles and practices, so that he knew fully what he was getting into.

"I get no satisfaction from huge amounts of money. What I do get satisfaction from is knowing that you have enough to make the best cider you can. If you are making the best cider, you see the reaction of the people tasting the cider."

Contact info for Oliver's Cider and Perry

Website:https://oliversciderandperry.co.uk/

Address:Moor House Farm, Ocle Pychard, Hereford HR1 3QZ, United Kingdom

Telephone:+44 7768 732026

Twitter:@oliverscider

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oliversciderandperry/

Thank you to our Founding SponsorCider CellarsImportersof real cider from the UK.

Fine the show notes to this episode at ciderchat.com

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 aDingaling 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, so you can't do a core sample. "
• "They are coreless"
• Is there a pattern?
• Are they in rows?
• Can you see how they were planted?
• What was the distance between the trees?

When you are finally ready to look at the fruit you have eliminated what it could be.

How do we then find out if what we have is a particular apple?

John says,"You eliminated the pool, you are like Sherlock Holmes"

Apples mentioned in this chat?

Go to the shownotes for episode 028: John Bunker | Apple Identification

Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

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 Cider5%
• An English cider calledGold Topwas 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, Italy, and the Pacific Northwest. It is easy to taste the bittersharp and bittersweet apples in each can that I tried. I was quite pleased that the cider was so balanced and refreshing. The cidery did well with the branding for a Texas Cider and meeting a mass market demand without going overboard sweet with the final product.

All the artwork for Austin Eastciders is done bySimon Walker

Austin Eastciders

Website:http://www.austineastciders.com

Austin Eastciders Facebook page

Austin Eastciders Twitter@Eastciders

Follow Cider Chat on Twitter https://twitter.com/ciderchat

Please share this podcast with your cider loving friends and family

See you in Ciderville!

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 digest all the sugars in the juice thus leaving a refreshing cider that has a dry yet slightly sweet flavor profile.

Worley's Cider has won numerous awards and Neil is highly regarded for his cider making.

The full transcript of this chat with Neil including all the details he shared on keeving is available for patrons of Cider Chat. Go toCider Chat Patreon Pageand find our how you can receive your copy of this informative chat with Neil discussing the technical aspect and tricks of keeving.

Please share this podcast with your cider friends.

Follow Cider Chat on Twitter @ciderchat

On Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/ciderchat/

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 helearned 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 whereUWE Betuwe Ciderhas an orchard.)

The cider revival is slowly gaining speed in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, and Rotterdam. Listen to Cider Chat episodes002: Wouter Biljs | CiderCider, Rotterdamand010-Margot Sanderse | Het Ciderhuis, Utrechtand see how two importers are making craft cider cool again.

In this chat, Leonard and I discuss how he makes cider, by importing apple juice from Herefordshire, England, the lack of cider apples in the Netherlands, and the uphill push to educate the public on the virtues of drinking cider.

Full show notes and photos at ciderchat.com

on twitter @ciderchat

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 inFebruary 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