Tag: cider

Cider News – June 3, 2016

by Meredith Collins

Good morning Cider Lovers,

Here’s a recap of the best cider news worth sharing:

Credit - Golden Fire
Credit – Golden Fire

1) The Cider Institute of North America formed recently; the focus will be on cider making education. The group has Nick Gunn of Wandering Aengus Ciderworks attached to project as well as connection to existing university cider educational programs.

2) I know folks want to see results for the British Cider Championships. Judging just happened on Thursday, so keep checking The Bath & West site for results. The Cider Workshop has a few early tidbits.

3) I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the publication of Finding Good Cider – by Alan Stone. This book covers cider, Somerset history, pubs and events. And June 7th, Golden Fire (a film about cider) launches in Hereford.

4) Lost Valley Cider Co., Milwaukee’s first hard-cider bar, opens Wednesday in Walker’s Point.

5) Cider Chat posts part two of the conversation with the fine folks at Farnum Hill.

6) I was chuffed to see Raise A Glass To Perry, Craft Cider’s Pear Cousin on The Salt by National Public Radio. And Good news for Canadian cider makers and cider lovers as, Feds, Ontario sweet on craft cider, to invest $220K in industry.

7) Did you know that today is the first World Cider Day? Real Cider Reviews introduces us to this brilliant idea. Join in by using the #WorldCiderDay hashtag if you’re raising a glass on on Twitter today.

8) I’m always eager to hear about women in the cider world, and this article does tell us just  that: Women making waves in the Hard Cider World  in Cider Culture by Holly Tennant.

9) This is the opening weekend of Cider Week Hudson Valley. There are plenty of events throughout the region; it looks like at least ten in just the next week, including At the Bar – Snowdrift Cider (WA) at Wassail.

10) The Cider Journal reviews 101 Cider House Black Dog Super Dry, Cider Steve takes on Headless Man and Broome Farm Cyder CiderSays tastes Birds and the Bees as well as Somersby Citrus Fruit, and I (Along Came a Cider)  review Wolffer Cider’s No. 139 Dry Rosé Cider.

Have a great weekend!

Meredith

Cider News – May 27, 2016

by Meredith Collins

Happy Friday Cider Lovers,

Here’s a recap of the best cider news worth sharing. I’m helping out Eric West this week as he’s doing some cider travelling of his own.

Credit - Holm Cider /Facebook
Credit – Holm Cider /Facebook

1) Ria Windcaller of Cider Chat Chats on Cider – The Cider Journal,  and on Wednesday she shared her conversation with Steve Wood, Louisa Spencer, and Nicole Leibon of Farnum Hill Cider in 32nd Episode of Cider Chat.

2) BBC News explores Why Hereford wants to shake off its apple orchard image.

3) Ramborn Cider Co. is bringing cider back to to Luxembourg, and they’re determined to do so using organic apples. Luxemburger Wort writes about their process in Rediscovering the craft of local cider & perry.

4) SiidriMaja in Tallinn, Estonia is a bottle shop that stocks a range of European ciders. Owner Kaire Jakobson has posted photos and writeups (in English) of her recent UK cider adventure that included visits to cider expert Andrew Lea, Neil Worley of Worley’s Cider, Barny Butterfield of Sandford Orchards, and Chris Beardon of Winkleigh Cider.

5) Holm Cider—Scandinavia’s first cider shop—opened in Copenhagen last weekend. Check out their Facebook page for pictures from their grand opening! Welcome to the cider world.

6) Lake Chelan in North Central Washington is one of the under-appreciated apple growing regions contributing to the modern cider renaissance. Learn more in Hard cider production flourishes in the Lake Chelan Valley. And the Finger Lakes, another quickly developing cider region,  gets some in depth coverage in Hear the Cider Boom: The Finger Lakes region has some advantages.

7) Finnriver Farm & Cidery opens its new Orchard & Cider Garden with a full slate of farm walks, orchard tours, tastings, wood-fired pizza, oysters, and paella. Learn more about Finnriver’s new location in Chimacum, Washington from The New School.

8) Ontario Craft Cider Week kicks off with the opening of Her Father’s Cider Bar + Kitchen, the Appleseed Cider Festival, and other events throughout the Greater Toronto Area. For an overview of cider’s growth in the province, read Cider sales soar in Ontario as consumers choose alternatives to beer from Global News and Toronto’s appetite for craft cider surges from NOW Toronto Magazine.

9) Also on tap: The Welsh Perry & Cider Festival and the Clytha Arms Cider Festival in Monmouthshire, the British Cider Championships at the Bath & West Showground in Somerset, and The Pressed Conference festival in Denver as Colorado Cider Week comes to a close.

10) Real Cider Reviews tries 2 Brothers Little Apple Cider. Cider Steve reviews two ciders from Ampleforth Abbey.  CiderSays reviews 2 Towns Imperial Hop and Stalk and Colorado Cider Company Ol’ Stumpy. And, whether or not, I should share my own work, Along Came a Cider did review something very special, Foggy Ridge Cider’s Serious Cider.

Have a fantastic weekend! And if cider is any part of it, cheers.

Meredith

Video: Finnriver Cidery & Eaglemount Cidery

by Eric West

This short video (about 2 minutes) from NWCN.com features Crystie and Keith Kisler of Finnriver Cidery and Trudy Davis of Eaglemount Cidery. Both cideries are located northwest of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, near the beautiful town of Port Townsend.  Nearby Alpenfire is alluded to but is not mentioned by name in the video. Enjoy the transcript! (Hat tip to Dave at Old Time Cider and his OTC Facebook feed.)

ED MUIR, NWCN.com: When you think of Washington’s leading crop, Eastside apple orchards might come to mind. But in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the apple trade is also thriving…but in a different way.

CRYSTIE KISLER, FINNRIVER: And so we started experimenting, seeing what we could do with an apple.

MUIR: At Finnriver Farm, that lead to hard cider. Keith and Crystie Kisler raise animals and grow various crops on their 35-acre organic farm. But now, cider rules.

KEITH KISLER, FINNRIVER: [Disgorging a bottle in the méthode champenoise style] Take the sediment out…

MUIR: Thousand-gallon vats ferment the cider—this is, after all, alcohol. The Kislers have a tasting room where they sell up to 14 ciders and fruit wines. A staple of American diets in colonial times, cider is now making a comeback. Two years after the Kislers started selling their hard cider, they’ve ramped up production from 800 gallons a year to 15,000 gallons [from roughly 3,000 to 57,000 liters, nearly a twentyfold increase].

CRYSTIE KISLER: This revival respresents a resurgence of interest in that heritage…but also just something exciting and different for beverage drinkers.

MUIR: A few miles away on an 1883 homestead, century-old trees grow the apples that go into Jim and Trudy Davis’s hard cider. Eaglemount used to be strictly a winery, but several years ago the Davises found an outlet for all those apples. Their tasting room currently features six types of hard cider—including a rare quince cider—in addition to their wines.

TRUDY DAVIS, EAGLEMOUNT: We started selling at the farmer’s market in Port Townsend, and there were so many people that didn’t even know what hard cider was. So it was really kind of neat to be able to educate them.

MUIR: Now cider lovers are coming to them. The cideries around Port Townsend are tourist attractions in their own right…similar to wineries, but on a smaller scale.

DAVIS: With the two other cideries, people come out for cider tours.

MUIR: While hard cider may never be as big as Northwest wine or microbrews, more and more people are clearly thirsting for Washington’s top crop.

Hello Cider World!

by Eric West

This map is now out of date.
Please visit ciderguide.com/map for the latest version.

[iframe_loader src=”https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col14+from+2770255+&h=false&lat=38.74162485861289&lng=-51.25164999999993&z=2&t=4&l=col14″ height=”360″ width=”600″]

This map of cider producers, bars, shops, museums, and other points of interest is a work-in-progress to catalog the world’s cider scene. The ultimate goal of the project is to create a community-driven site where users can review cider, perry, and related drinks. Stay tuned!