This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Bods media network. Sometimes
the beer in front of you is the best one yet. I'll talk about
some beers that maybe we've forgotten about, some new beers that have potential to
be a classic. I'll also talk to people all around the beer world,
getting their stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front and it's coming up
now. I love a good cider. I was first introduced to it during
the mid nineties beer boom with wood Shock, which is still around. Some
might only think of Angry Orchard when they think of cider, but we're going
to broaden your horizons this week with some great ones from all over. While
you won't be able to pick these up at your seven eleven, I promise
you they'll be worth the trip. I wanted to talk with people that are
well known in the cider community here in Chicago, so I had a few
friends over last week. Matt and Brian know far more about cider than I
ever will, so we sat down, we had some cider and a good
pizza from Twitter ecs. I thank you so much for listening watching the videos.
I appreciate it more than you know. This is going to be the
last audio podcast for twenty twenty three. I'll still put out some quick video
clips, but I'm taking a break from the weekly show to recharge the batteries
get ready for the holidays. I have a couple interviews lined up while I'm
away, so the first week in January, Beer in Front will be back
and better than ever. Speaking of back, so I go for these pain
injections last week. I drive to the suburbs to see the doctor and he
wants me to have an EPID and he could set up to schedule for me,
but I waited five weeks to see this jamoke, and now he wants
me to return with someone to drive me on the twenty eighth, because I'm
gonna need someone to drive me since I guess they can have to put me
under. You could have set this up in October when I set up the
appointment for last week. I've been in pain since flipping August. I had
the MRI in October, and now you tell me I have to wait three
weeks before I can hopefully get some relief. I should have stayed in school
because I made the wrong career choice in Beer News till Ray, which purchased
a lot of beer brands. In twenty twenty three, they're going to bring
back this chok Top, this Belgian style white beer. It's gonna be brewed
by sweet Water and from the image that I saw over on my Beer Buzz,
the label looks the same as the old one. So if you were
a fan of shock Top, look for that. Early next year. Great
Lace Brewing out of Cleveland is having a contest where you could win some Christmas
ale merch check out their website for details. Left Hand is coming out with
a nitro version of a Belgian white. This is going to be four point
eight percent alcohol. I'm looking forward to trying this one. This seems like
intriguing to me. A nitro Belgian white, so look for that from Left
Hand. If you're a fan of Nolin style coffee with Chickory Alesmith is going
to release a variant of their Speedway stout line featuring this style of coffee.
What No Beignets. White Claus coming out with the non alcoholic version of their
Seltzer on the first of the year. This will only have fifteen calories and
include electrolytes. I don't know, but there's a ton of solid flavored selters
out there like Bubbly Lacroix, just to name a few. Will White Clause
zero percent have a market at what I'm assuming it's going to be a premium
price compared to national flavored selters. We'll find out. This is the final
week to stop over at Metropolitan before they close up for good. If you're
in the Chicago Land area, be sure to stop by tip Well and have
one last Metro. If you're listening to this Monday afternoon, I'm going to
be there with Brian from Saint Louis. A couple other beer people are going
to be over there. So if you're listening to this early on Monday,
head over to Metropolitan in the afternoon and you could say hello to me and
goodbye to Metro. All right, welcome back to the twenty twenty three Holiday
Cider episode. I'm happy to have my two good friends, Matt and Brian.
If you need to know about cider in Chicago, these are your guys.
They know all about cider and they brought over some good siders that we're
going to try here. So, gentlemen, thank you for coming on.
Yeah, thanks for having Bredy Dohn had great to be here. Yeah,
Brian, you were on before a year or so ago. So I'll start
this one off with Matt. Matt, tell everyone about yourself. How you
got into cider Ken Descargo in twenty sixteen, kind of moved around a little
bit before that. I was living in the neighborhood, the Ravenswood neighborhood.
So did my usual thing, looking for a job where I started my house
and figure out where I can work as close as possible to where I live,
pay commuting famously. So I found myself at the Fountain Head, which
a uh spot I'm sure you've talked about many times on the on the program
Sadly no longer there, but uh yeah, whiskey and craft beer bar in
the ravens With neighborhood. So I interviewed there and then just happened to they
didn't have a position for me, uh there, but we they said we
have a spot for you over at this place, the Northman uh Sister Sister
Bar. So that's where where I met Brian and also Ambrosia of Barowski,
and uh the kind of the rest is history. It just really it was
a little bit of an unexpected turn in my career. I've been in restaurants
for a long time, as well as music and real estate and a whole
bunch of other things. And uh, and I was really just kind of
looking for something that was that was. I guess it captivated me because it
was interesting. It was not something that I had come across before. I
had more of a craft beer background, so I thought I knew something about
cider, but I quickly, uh, when I arrived at the Northman,
found out that I didn't know much. So yeah, I just I just
sort of fell in love with it there and and and really just kind of
took it and ran with it and was working with Brian at the Northman for
three years. Yeah. For your listeners, of course, the Northmand was
Chicago's first cider bar. YEP, it had beer and lily cocktails, but
it had well over one hundred siders from around the world. Yeah, that's
where I met these two gentlemen at Yes, I guess I guess we're I
guess we was an mengge of that too, right, Yeah, that's how
we how we know? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I
worked at the Northman from there, went on worked for Stemsiders for several years
and then uh, just about a year ago, I decided kind of found
myself at a crossroads and wanted to continue to work with cider, and I
decided to start uh my own LLC. So I have a company now called
Passage, which is it kind of has a couple of different functions. It's
a sales and marketing that I've worked with cider brands to do sales and marketing
in the Chicagoland area. So working with a couple of brands right now to
them we're going to talk about tonight, Farnham Hill and storm Alongsiders. And
then also, you know, as a promoter of cider uh with you know,
for the public. Just McK brian and I are kind of like cider
hype men. So we we we go out, we do tasting events.
We work with in bars and restaurants to put on anything from you know,
small kind of paired dinners to bigger festival events. We're working on all of
that and just really just trying to get people drinking more cider in Chicago.
That's that's the main goal. So yeah, yeah, that's that's really it.
That's that's how I arrived at the place that I am now. And
it's a it's a heavy place, Yes, place full of apples. Yeh,
yes, what's going on with you? So just came back from the
firm this weekends up in central Michigan visiting local John's, who's a producer that
I worked with for a long time. I was probably among the first cider
sales in Chicago. And uh, just work like Matt, work with with
brands to help get them into the market, buying distribution, get you know,
account placements. But but also, as Matt said, a lot of
times you know cider. You know, we work to change as that has
grown a lot of me. It's just it's expected you're to find cider on
the menu now there typically there are cider sections on menus now. So certainly
we've come a long way, at least in Chicago, but sometimes still it's
not enough and we don't get invited to all the cool kids party and so
we had to start our own parties and we've been trying to yet we do
our taste things. We we we created a party a cider Fest with with
Peak Glass over at Artifact Events this past fall that was in conjunction with the
Apple Fest and Lincoln Square. Yeah. So again just trying to find people
where they're at. You know, folks that might be into something for one
reason or otherwise, beer culture, restaurant culture, community, festival cultu,
you know, neighborhood festival culture. And then they they discover cider, and
then you can create more opportunities for them to learn more about it and hopefully
open one up and joining one. Well, speaking of open one up,
what should we open up? Yeah? I got a number of things.
I think we wanted to start with the storm Along unfiltered. Storm Along is
a brand that just launched in Chicago right around October first, so just just
getting out there. They started in twenty fourteen. Shareborne, Massachusetts is where
their home base is, which is in the Boston area, just about thirty
minutes west of Boston. They're using all New England fruit, so they have
some of their own orchards. They source apples from just Massachusetts and surrounding states,
so going as far offfield as let's say, upstate New York, you
know, some Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island. Yeah,
those would be the I guess the five states where they get apples. So
yeah, I mean it was really good. You know when I ran into
you at bottles and canned the storm belongs that you know I picked up from
you or outstanding. We're gonna tak a holiday one a little bit later on,
so I know this one's really good. So what can you tell people
about the unfiltered? The unfiltered is, uh, well, first of all,
it's a it's a little lower abvs compared to some of the things that
we're gonna get into. So this one's four and a half percent. So
nice, easy drinking sessionable. This is a blend of seven different culinary apples.
The made apple and here is macintosh. Okay, so it's got.
What they do is they take a fermented sider, so they ferment, make
a dry sider, and then add some fresh juice back. Okay, So
this tastes just like that farm stand fresh farm stand juice. It's a I
think, a really accessible flavor. Just guys, taste it, anyone.
Anyone's gonna know this flavor. It's very good. Yeah, smells great.
Yeah, it's really good. M Yeah, instantly recognizable familiar apple. Yeah
yeah. It was a group in western Pennsylvania and local orchard. We would
visit every fall. You know, apple butter, You know that it's this
kind of thing. A lot of people have had this experience and uh and
and that was just one of my favorite things was getting the fresh apple juice.
Yeah. Uh you know, it was like it was better than the
than the apple juice that we had year round, which was the bottled sort
of concentrates. Yeah right, but at harvest time to get that fresh apple
juice. So this is this flavor is really nostalgic to me. I think
it just really tastes like that. I mean it literally is that it has
the fresh juice added back to give it that really fresh apple character. So
yeah, it's I think it's very sort of broadly appealing and just just just
a very familiar and nostalgic flavor. Yeah, I think this is delicious.
Now it's doesn't seem like it's just carbonated as some of the others. Yeah,
yeah, that's interesting. It definitely is is a pedalent uh you know,
almost pedalent to Still I find this, Brian, can weah know as
to it. I find that a lot of cider tends to be in this
kind of carbonation range. Maybe this one feels a little low, but yeah,
I think maybe for one, you know, it's certainly that would approximate
a closer, you know, a version to fresh breast sider, which typically
isn'tcumbinated. One. Two. I also think perhaps because it isn't filtered,
you have a lot more of that packed it in here. They're they're in
despite its lower ABV, this has significant body to it. Yeah, and
so maybe the body somewhat you know, mutes are understanding or or or appreciation
of any carbonation that is present. Right, it's a little bit heavier,
a little bit thicker on the viscosity, So maybe that's part of it.
You certainly had that great crack when we opened the cam. There is I
mean, is used even a lot of steel products, if not just to
put a better CEO two over the you know, the product as it's being
canned for protection and shipping and all the rest of it. But this,
Yeah, that might have something to do with it. I don't know,
because yes, I would, I would agree with you there, But of
course it also might be a deliberate you know choice by the side of me.
Yeah, dial that the carbonation here, so we just are we'd have
to check in with them. Now, this one's really good. Where can
people pick up storm Along here you can get it bitter pops, bottles and
cans they open bottle, just pick brought some in. So both locations,
tim Land and Lockport certainly make its way out to Benny's stores, so pretty
good. Bet if you're at the flagship Bennie's and Lincoln Park, it can
definitely find our skews there, the ciders there. Yeah, yeah, No,
this one's really good. Definitely if you hit those spots, you need
to look for storm Along. I'm gonna put pictures of all the cans later
on. So this is the unfiltered If you like something a little lower alcohol,
this is four and a half percent and it's fantastic. Definitely, if
you see this one, you gotta grab it. What are we gonna try
and ask? Well, the next one will open is Uncle John's Apple.
Funny, Matt was just talking about the stories of visiting a farm in western
Pennsylvania. You know, I just got back from Uncle John's up in central
Michigan, and that's very much what this farm is. You know, in
the fall, thousands of people showing up for pumpkins, hay rides, fresh
apples, and cider donuts galore. I mean tens of thousands of cider donuts.
It's it's insane. And this is of course now their twentieth year as
a producer of alcoholic cider. It's fifty years of Uncle John's, but the
family's been there for one hundred and fifty years growing apples. So Uncle John's
farm kind of started in the eighties. Got going is more of this.
Instead of just being a produce farm, as the roadside stand, it was
actually family experiential fallp on, come for the for for for the for the
farm experience, and it still is that today, but it is also a
working growing farm. They produce a lot of apples for fresh eating, but
they also produce a lot of apples just for cider making. They'll also then
trade with other local growers to increase diversity and blends. And so we are
going to taste some of those varieties here. And this is very much unlike
the last one tiltered and instead of the approach of trying to approximate your fresh
juice, this is more of a wine like, complex structured approach. You're
gonna see more of those those those characteristics, and so instead of apple being
the first thing you experienced, you might get the nuances of other things,
like you know, the grape and leachy and peaches and things. And even
though there's nothing but apples in here, twixpress itself just like any other white
wine. Oh yeah, you're almost like a lot different. Pick up a
lot more with that than just Apple's looks great, nice and clear. Yeah,
there's a lot going on there, but it's all good. Yes,
what's the ABV on this one? This is six and a half percent.
Okay, that's very common in Michigan ciders. But I think the other thing
that you'll notice right off the bat is the acidity, all right, the
acid that that sort of green apple brightness that doesn't get it on the robo
and it comes to run this nose and that's giving it that very cool wine
like structure. Yeah, definitely, which makes a really great on your dinner
table anything you would drink a wine, a white wine with. I think
this one being great. Perry as well, when I was talking to you
last month, you said that Uncle John's was picking up a lot of draft
sales in Chicago in the last couple of months. Yeah, we've been doing
really well with our draft. It's you know, you can find it when
you go out to see a show at Lincoln Hall or Shuba's, you know.
So it's like it's it's it's it's developing a presence that I think folks
have now, like I said, gotten used to expecting a dry cider draft
option when they go out. You know, maybe they don't just duringsider of
it, but you know, some people can't drink beer whatever, but I
think folks who are going out expect to have a dry side option. This
is less than two grams of sugar, so it fits that bill of the
solid semi dry. And yeah, it's been doing really well. Cool,
and I know you could find this like I've seen Uncle John's all over it,
bottles and cans, vinnies. Had you hit the grocery stores, you
said, we were years ago what with Mariano's before the Roundies buy out.
But then that changed the structure and I haven't been able to find the right
people of Ohio to talk to. But yeah, some we do get a
few US chain placements, but not much these days. Okay, corking on
that for next year. Yeah, no, this one's really good. If
you see the regular Uncle John's. And we're gonna talk about a couple other
ones, but this is just white can with a nice light greenish background,
just the plain hard sider apple. This one's really good too. The semi
dry definitely one you need to throw in the cart. All right, So
what are we gonna try next? Next? Look up the Farnham Hill Extra
Dry all right, Corn and Cay's bottle seven or fifty milliliters Farm Hills from
eleven in New Hampshire. Yeah, I mean, in many ways, this
is where graft cider begins in America. Okay, there's a producer in Massachusetts
called West County Cider Makers in colorayd Massachusetts, with Terry Maloney and Judith Maloney.
Now their son Feel Malodey is carrying on the tradition. But it was
at the same time that Farnham Hill got going, and Steve Wood at Barnham
Hill was getting in a lot of really cool varieties from Europe at the time.
Was one of the first pioneering folks to bring that into American orchards in
the late nineteen eighties. Okay, so that's as old as craft cider is
really. I mean, you have woodchuck it for a month and doing their
thing, and they're a cool producer, but they weren't going for the micro
market, and they certainly weren't going into the scale of production costs and elevating
it, you know, the way that these guys were much smaller producers.
And so in many ways this is very foundational for the craft cider community because
it introduces this whole concept of what apples are we drinking? You know,
we're drinking apple cider, but then what apples are in it? Because you
know, just like in Kraft beer years ago, you had to have your
chop sound at the at the top craft beer bars as a bartender, know
what kind of hops were in your beer, what was the mall built,
what made that beer style so unique? And cider doesn't really have hard and
defined styles. It does, but just not really well crystallize the way that
it is in beer doesn't have the same amount of history behind it and codify
the way in the same ways. So one of the easiest ways we can
talk about what it's going to taste like and what kind of cider it is
is what type of apples are in there, because the type of apples will
directly, you know, affect the blend, just like you're not typically drinking
wines made out of concord grapes. These are not your your This is not
a sider made from gala apples. Yeah, this is a cider and they're
listed here. Dabadet very a foundational apple in cider making over in the UK.
Ashton bitter Alice, bitter golden Russet, Wixon Wickson's a smaller crab apple
like variety developed in the early nineteen hundreds by Albert edd in California. A
soapis Spitzenberg. So that's one apple riety named is soapis Spitzenberg. And I
will give you one clue as to where it was discovered. Soap is New
York perhaps, you know so a lot of times apples have the place name
in there. Yarlington Mill is a two hundred euro ol English variety where the
initial tree was found growing out of a stone wall at Yarlington, at the
local mill in In in colonial New England, different growers would would name their
apples these outrageous names as a height and so Hubbardston none such is a famous
New England riioety. They're never going to find an apple like you find it
Hubbardston, you know. So there's a really odd unique apple names. But
those will tell us a little bit about what it's gonna taste like, because
these varieties that we've listed are very well known for some and high in tannin
others like the Wickson pie and acid, and you blend those different britis together
to get a much more complex, uh and structured sider. Okay, Now,
all the varieties of apples that you mentioned, do they like import the
apples from those locations? Do they grow it on their own farms? So
they're growing them on their farms? Okay in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Right,
he brought cuttings from the original locations over in Europe, over here the
American origins, or from other orchards out in the Western United States, or
you're go elsewhere. So, because apples don't reproduce true to seed, you
can't just pick the apple, find the seeds, put them in your pocket,
and plant them hoping to recreate it. Every seed is a complete random
genetic variation, so no only way to propagate, just like wine, is
grafting. And so those riders were grafted in his old orchard, and then
the new varieties grew forth from there. So it's all been grown. These
rites specifically are all grown at Poverty Lane orchards and they're orchard in New Hampshire.
All right, let's crack this or have this one. Cheers, fellas,
cheers. This is a lot more golden then the first two that we
had, deeper, darker color than richer. Really nice aroma of it.
That's good, Like got like a little bit of a funk to it.
Not a lot, but enough where like you know, it's there, Yes,
very nice. It's so it's a wine making approach really, it's they're
growing like all the apples are grown with the intent to make cider. Yes,
orchard at Poverty Laying orchards. So everything that they do is intentional.
This is a blend of about fourteen or fifteen different varieties and it is meant
to have the tannin the acid and then that fruit. You get a lot
of fruit, even though this has no sugar at all. Right, yeah,
yeah, so this is the driest one that we've tasted so far.
Right, we started with a couple of grands of sugar that we got to
a little bit less than two grams and now we're as zero glad of sugar.
Yeah, but still the fruit is dialed up because of what you mentioned,
the phenolics. I think we've become we're used as using the word funk
when we get something strong or intense, especially in cider, which is a
very sort of delicate or asture palate. So if you get some sort of
bitterness and oddity, we use the word funk. But here a lot of
it is just from the true bitter sweet apples, and so that thick tannin
creates, you know, a lot of really cool polyphenols, which are those
odd, really intense aromas that we're getting. And that's why I think dials
up the fruit the nose you know, on the fruit. So yeah,
you get the aid of the tann and the fruit. They all dance it
on me. Yeah, you know, no one is supposed to, you
know, they're all supposed to be sort of equal and not overpower one another.
If you talk to the cider maker Steve Wood, he said he's very
influenced by Southern Roan wine wine making, so coke to rone. If you
have a bottle coked corona, it has a very similar kind of balance between
the acid and the tannin. Uh, we're drinking it, probably a little
bit colder then than we should. Yeah, this was this was in my
cooler, so it as it warms up. You know, it says right
on the bottle cellar slash red wine temperature. So fifty five to sixty five
degrees is really ideal for this. So if you get a bottle of it,
you have it nice and nice and chilled, and then and then it
sits there for a little bit and those flavors are really certainly come out,
come out. There's a lot of complexity at the side a four year glass
and we'll just set it off to the side. Yeah, come back to
it but later. Matt also has talked about the wine making approach. Whereas
Uncle John's you know that last game we had that was fermented for about four
to six weeks, this is ermented for nearly a full year. Yeah,
so again that wine making approach has all been sort of fermented separately and then
blended at the end of the season and to create you know a little bit
more of this, a little bit better to this, and you create that
wine structure, as you said, very intentionally intentional. Yeah, I guess
I should also add to it that what they're attempting to do, uh,
and what I think this is, this is pretty much a thirty year project
for Steve and also for Luis. Shouldn't mention Louis Suspenser as the other owner
of Farnham Hill, Steve's wife, and yeah, they their team. They
are attempting to make the same cider each year with different crop yields, different
growing conditions. This year actually a very unfortunately it was a late frost in
May that really affected the apple crop kind of across from England, some places
where hit worse than others. Basically twenty fourth of May that the temperature went
out at twenty one degrees. Crazy weather event. This isn't kind of once
in a decade sort of event. Hopefully it doesn't happen too often going forward.
But yeah, at that point a lot of the trees are in bloom.
They don't like the cold. Yeah, so you pretty much you lost
a lot of crop, caused other apples to sort of develop into smaller size
than they would normally be. So, you know, very different year.
This year might produce different flavors in the apple. So you know, some
of the apples get yielded every two years as opposed every year, so there's
lots of different growing conditions, but they're trying to make a sider that's consistent
year to year. Yeah, So what they do is they blend a lot
of different sort of batches together, but really from two harvests often some some
from the prior year's harvest and then and then from the latest harvest, is
what Steve tells me. So, and some of it's fermented in barrel.
Some of it's a stainless deal, and so barrel sometimes can pick up some
of that that you would ten and that might make up here there again add
as an accident. Think of it like an artist with a palette again and
damn my brush here, damn my brush here, and then go to different
wells to create a consistent thing. But I think what Met's discussion also underscores
year is that a lot of people aim for consistency, but it is an
agricultural product. Yeah, protage, So I just like wine, people accept
that wines have different vintages so that each year will express itself differently. However,
so it's me sider is meaning exactly like wine. You know, breosider.
If you're a wine maker, you're a cider maker, right, you
don't you know the sider brewer. However, many of us experience sider in
discovery, sider in beer sentence, and so beer folks sometimes one they expect
a little bit more consistency because you can brew to style, you can control
a little bit more of the variable out and things like that. So so
it's this this typrope that we walk between in the worlds of wine and beer
are sometimes difficult to to to navigate. Now this one, since it does
seem to be a lot more complex, would you have this with a certain
type of meal as opposed to another one? Well, it's it's a little
bit higher ABV too, so seven half percent. Yeah, that body is
lifted and so it does hold up better to bigger, more boulder foods.
Okay, I would say any kind of I mean that we were out before
Thanksgiving talking to people about this Thanksgiving dinner. You know, my Christmas Eve
dinner is typically consists of ham. I make this cheese scooped potato dish,
I make this much shroom dish, thees braised mushrooms. You know, this
is gonna be perfect with all those things, Okay, because it's got a
nice bright acidity that's really gonna cut through rich food Yeah, any any any
dry cider high acid, you know, the Uncle John's also any type of
rich foods, you know. I mean, like I said, Thanksgiving dinner,
I mean that's a perfect Yeah, well you got you get really a
lot of butter, you know, a lot of uh yeah, a lot
of mashed potatoes, that sort of thing. I mean, it's all gonna
really just cut through that, and it's it's really nice and refreshing. Yeah.
I would say where the Uncle John's, the acid is the star,
and it certainly cuts through. I think a lot of pork bat and and
and great with cheeses and amazing seafood up hearing the front of Hill might with
a little bit more of that tannic backbone hold up more to say, like
sausages or duck or or more game like meat. I typically still want red
wine and I'm having steak, but this could hold up to a lot of
red meats. Okay, cool? Now, where can you pick up Farnham
Hill locally in the Chicago Land area. Uh yeah, there's a great shop
over on Broadway the Lakeview neighborhood called Bottles Up. Bottles Up all right.
You can also find the extra dry at some Whole Foods location. So off
the top of my head, Streeterville Elbhurst has it both Lakeview locations, so
you have the Halsted Street and then also on Ashland. Okay, I go
to for sure. Yeah those guys have it. Also Wine Goddess in Okay.
Yeah, now I had never been a wine goddess. Do you like
wine cider? Yeah? Yeah, a wonderful selection of wine, beer,
and cider. Our friend Morgan is there, uh handles the cider section there.
Certainly they're known for their wine. They do a lot of wine education
up there, but Morgan has has really created a thoughtfully curated cider select.
Okay, cool, yeah, awesome, So check out Wine Goddess. There's
another another one called the Farmhouse Side Or it's a four pack twelve outs cans.
Okay, bit bit easier, fine, also a wonderful cider, very
similar, a little bit lower ABV. But the seven to fifty is the
like I said, the thirty year project, it's it's the best buttoned,
the best of the best. And I don't think when he started and he
ever thought he would put cider in a twelve bounds can. But I think,
you know, after a while, when he saw the market mature and
develop and find new drinkers who expect their beverages in different locations. Cans just
give customers a chance to find and discover the cider more off. Yeah,
and you're not committing to the seven to fifty bottle if you want to just
have one after work or you know, you don't have to pop open the
whole bottle. Absolutely, Although I let me chime in here, I will
say this is part of our project, is that cider in seven fifties.
Folks don't be scared of a seven hundred fifty millioner bottle. It's two cans
of cider. Yeah, it is. It's a crawler. Yeah, it's
a fancier crawler. And I mean it's funny. This is a This is
actually one of the things that's like really wild about about saw in cider is
that there's you know, I mean in beer, we used to see a
lot more bombers. Yeah, that's twenty two ounce bottles or larger format bottles
have really kind of fallen out of favor in favor of cans. I mean,
sixteen ounce cans. You know, you got all the core work on
cans. It's really I mean, you know this the market has moved that
way. Cider has sort of been caught up in that trend that some of
the trends in craft beer. But I don't know this cider. There's definitely
some European siders, like some French siders. Those things are never going to
be in cans, you know, like they're they're they're in bottles and that's
you know, like just like wine. I mean it's just yeah, wine
is doing fine in seven to fifty. Yeah, So that's that's what I
always tell people. So it's a crawler, Yeah, I just think of
it as it's not that much. Yeah. Are they gonna put it in
the nineteen biking? Yeah? One thing that I was just thinking about,
like I know, with beer, it's a lot of it is drink fresh.
Can you age any of these siders like this one year from farmham Ill?
Or is it pretty much you just need to drink it fresh? I
you know, freshness I don't find is anywhere near as important as with beer.
I think, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but hop hop
flavor is gonna be the primary thing that's gonna degrade over family year, right,
So just I mean, really simple cider is wine, So certainly I
think that there are siders that you would want to drink generally a year,
if it's if it's if it's a year like that's that's pretty generally, pretty
good, pretty safe for any sider. Yeah, that's will also has some
of your sider and cans a year or two. You know, do I
have sider old than that? Yeah? Yeah, I'm a bit of a
nerd, but I have bottles of cider that are eight years old that whole
up. But also the impact will be tannin alcohol. All these other things
do contribute to its viability over time. Okay, this is the question from
Brian. Do you think of any siders off the top of your head that
have really got better with age the way that you would age? I you
know, the wine analogy only goes so far. I sure figured, Like,
I don't know, I haven't heard of people like really cellaring cider the
way should Some people do it just changes it. It's better is a value
judgment, right, Yeah, so it starts certainly you're getting there's a trade
off. I think sometimes the longer you age your sider, some of the
fruit quality may be lessened, But then that allows other aspects of the drink
to emerge, whether that's the acid or kind of the tannin's dance around mineral
aspects to to the blend that might display a little bit more clearly. So
you're just you're you're. It's just a difference, right, And I certainly
I think bigger ABV, you know, more tannins will help preserve that sider
over time. I'd say a cider for ten years, no problem, but
maybe not decades the way you can put away in good red one. Yeah,
at twelve to fifteen percent alcohol, red wine really has the alcohol to
hold up over decades. Ciders at six to seven percent not as much.
There are some sighters coming out of Virginia in a few of the places where
they're at nine or ten percent, and that certainly helps. Yeah, but
I think, you know, certainly a few years a decade great. Other
than that, just what are you waiting for? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
that's true. Hey, I'm pants Saren, This is Stevie and I'm
Aggie and we are bfytw podcast all about playing games and having fun. Our
games are usually based on British panel shows and game shows, but we'll play
anything that captures our attention and imagination. Why it's right there in the title.
You'll never guess what the F stands for. All right, So we're
gonna trabbed some of the holiday ones now in first up is the cranberry from
Uncle John's. That's right, well, both craanberry. This is the winter
seasonal. You know, there's a there's a core line up year round.
But and they flip in from apricot in summer to cranberry in the fall and
winter, and I just think it's you know nice, you know, except
fruit combination you'll typically see and of course it belongs on your Thanksgiving table and
then cranberries, yeah, great, on your Christmas table. Cranberries. We
keep talking about this ballast of fruits, you know, than tamin sugar and
acid. Between those elements, cranberries do have a tannic element and that helps
to create a little bit of a stringency. And then then I'm blended with
the crispapple cider from Michigan. The acids are dialed up, so it's a
it's a good habits. But before we have this, speaking of blending,
you just had a little of this in some Sierra Nevana celebration. How is
that? It's really nice? You know, you know you've heard of like
the Irish steak by where you didn't have like a harp and a strong bow.
Yeah, anything like that. I like to take strong flavors and lend
them together. So I really love like taking blueberry sider and putting it in
the stouts. This I just saw cranberry with it with a syrien of out
of celebration. The really bright brush op element that bitterness I thought would play
well together, and I'm not unhappy with it. I might have to try
that a little bit later. All right, So what's gonna We're gonna have
the Uncle John's cranberry. I had one of these a couple of weeks ago.
When you dropped this off, I thought it was phenomenal. Yeah,
it smells really good. It also works as a mix in the cocktail than
it would call for cranberry juice. Use this one. You're getting a little
added boat to AVV, but you're also adding and that acid element too.
Yeah, so it really helps lift up a cocktail. Yeah, no,
this is spectacular. I really like this. This is on draft Rowtown all
the time in the winter, Lincoln Square over at Gideon Wells, they always
have stuff like this on tap. He always keeps the apple cans and the
blueberry cans on his menu, but draft he visits seasonally, and the cranberry
is always a welcome edition over there. Yeah, what's the ABV on this
one? Six and six point five? Six point five. It's really nice.
Got that nice pink color, which you assume because it's cranberry. But
yeah, you get the apples, you get the cranberry. It's married well
together. Yeah. I don't think one is predominant. One doesn't like overpower
the other. You get both in every sip. I think this one's really
good. Now, with some of these holiday ones, would you would you
a this with the meal or would these be more of like a dessert after
your big holiday meal. Not a bad idea, certainly would go well with
some desserts. I do like the playing with it as a cocktail. Addition,
you could even with people mull wine. You know, you could mole
cider too and eat it up in the winter and create your rota spice and
its whatever it is, and in those types of things really lend itself well.
So any of these siders would be fine. The mold as well.
Okay, cool, Yeah, that's very good. And you said that's the
winter seasonal that's right. Okay, it'll be around for a couple of months
at stores and undrafted, and then we'll be getting ready for spring before you
do it, all right, and what comes out after that? Then the
apricot again or is there an Aprica will come up in spring. But we
also we'll talk maybe next year when Seagull to Mile comes around, we'll talk
about the tapace. Okay, So that's usually that's a that's a treat from
from Mexico. Yeah, and so we we we make it a few times
a year. It's not just for that season, but that's really what I
like to celebrate with. Oh. Absolutely, I'll be in for that,
all right. Next one up is gonna be the Happy Holidays from Storm Alone.
Yeah, Happy Holidays holiday spice sider. Now, when I ran into
you at Files and Cans and you were pooring this, I was sold.
I'm like, I gotta grab a four pack this, This I thought was
absolutely phenomenal. Thanks. Yeah, uh yeah, this is uh, this
is definitely a favorite of fans of Storm Along. This is uh. Brian
mentioned mold cider this is a this is a mulling mulling spice blend that's used
in the cider, which is incidentally the same blood of spices as you get
an apple pies. Okay, storm Along works with the local spice purveyor to
uh make a custom blood of spices. They roast that grinded fresh for them.
One thing about Stormlong never any concentrates or artificial flavors at all, and
no natural flavors. It makes surreal deal. So it's okay, it's apples
and it's it's it's fresh spices that are infused. So yeah, it's got
three different kinds of cinnamon actually all spice, clove, ginger, nutmeg,
and a little brown sugar. Yeah. So tastes just like yeah, it
was like apple pie and a yeah what did it taste like? Smells like
too? Well? Yeah that that cold oar worm would be amazing. Yeah.
That that's just so good. I know, like after I saw you
when I bought the four pair, you know, I cracked it open.
I'm like Ruby, my wife, I'm like, you got half hits.
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's really good. Yeah. People are really enjoying
this one. It's been it's been a huge hit. This is this is
storm Along's one of their you know, biggest salads siders, biggest hits in
the home home market in Massachusetts and on the East Coast. They, uh,
this is kind of everywhere. Everybody's really waiting for this to come out.
It's it's it's a perennial, you know, release every year they release
it. But uh, yeah, I guess it's it really just started off
as as kind of a one off side or they just decided to make it
and they said, oh, let's call it Happy Holiday, isn't it,
And then it really stuck. So yeah, it's it's it's sort of that
a little tongue in cheek. It's a little shamelessly named, but uh,
it's it's definitely perfect for this time of year. Yeah, it gives you
the kind of just notes of a Yeah, typically have a flavor like this
warm, like warm apple pie. Yeah you could. You could certainly warm
this up a bit and certainly wouldn't wouldn't hurt it. Yeah, Well,
put a little vanilla ice cream, a little a little flow like you could
add a little booze if you want to make it a little boozier for those
particularly cold nights, but uh yeah, it's actually it's nice low abb two
five point two percent. I think we're we're discussing, you know, some
other holiday ciders uh tend to be you know high ABV. Yeah you know,
I mean whatever is your thing for some family. Yeah, yes,
well, yeah that's right. But this one is is you know, nice,
nice, low five point two and certainly a crowd pleaser. I mean,
just haven't met anybody that that's stunned into the cider. Yeah, that's
just you know, if you like apple pie, you're gonna love this.
Happy Hobbodies. Our work is beautifull two. Whoever their art director is,
I mean, great funds, the coloring, the label, everything about this
is just killer. We've touched several times on the idea of nostalgia, you
know, and I think this really hits that. You know, I'm like,
oh man, yeah, that memories come flooding back. Yeah, that's
really good. Now. You also, we're not going to crack it open
here. What's the difference between this and the Bear? I mean, obviously,
outside of being aged in a barrel, is it kicked up and yeah
V a little bit, yeah, yeah, a little higher ABV. They
do barrel aged version. That's the collaboration with a local liquor store, the
Messa Jesus Julio's Liquor. Actually we entered that in the phobab this year.
So they actually said a few a few cases and a couple of six barrels
just really for the festival. We had, I think there were four cases
left over that and so there was a couple of select stores that went out
to just really quickly got snapped up. Barrel age is pretty uncommon. Maybe
we'll do more with it in the future. There wasn't too much of a
difference other than you know, obviously the barrel flavor six point nine percent a
BV is apposed to five to two, just just a little bit higher,
and yeah, gave it a little little bit like you know, apple pie
with bourbon. Yeah, so you know, nice combination of flavors with the
barrel ages as well. When does this come out? Is this just like
a November December tight deal? September September, okay, so like all the
other Christmaster September October, Yeah, September December. Really this is there's another,
uh, another spice sider after this one. So it's called White Mountain
Magic. It's a different blend of spice and it's got a little New Hampshire
maple syrup. Okay, so that'll be hitting the market soon. All right,
Happy holidays. We uh you know this first year that storm all has
been at Chicago. So we shipped once and went right away, shifted again.
It just got snapped up really quick, so we shipped a third time
and then that's probably it for the year. So if you see it,
you better throw it. Yeah, yeah, get it better samp out there
for sure. Yeah, it's it's it's getting Yeah, it's it's definitely out
there right now. A couple of weeks probably probably be all gone. Hi.
Cool, So you said it was going pretty quick. Is this in
all the markets or all the stores that storm along is or are there any
like markets that really you know, you know they have a lot of this
left. Yeah. So Taste Food and Wine is in Jarvis Square, Hi,
it's just there today. I know they've got some. Uh. You
can also find it at Bottles and Cans. The Open Bottle in Tinley Park
location has it. It's also going to be on Draft hop Leaf really January
first, January first, Yeah, all right, so you can definitely get
on drafted hop leafs. They got wild last, hopefully hopefully the last.
First. I got a couple kegs of it, so that's pretty cool.
And then the green Post has cans of it right now, so you cannot
go there, sit by the fireplace, enjoy happy Holidays there with some beers.
You notice the difference between draft and cans or bottles, Like for me
personally, Sammy Adams Boston Lager on tap fresh is still one of my favorite
bears of all time. In the bottle, eh, it's good, but
there's a huge difference between draft and can. What's the difference? Is there
any between this Happy Holidays on tap? Brian can let us know if he
thinks differently, But I think that there's virtually no difference okay, of cider
on draft versus in a can or bottle, except that your carbonation level might
be different. So for example, Front Extra Drive higher carbonation than the seven
hundred and fifty millimeter bottle, then you're typically to get on draft. That
that'd be a difference. But outside of that, I think that again it
goes really I think to that freshness. Yes, so in seasonality, right,
you know, like be or Boston. You know, damn it was
making batch after back here throughout the year. Many siders are made once or
twice a year. Yeah, and so the cider you get in draft is
the same batch that was in the package. Okay, and so that should
create some more consistency. Again, depending on your the scope of the cider
company. You know, how Happy Alladay is probably would be made once a
year because there's a seasonal the spices, everything else. So hopefully whatever wherever
you're experiencing it, it shouldn't be consistent. All right. Cool? Yeah,
if you're hearing this now, go to your liquor store, go pick
up the storm along Happy Holidays, because I don't think you're going to be
disappointed. I think this one's Vanada. All right. What are we going
to finish off with you, Brian? Well, that's a fancier looking bottle.
Well it's yeah, this is we've talked about a different occasion or different
food pairings. You know, what you would would would have with with a
particular cider blend. When you end a meal, typically that's when you put
the wine, the cider and the beer way and the spirits come out.
Yeah, so I figured why not bring a bottle of brandy. This is
apple Brandy from Uncle John's ninety proof. Oh, there you go. That's
a blend of you know, two three five year barrels. Uh, this
is an older label. They have a new label out for it, but
this is an older bottle. And this vintage won the best in show at
the largest cider competition in America. And this is the apple brandy from Uncle
Jones. Oh sweet, and just like you know kognac, you know,
any other type of brandy, it's gonna be sweeter. Ye. But but
but it's gonna have a lot of commonality with whiskey, more so than I
think coniac. I think apple brandy the way distills. There's a lot more
familiar flavors, and maybe that is in its barrel treatments. But I think
whiskey drinkers will find a lot to like. Here. Okay, well I'm
looking forward to it. Cheers here here. It smells really good and for
night of proof, pretty smoid. Well yeah, you know, certainly put
it, put it over a glass of ice if you like. But just
as it is like that, really enjoyable. Oh yeah, it's really good.
Plenty of barrel there, Yeah, yeah, warms you up. Yeah,
so I mean for a season, I mean when we're in the winter.
Yeah, if you're looking for a winter warmer, this would qualify.
Yeah. No, it's good. You get you definitely get like at the
end you get that alcohol burned, but initially you get like the sweetness of
the apples. There. You do get the barrel notes on there. That's
really good. May I take a half a minute to stump for brandy here?
Absolutely, brandy is, in my opinion, another thing that I my
time at the Northman really opened me up to that I didn't expect growing up.
I you know, brandy was a thing that I would just think of
this kind of old dusty bottle, yeah, you know, sitting on Yeah,
I mean something super sweet. You know. Lots of misconceptions about brandy,
just like there is about cider. Oh something only your grandparents mind you.
Yeah. Yeah, apple brandy is just wonderful. Calvedots from France obviously
is well not obviously actually, uh, most people don't don't know calvedots.
I did, I certainly didn't until just a few years ago. But wonderful
stuff. That's an apple brandy that's made in Normandy. This is an American
version just just really like Brian said, you know, if you're a whiskey
drinker, try out try out some brandy. It's very unique. It's a
spirit that's distilled from fruit, so okay, but you know, the barrel
it also plays a big part in the flavor. And uh, there's just
you know, there's as much complexity as there as there is in a you
know, a great Scott. Yeah, can this Can you buy this everywhere?
Or pretty limited? This is really only available on the farm. Okay.
I have a few cases of it here in Chicago, and I bring
you to a couple of accounts known again I Uncle John's has been in Chicago
market for a long time. Yeah, and I think when we started,
we weren't really prepared and we didn't really know how to sell spirits. The
distribution team that I work with now glunts. They are they're beer salesmen,
right and milk. I don't want to ask them to sell booze. But
now, of course a lot of beer brands are making their own spirits.
Yeah, and so one of Glouns's largest brands is Maplewood, and they have
great spirits, really good, really good stuff. They're good the great spruce
gin, they have a beer gin, they have fre Net, they have
all this great U and so the salesforce is becoming more knowledgeable, more comfortable
with selling spirits. I might have to to get back on us and try
which is it's it's pricey as far as brandy goes. But I think for
some accounts, some establishments really might uh champion this and it would find a
nice home there. Yeah, I mean you mentioned Maplewood, but I know
that Rogue was doing it New Holly. I think they are one of the
first ones that started coming up with their own line of spirits. Yeah.
I mean, it's just a good extension of the brand. Yeah, agreed.
And this is certainly the cider maker and apple grower Mike Beck, fifth
generation apple grower. This is where his heart is. Okay, you know
he he likes he loves cider, he loves you know, wine, But
if he's hanging out with you, he's more likely to have a cocktail as
hand than anything. Yeah, you know, not a big beer drinker,
so spirits he really does love. He's but you know, he has his
own brand. He still he's also works with MSU that has a distillation program
on campus, and they make vodka from apples. Vodca's unreal. Yeah,
that's really like a very very good vodka. The first time I tried it,
I couldn't believe how smooth and clean it was. It's uh yeah,
it's made from apples, fay neutral spirit, you know, distilled. What's
the deal brandy? You know, continue to distill it. Vodka's distilled more
times, right, So brandy is typically like you look at a copper brandy
steel has got like three windows in it, so or three trays and it's
like the main big fat one, then two above it, right, and
that's clarifying it, and you know, making the brandy right there in the
copper pot. Still the and I'm not a distillation expert, but the vodka
are two stainless steel columns, nineteen trays each, okay, and this this
is poking through the roof of this facility just to ac comminate this giant steel
column of vodka. And so each tray, each tray is a glass window,
and you see the vodka being clarified, and it's stilled again and again
and again. So it's really getting that essence of this, you know,
the spirit. It's very aromatic. It keeps a lot of the fruit aromas.
But this is not an apple flavored body. Okay, it tastes like
vodka, but on the aroma, holy cow, that smells fresh. It
smells like an apple blossom maybe you know, a flower. But then you
drink it and it's just so smooth, so clean. Yeah. Now,
man, you were mentioned in full band with this Brian. Do they age
any of their ciders in the braindy burrels? They have not done that.
Okay, he's not a big barrel aging proponent of cider in spirit barrels.
Okay. The only thing he makes that touches wood is his perry, all
right, and that's just you know, white you know, American white oak.
Uh. It's and that's you know, not in barrels. It's wood
ships because we're not doing it for that long and so it's a process convenience
thing. It's you know, it's it's only on wood for a couple of
weeks, not months. If you're not putting something, if you're not gonna
let it be there for months, then why would you take the labor to
put it in a barrel? Empty the barrel, do all that? Yeah,
it just it's an invitation and mess things up. So so it's the
Perry has as as as oak maybe someday. Yeah, I just don't it's
not a big program of spirits. I don't know if there's enough there for
him to utilize. Boira likes it. I wonder, I wonder if we
could convince him for a couple of years. Do you do they sell any
of their barrels to other breweries like local Michigan breweries do. Maybe not?
Okay, he might trade, I've never that's a good question. If I
can, I'll ask him. Okay, maybe there's a couple of Chicago bowers
that would pick them up. Yeah, that's a really good idea. I
know. I think in Michigan the community is pretty tight and then trade a
lot of stuff back and forth. So maybe that's already getting done of this.
Yeah, so yeah, you would think with all the great breweries of
Michigan exactly. Yeah, but no, Yeah, that was excellent. Mean,
I thank you so much for bringing that over. I'm glad you like
to do a way to cap off our fun discussion here. Yeah, so
real quick, once again, the holidays are coming up. We've had regular
sider, We've had spice siders for people, whether you're Christmas Honika Kwanza,
most people have a meat dish. Now, obviously you should be drinking Uncle
John's Storm along in Farnham Hill. But if you can't get that in your
area, are there styles that you would suggest? Like should people go with
a meat dish a dry sweet? What would you suggest for people out there
for a good like meat dish? I mean, you know, a sweeter
French sider, pairs of very well with like leg of lamb. Okay,
if you're having that, you know what else? Yeah? I mean I
mentioned Perry earlier. Harry is a cider made and that is a perfect substitution
for chardon A so like great you know, shellfish cheeses, things like that
would be wonderful. We did an event earlier in the year with our friend
Alicia, who's a mortal milk more than wilk guess cheese pairings with cider Uncle
John's Perry with Perry with blue cheese uite good, Yeah, very nice pairing.
Yeah. And Alicia Norris runs a mortal milk great cheese mowner here in
Chicago. She consider that any independent teeth bounder, independent cheese mownor so Mortal
Milk. Alicia Norris Independent Cheese in Chicago, puts on great events, does
collaborations with producers all over. Has even collaborated on like making a beer with
Mars at one time. Okay, so really some cool cool stuff coming out,
and we work with with Immortal Milk at Sleeping Village for cheese and cider
pairing. We mentioned cheese several times here. Cheese is an incredible partner with
most ciders. I bring up Sleeping Village because they are an incredible destination for
folks looking to discover siders. There's typically seven to eleven siders. Yeah on
town, I'm usually seven to eight, I would say safely, Yeah,
yeah, yeah, always carry with Farnam Hill Extra Dry, which is known
as Doyord Cider on draft. But it happens at this moment to be exactly
the same, like what is the extra dry. That's not always the case,
getting a little bit into the weeds with yeah, but yes, Sleeping
Village typically has Farnam Hill, they have storm Along and Uncle John's Perry.
You can find there virtually all the time. Yeah, really really great or
as a cider in the Chicago area, excellent well, guys, I thank
you so much. I thank you for bringing over some great siders. Beer's
you know I love beer. Obviously, this is all when I talk about
fifty one weeks out of the year. But there's some great siders out there
all around the Chicago ere. You could pick up a good sider. It's
not just your angry orchard. It's not just angry orchard. If that's what
you think of cider. Broaden your horizons. Pick up some of these from
Storm Along, Uncle John's, Farnham Hill, other international sideries, even local
ones here that are made in Chicago. Check out a great sider. They
go well with all of your holiday meals. And guys, thank you so
much again, Dave, Thank you, Dave. All Right, I'm gonna
have a couple of local Chicago siderrees to try right now. First up is
Arras. They're located on Irving Park, right off the Kennedy Expressway, about
a block west of ninety. Great location. The ciders are great, their
beers are really good. They've won some GABF hardware for their beers too,
so that's just a really good spot. Food is good. The cider that
I'm going to have from them is called Pedestrian. This is a dry,
crisp tartsider like a glass of Granny Smith. So let's bust open the Pedestrian
from Aris. It has a nice, good golden color here. It looks
really good. Yeah, definitely, you get that Granny Smith notes out of
the aroma. I think it smells really good as well. This is five
point nine percent alcohol airis if you did not know, this is inspired by
the Greek goddess of Chaos. So I'm all for chaos. So let's drink
the Pedestrian. No, it's very nice. You get that nice tartness that
you would from a good sour green apple. Really good flavors here. I
like this one, and I've had this before. I think I've talked about
it on the show before. If not, I know I've had some of
their other stuff. But this is yeah, very It's a dry tasting cider.
I like this one. I think this is really good. Yeah,
definitely something you should go there and pick it up in person. But if
not, it is available all over at your little grocery stores, liquor stores,
what have you. But definitely, if you see anything from Aris,
I recommend it. You need to put this one in the carts. All
right. The next local Chicago area a cider that I'm gonna have comes from
Right to B. They're located at eighteen thirty North Costner Avenue in Chicago.
Great spot, great owners. I really like their sider a lot. I'm
gonna have their clementine. I always associate clementines with the holidays. I'm not
saying this is a holidays cider, but you could always get your bag acutis
right around this time of the year. So when I was picking up some
right B, I wanted to grab the clementine. This has clementine, cinnamon,
rose hip, and hide biscus in it. Let's bust open the right
be sider. Clementine has a nice pinkish orange color. I'm assuming it's pink
because of the hibiscus. Smells good. I get the clementine, I get
some other tartness in the aroma. I think it smells really good. Oh
that's fantastic. You get everything there. You get the cinnamon, you get
like the tangerine, the clementines in there. I don't get as much as
the rose hip and the hibiscus that I do the others, but they're there.
I think this is phenomenal. I could see this being a holiday sider
with your cinnamon and clementine, so I might have started something. Maybe this
was their intention, but if not, it's a holidays cider right here,
so By I said before, right Be's great spot. They put out some
great siders, Chicago based. Once again, it's at eighteen thirty North Costner.
I think they're really good. You could pick up right Be everywhere in
Chicago Land. Look in the cider section you'll find right Be. I like
the Clementine, so if you see this one, I would definitely throw this
one in the cart. That's gonna put a nice shiny bow and ribbon on
this episode of Beer in Front. I want to thank again Matt, Augustine
and Cider Brian for coming by and talking cider. I hope you learned a
lot from them. I'll include their link in the show notes. Both gentlemen
would be happy to answer any cider questions you might have. If you're in
an area that carries the brands that we discussed, Barnum Hill, Uncle John's
Storm along, those are all worth grabbing. And I'm not just saying that
because they brought them over I've purchased them on my own, and we'll by
all means purchase them again, like the Chicago ones I talked about, right,
Bat Cider and Heiriss. All of these I bought before and will buy
again, and I think you'll like them. I'm taking the rest of the
year off from the podcast, so I hope you and your family have a
great holiday season in twenty twenty four. And remember sometimes the beer or cider
in front of you is the best one yet. All Right, Happy New
Year, Happy holidays, folks. I'll talk to you in the first week
of January.