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This is Beer in Front, part
of the Odd Bods media network. Sometimes

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the beer in front of you is
the best one yet. I'll talk about

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some beers that maybe we've forgotten about, some new beers that have potential to

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be a classic. I'll also talk
to people all around the beer world,

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getting their stories all about beer.
That's Beer in Front and it's coming up

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now. I love a good cider. I was first introduced to it during

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the mid nineties beer boom with wood
Shock, which is still around. Some

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might only think of Angry Orchard when
they think of cider, but we're going

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to broaden your horizons this week with
some great ones from all over. While

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you won't be able to pick these
up at your seven eleven, I promise

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you they'll be worth the trip.
I wanted to talk with people that are

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well known in the cider community here
in Chicago, so I had a few

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friends over last week. Matt and
Brian know far more about cider than I

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ever will, so we sat down, we had some cider and a good

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pizza from Twitter ecs. I thank
you so much for listening watching the videos.

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I appreciate it more than you know. This is going to be the

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last audio podcast for twenty twenty three. I'll still put out some quick video

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clips, but I'm taking a break
from the weekly show to recharge the batteries

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get ready for the holidays. I
have a couple interviews lined up while I'm

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away, so the first week in
January, Beer in Front will be back

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and better than ever. Speaking of
back, so I go for these pain

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injections last week. I drive to
the suburbs to see the doctor and he

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wants me to have an EPID and
he could set up to schedule for me,

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but I waited five weeks to see
this jamoke, and now he wants

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me to return with someone to drive
me on the twenty eighth, because I'm

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gonna need someone to drive me since
I guess they can have to put me

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under. You could have set this
up in October when I set up the

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appointment for last week. I've been
in pain since flipping August. I had

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the MRI in October, and now
you tell me I have to wait three

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weeks before I can hopefully get some
relief. I should have stayed in school

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because I made the wrong career choice
in Beer News till Ray, which purchased

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a lot of beer brands. In
twenty twenty three, they're going to bring

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back this chok Top, this Belgian
style white beer. It's gonna be brewed

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by sweet Water and from the image
that I saw over on my Beer Buzz,

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the label looks the same as the
old one. So if you were

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a fan of shock Top, look
for that. Early next year. Great

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Lace Brewing out of Cleveland is having
a contest where you could win some Christmas

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ale merch check out their website for
details. Left Hand is coming out with

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a nitro version of a Belgian white. This is going to be four point

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eight percent alcohol. I'm looking forward
to trying this one. This seems like

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intriguing to me. A nitro Belgian
white, so look for that from Left

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Hand. If you're a fan of
Nolin style coffee with Chickory Alesmith is going

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to release a variant of their Speedway
stout line featuring this style of coffee.

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What No Beignets. White Claus coming
out with the non alcoholic version of their

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Seltzer on the first of the year. This will only have fifteen calories and

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include electrolytes. I don't know,
but there's a ton of solid flavored selters

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out there like Bubbly Lacroix, just
to name a few. Will White Clause

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zero percent have a market at what
I'm assuming it's going to be a premium

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price compared to national flavored selters.
We'll find out. This is the final

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week to stop over at Metropolitan before
they close up for good. If you're

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in the Chicago Land area, be
sure to stop by tip Well and have

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one last Metro. If you're listening
to this Monday afternoon, I'm going to

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be there with Brian from Saint Louis. A couple other beer people are going

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to be over there. So if
you're listening to this early on Monday,

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head over to Metropolitan in the afternoon
and you could say hello to me and

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goodbye to Metro. All right,
welcome back to the twenty twenty three Holiday

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Cider episode. I'm happy to have
my two good friends, Matt and Brian.

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If you need to know about cider
in Chicago, these are your guys.

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They know all about cider and they
brought over some good siders that we're

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going to try here. So,
gentlemen, thank you for coming on.

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Yeah, thanks for having Bredy Dohn
had great to be here. Yeah,

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Brian, you were on before a
year or so ago. So I'll start

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this one off with Matt. Matt, tell everyone about yourself. How you

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got into cider Ken Descargo in twenty
sixteen, kind of moved around a little

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bit before that. I was living
in the neighborhood, the Ravenswood neighborhood.

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So did my usual thing, looking
for a job where I started my house

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and figure out where I can work
as close as possible to where I live,

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pay commuting famously. So I found
myself at the Fountain Head, which

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a uh spot I'm sure you've talked
about many times on the on the program

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Sadly no longer there, but uh
yeah, whiskey and craft beer bar in

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the ravens With neighborhood. So I
interviewed there and then just happened to they

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didn't have a position for me,
uh there, but we they said we

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have a spot for you over at
this place, the Northman uh Sister Sister

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Bar. So that's where where I
met Brian and also Ambrosia of Barowski,

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and uh the kind of the rest
is history. It just really it was

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a little bit of an unexpected turn
in my career. I've been in restaurants

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for a long time, as well
as music and real estate and a whole

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bunch of other things. And uh, and I was really just kind of

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looking for something that was that was. I guess it captivated me because it

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was interesting. It was not something
that I had come across before. I

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had more of a craft beer background, so I thought I knew something about

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cider, but I quickly, uh, when I arrived at the Northman,

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found out that I didn't know much. So yeah, I just I just

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sort of fell in love with it
there and and and really just kind of

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took it and ran with it and
was working with Brian at the Northman for

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three years. Yeah. For your
listeners, of course, the Northmand was

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Chicago's first cider bar. YEP,
it had beer and lily cocktails, but

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it had well over one hundred siders
from around the world. Yeah, that's

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where I met these two gentlemen at
Yes, I guess I guess we're I

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guess we was an mengge of that
too, right, Yeah, that's how

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we how we know? Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I

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worked at the Northman from there,
went on worked for Stemsiders for several years

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and then uh, just about a
year ago, I decided kind of found

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myself at a crossroads and wanted to
continue to work with cider, and I

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decided to start uh my own LLC. So I have a company now called

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Passage, which is it kind of
has a couple of different functions. It's

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a sales and marketing that I've worked
with cider brands to do sales and marketing

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in the Chicagoland area. So working
with a couple of brands right now to

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them we're going to talk about tonight, Farnham Hill and storm Alongsiders. And

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then also, you know, as
a promoter of cider uh with you know,

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for the public. Just McK brian
and I are kind of like cider

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hype men. So we we we
go out, we do tasting events.

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We work with in bars and restaurants
to put on anything from you know,

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small kind of paired dinners to bigger
festival events. We're working on all of

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that and just really just trying to
get people drinking more cider in Chicago.

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That's that's the main goal. So
yeah, yeah, that's that's really it.

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That's that's how I arrived at the
place that I am now. And

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it's a it's a heavy place,
Yes, place full of apples. Yeh,

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yes, what's going on with you? So just came back from the

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firm this weekends up in central Michigan
visiting local John's, who's a producer that

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I worked with for a long time. I was probably among the first cider

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sales in Chicago. And uh,
just work like Matt, work with with

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brands to help get them into the
market, buying distribution, get you know,

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account placements. But but also,
as Matt said, a lot of

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times you know cider. You know, we work to change as that has

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grown a lot of me. It's
just it's expected you're to find cider on

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the menu now there typically there are
cider sections on menus now. So certainly

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we've come a long way, at
least in Chicago, but sometimes still it's

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not enough and we don't get invited
to all the cool kids party and so

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we had to start our own parties
and we've been trying to yet we do

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our taste things. We we we
created a party a cider Fest with with

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Peak Glass over at Artifact Events this
past fall that was in conjunction with the

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Apple Fest and Lincoln Square. Yeah. So again just trying to find people

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where they're at. You know,
folks that might be into something for one

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reason or otherwise, beer culture,
restaurant culture, community, festival cultu,

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you know, neighborhood festival culture.
And then they they discover cider, and

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then you can create more opportunities for
them to learn more about it and hopefully

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open one up and joining one.
Well, speaking of open one up,

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what should we open up? Yeah? I got a number of things.

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I think we wanted to start with
the storm Along unfiltered. Storm Along is

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a brand that just launched in Chicago
right around October first, so just just

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getting out there. They started in
twenty fourteen. Shareborne, Massachusetts is where

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their home base is, which is
in the Boston area, just about thirty

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minutes west of Boston. They're using
all New England fruit, so they have

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some of their own orchards. They
source apples from just Massachusetts and surrounding states,

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so going as far offfield as let's
say, upstate New York, you

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know, some Connecticut, Vermont,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island. Yeah,

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those would be the I guess the
five states where they get apples. So

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yeah, I mean it was really
good. You know when I ran into

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you at bottles and canned the storm
belongs that you know I picked up from

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you or outstanding. We're gonna tak
a holiday one a little bit later on,

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so I know this one's really good. So what can you tell people

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about the unfiltered? The unfiltered is, uh, well, first of all,

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it's a it's a little lower abvs
compared to some of the things that

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we're gonna get into. So this
one's four and a half percent. So

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nice, easy drinking sessionable. This
is a blend of seven different culinary apples.

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The made apple and here is macintosh. Okay, so it's got.

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What they do is they take a
fermented sider, so they ferment, make

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a dry sider, and then add
some fresh juice back. Okay, So

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this tastes just like that farm stand
fresh farm stand juice. It's a I

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think, a really accessible flavor.
Just guys, taste it, anyone.

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Anyone's gonna know this flavor. It's
very good. Yeah, smells great.

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Yeah, it's really good. M
Yeah, instantly recognizable familiar apple. Yeah

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yeah. It was a group in
western Pennsylvania and local orchard. We would

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visit every fall. You know,
apple butter, You know that it's this

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kind of thing. A lot of
people have had this experience and uh and

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and that was just one of my
favorite things was getting the fresh apple juice.

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Yeah. Uh you know, it
was like it was better than the

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than the apple juice that we had
year round, which was the bottled sort

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of concentrates. Yeah right, but
at harvest time to get that fresh apple

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juice. So this is this flavor
is really nostalgic to me. I think

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it just really tastes like that.
I mean it literally is that it has

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the fresh juice added back to give
it that really fresh apple character. So

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yeah, it's I think it's very
sort of broadly appealing and just just just

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a very familiar and nostalgic flavor.
Yeah, I think this is delicious.

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Now it's doesn't seem like it's just
carbonated as some of the others. Yeah,

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yeah, that's interesting. It definitely
is is a pedalent uh you know,

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almost pedalent to Still I find this, Brian, can weah know as

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to it. I find that a
lot of cider tends to be in this

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kind of carbonation range. Maybe this
one feels a little low, but yeah,

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I think maybe for one, you
know, it's certainly that would approximate

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a closer, you know, a
version to fresh breast sider, which typically

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isn'tcumbinated. One. Two. I
also think perhaps because it isn't filtered,

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you have a lot more of that
packed it in here. They're they're in

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despite its lower ABV, this has
significant body to it. Yeah, and

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so maybe the body somewhat you know, mutes are understanding or or or appreciation

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of any carbonation that is present.
Right, it's a little bit heavier,

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a little bit thicker on the viscosity, So maybe that's part of it.

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You certainly had that great crack when
we opened the cam. There is I

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mean, is used even a lot
of steel products, if not just to

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put a better CEO two over the
you know, the product as it's being

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canned for protection and shipping and all
the rest of it. But this,

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Yeah, that might have something to
do with it. I don't know,

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because yes, I would, I
would agree with you there, But of

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course it also might be a deliberate
you know choice by the side of me.

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Yeah, dial that the carbonation here, so we just are we'd have

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to check in with them. Now, this one's really good. Where can

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people pick up storm Along here you
can get it bitter pops, bottles and

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cans they open bottle, just pick
brought some in. So both locations,

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tim Land and Lockport certainly make its
way out to Benny's stores, so pretty

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good. Bet if you're at the
flagship Bennie's and Lincoln Park, it can

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definitely find our skews there, the
ciders there. Yeah, yeah, No,

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this one's really good. Definitely if
you hit those spots, you need

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to look for storm Along. I'm
gonna put pictures of all the cans later

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on. So this is the unfiltered
If you like something a little lower alcohol,

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this is four and a half percent
and it's fantastic. Definitely, if

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you see this one, you gotta
grab it. What are we gonna try

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and ask? Well, the next
one will open is Uncle John's Apple.

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Funny, Matt was just talking about
the stories of visiting a farm in western

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Pennsylvania. You know, I just
got back from Uncle John's up in central

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Michigan, and that's very much what
this farm is. You know, in

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the fall, thousands of people showing
up for pumpkins, hay rides, fresh

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apples, and cider donuts galore.
I mean tens of thousands of cider donuts.

204
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It's it's insane. And this is
of course now their twentieth year as

205
00:15:41,559 --> 00:15:46,559
a producer of alcoholic cider. It's
fifty years of Uncle John's, but the

206
00:15:46,559 --> 00:15:50,159
family's been there for one hundred and
fifty years growing apples. So Uncle John's

207
00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:54,600
farm kind of started in the eighties. Got going is more of this.

208
00:15:54,799 --> 00:15:58,879
Instead of just being a produce farm, as the roadside stand, it was

209
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,919
actually family experiential fallp on, come
for the for for for the for the

210
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,240
farm experience, and it still is
that today, but it is also a

211
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:14,679
working growing farm. They produce a
lot of apples for fresh eating, but

212
00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,000
they also produce a lot of apples
just for cider making. They'll also then

213
00:16:18,039 --> 00:16:22,600
trade with other local growers to increase
diversity and blends. And so we are

214
00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:26,279
going to taste some of those varieties
here. And this is very much unlike

215
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:33,000
the last one tiltered and instead of
the approach of trying to approximate your fresh

216
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:38,159
juice, this is more of a
wine like, complex structured approach. You're

217
00:16:38,159 --> 00:16:44,399
gonna see more of those those those
characteristics, and so instead of apple being

218
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,519
the first thing you experienced, you
might get the nuances of other things,

219
00:16:47,559 --> 00:16:52,159
like you know, the grape and
leachy and peaches and things. And even

220
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:55,720
though there's nothing but apples in here, twixpress itself just like any other white

221
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:59,919
wine. Oh yeah, you're almost
like a lot different. Pick up a

222
00:17:00,159 --> 00:17:04,920
lot more with that than just Apple's
looks great, nice and clear. Yeah,

223
00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,160
there's a lot going on there,
but it's all good. Yes,

224
00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,920
what's the ABV on this one?
This is six and a half percent.

225
00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,640
Okay, that's very common in Michigan
ciders. But I think the other thing

226
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,839
that you'll notice right off the bat
is the acidity, all right, the

227
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,559
acid that that sort of green apple
brightness that doesn't get it on the robo

228
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:27,200
and it comes to run this nose
and that's giving it that very cool wine

229
00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:32,440
like structure. Yeah, definitely,
which makes a really great on your dinner

230
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:37,119
table anything you would drink a wine, a white wine with. I think

231
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:38,799
this one being great. Perry as
well, when I was talking to you

232
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,559
last month, you said that Uncle
John's was picking up a lot of draft

233
00:17:42,599 --> 00:17:47,200
sales in Chicago in the last couple
of months. Yeah, we've been doing

234
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:49,960
really well with our draft. It's
you know, you can find it when

235
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,920
you go out to see a show
at Lincoln Hall or Shuba's, you know.

236
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,839
So it's like it's it's it's it's
developing a presence that I think folks

237
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:03,160
have now, like I said,
gotten used to expecting a dry cider draft

238
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,480
option when they go out. You
know, maybe they don't just duringsider of

239
00:18:07,559 --> 00:18:11,319
it, but you know, some
people can't drink beer whatever, but I

240
00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:15,400
think folks who are going out expect
to have a dry side option. This

241
00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,440
is less than two grams of sugar, so it fits that bill of the

242
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,640
solid semi dry. And yeah,
it's been doing really well. Cool,

243
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,880
and I know you could find this
like I've seen Uncle John's all over it,

244
00:18:27,039 --> 00:18:32,319
bottles and cans, vinnies. Had
you hit the grocery stores, you

245
00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:37,160
said, we were years ago what
with Mariano's before the Roundies buy out.

246
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:41,279
But then that changed the structure and
I haven't been able to find the right

247
00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:45,960
people of Ohio to talk to.
But yeah, some we do get a

248
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,759
few US chain placements, but not
much these days. Okay, corking on

249
00:18:48,799 --> 00:18:52,880
that for next year. Yeah,
no, this one's really good. If

250
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,039
you see the regular Uncle John's.
And we're gonna talk about a couple other

251
00:18:56,079 --> 00:19:02,000
ones, but this is just white
can with a nice light greenish background,

252
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:07,279
just the plain hard sider apple.
This one's really good too. The semi

253
00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:11,880
dry definitely one you need to throw
in the cart. All right, So

254
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:15,200
what are we gonna try next?
Next? Look up the Farnham Hill Extra

255
00:19:15,279 --> 00:19:19,720
Dry all right, Corn and Cay's
bottle seven or fifty milliliters Farm Hills from

256
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,559
eleven in New Hampshire. Yeah,
I mean, in many ways, this

257
00:19:23,599 --> 00:19:29,319
is where graft cider begins in America. Okay, there's a producer in Massachusetts

258
00:19:29,319 --> 00:19:37,559
called West County Cider Makers in colorayd
Massachusetts, with Terry Maloney and Judith Maloney.

259
00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:41,640
Now their son Feel Malodey is carrying
on the tradition. But it was

260
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,000
at the same time that Farnham Hill
got going, and Steve Wood at Barnham

261
00:19:45,079 --> 00:19:48,720
Hill was getting in a lot of
really cool varieties from Europe at the time.

262
00:19:48,839 --> 00:19:53,599
Was one of the first pioneering folks
to bring that into American orchards in

263
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,359
the late nineteen eighties. Okay,
so that's as old as craft cider is

264
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,000
really. I mean, you have
woodchuck it for a month and doing their

265
00:20:00,079 --> 00:20:04,039
thing, and they're a cool producer, but they weren't going for the micro

266
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,279
market, and they certainly weren't going
into the scale of production costs and elevating

267
00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:12,200
it, you know, the way
that these guys were much smaller producers.

268
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,359
And so in many ways this is
very foundational for the craft cider community because

269
00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:22,519
it introduces this whole concept of what
apples are we drinking? You know,

270
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:27,200
we're drinking apple cider, but then
what apples are in it? Because you

271
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:32,160
know, just like in Kraft beer
years ago, you had to have your

272
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,759
chop sound at the at the top
craft beer bars as a bartender, know

273
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,599
what kind of hops were in your
beer, what was the mall built,

274
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:44,759
what made that beer style so unique? And cider doesn't really have hard and

275
00:20:44,799 --> 00:20:48,200
defined styles. It does, but
just not really well crystallize the way that

276
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,240
it is in beer doesn't have the
same amount of history behind it and codify

277
00:20:52,319 --> 00:20:56,119
the way in the same ways.
So one of the easiest ways we can

278
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,640
talk about what it's going to taste
like and what kind of cider it is

279
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,799
is what type of apples are in
there, because the type of apples will

280
00:21:02,799 --> 00:21:06,920
directly, you know, affect the
blend, just like you're not typically drinking

281
00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:11,599
wines made out of concord grapes.
These are not your your This is not

282
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,000
a sider made from gala apples.
Yeah, this is a cider and they're

283
00:21:15,039 --> 00:21:21,000
listed here. Dabadet very a foundational
apple in cider making over in the UK.

284
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:26,000
Ashton bitter Alice, bitter golden Russet, Wixon Wickson's a smaller crab apple

285
00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:33,279
like variety developed in the early nineteen
hundreds by Albert edd in California. A

286
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:38,279
soapis Spitzenberg. So that's one apple
riety named is soapis Spitzenberg. And I

287
00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:42,119
will give you one clue as to
where it was discovered. Soap is New

288
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:47,599
York perhaps, you know so a
lot of times apples have the place name

289
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:51,839
in there. Yarlington Mill is a
two hundred euro ol English variety where the

290
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:56,160
initial tree was found growing out of
a stone wall at Yarlington, at the

291
00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:03,720
local mill in In in colonial New
England, different growers would would name their

292
00:22:03,759 --> 00:22:08,680
apples these outrageous names as a height
and so Hubbardston none such is a famous

293
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,240
New England riioety. They're never going
to find an apple like you find it

294
00:22:11,279 --> 00:22:17,799
Hubbardston, you know. So there's
a really odd unique apple names. But

295
00:22:17,839 --> 00:22:19,759
those will tell us a little bit
about what it's gonna taste like, because

296
00:22:19,799 --> 00:22:25,039
these varieties that we've listed are very
well known for some and high in tannin

297
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:29,720
others like the Wickson pie and acid, and you blend those different britis together

298
00:22:29,759 --> 00:22:33,720
to get a much more complex,
uh and structured sider. Okay, Now,

299
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:41,000
all the varieties of apples that you
mentioned, do they like import the

300
00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:45,079
apples from those locations? Do they
grow it on their own farms? So

301
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:48,200
they're growing them on their farms?
Okay in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Right,

302
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,960
he brought cuttings from the original locations
over in Europe, over here the

303
00:22:53,039 --> 00:22:57,519
American origins, or from other orchards
out in the Western United States, or

304
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:03,079
you're go elsewhere. So, because
apples don't reproduce true to seed, you

305
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:06,440
can't just pick the apple, find
the seeds, put them in your pocket,

306
00:23:06,519 --> 00:23:10,599
and plant them hoping to recreate it. Every seed is a complete random

307
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,519
genetic variation, so no only way
to propagate, just like wine, is

308
00:23:14,559 --> 00:23:18,680
grafting. And so those riders were
grafted in his old orchard, and then

309
00:23:18,759 --> 00:23:21,960
the new varieties grew forth from there. So it's all been grown. These

310
00:23:22,039 --> 00:23:26,319
rites specifically are all grown at Poverty
Lane orchards and they're orchard in New Hampshire.

311
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,680
All right, let's crack this or
have this one. Cheers, fellas,

312
00:23:30,799 --> 00:23:33,279
cheers. This is a lot more
golden then the first two that we

313
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:37,319
had, deeper, darker color than
richer. Really nice aroma of it.

314
00:23:40,559 --> 00:23:44,319
That's good, Like got like a
little bit of a funk to it.

315
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,960
Not a lot, but enough where
like you know, it's there, Yes,

316
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:52,000
very nice. It's so it's a
wine making approach really, it's they're

317
00:23:52,039 --> 00:23:57,079
growing like all the apples are grown
with the intent to make cider. Yes,

318
00:23:57,279 --> 00:24:03,119
orchard at Poverty Laying orchards. So
everything that they do is intentional.

319
00:24:03,799 --> 00:24:11,079
This is a blend of about fourteen
or fifteen different varieties and it is meant

320
00:24:11,079 --> 00:24:15,480
to have the tannin the acid and
then that fruit. You get a lot

321
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,279
of fruit, even though this has
no sugar at all. Right, yeah,

322
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:21,920
yeah, so this is the driest
one that we've tasted so far.

323
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:23,720
Right, we started with a couple
of grands of sugar that we got to

324
00:24:23,839 --> 00:24:27,039
a little bit less than two grams
and now we're as zero glad of sugar.

325
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,559
Yeah, but still the fruit is
dialed up because of what you mentioned,

326
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:37,480
the phenolics. I think we've become
we're used as using the word funk

327
00:24:37,759 --> 00:24:41,039
when we get something strong or intense, especially in cider, which is a

328
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,039
very sort of delicate or asture palate. So if you get some sort of

329
00:24:44,319 --> 00:24:47,480
bitterness and oddity, we use the
word funk. But here a lot of

330
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:52,039
it is just from the true bitter
sweet apples, and so that thick tannin

331
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,640
creates, you know, a lot
of really cool polyphenols, which are those

332
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,559
odd, really intense aromas that we're
getting. And that's why I think dials

333
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:06,480
up the fruit the nose you know, on the fruit. So yeah,

334
00:25:06,519 --> 00:25:08,119
you get the aid of the tann
and the fruit. They all dance it

335
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,799
on me. Yeah, you know, no one is supposed to, you

336
00:25:11,839 --> 00:25:15,960
know, they're all supposed to be
sort of equal and not overpower one another.

337
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,160
If you talk to the cider maker
Steve Wood, he said he's very

338
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:25,039
influenced by Southern Roan wine wine making, so coke to rone. If you

339
00:25:25,759 --> 00:25:30,519
have a bottle coked corona, it
has a very similar kind of balance between

340
00:25:30,599 --> 00:25:33,640
the acid and the tannin. Uh, we're drinking it, probably a little

341
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:38,279
bit colder then than we should.
Yeah, this was this was in my

342
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:42,799
cooler, so it as it warms
up. You know, it says right

343
00:25:42,839 --> 00:25:48,440
on the bottle cellar slash red wine
temperature. So fifty five to sixty five

344
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,960
degrees is really ideal for this.
So if you get a bottle of it,

345
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,279
you have it nice and nice and
chilled, and then and then it

346
00:25:53,319 --> 00:25:56,680
sits there for a little bit and
those flavors are really certainly come out,

347
00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,759
come out. There's a lot of
complexity at the side a four year glass

348
00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:02,839
and we'll just set it off to
the side. Yeah, come back to

349
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,559
it but later. Matt also has
talked about the wine making approach. Whereas

350
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,279
Uncle John's you know that last game
we had that was fermented for about four

351
00:26:11,319 --> 00:26:15,079
to six weeks, this is ermented
for nearly a full year. Yeah,

352
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,359
so again that wine making approach has
all been sort of fermented separately and then

353
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,519
blended at the end of the season
and to create you know a little bit

354
00:26:22,559 --> 00:26:25,720
more of this, a little bit
better to this, and you create that

355
00:26:25,799 --> 00:26:30,480
wine structure, as you said,
very intentionally intentional. Yeah, I guess

356
00:26:30,519 --> 00:26:34,160
I should also add to it that
what they're attempting to do, uh,

357
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,480
and what I think this is,
this is pretty much a thirty year project

358
00:26:37,559 --> 00:26:41,359
for Steve and also for Luis.
Shouldn't mention Louis Suspenser as the other owner

359
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:48,400
of Farnham Hill, Steve's wife,
and yeah, they their team. They

360
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:56,720
are attempting to make the same cider
each year with different crop yields, different

361
00:26:56,839 --> 00:27:03,200
growing conditions. This year actually a
very unfortunately it was a late frost in

362
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,640
May that really affected the apple crop
kind of across from England, some places

363
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,960
where hit worse than others. Basically
twenty fourth of May that the temperature went

364
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:17,359
out at twenty one degrees. Crazy
weather event. This isn't kind of once

365
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:22,279
in a decade sort of event.
Hopefully it doesn't happen too often going forward.

366
00:27:22,279 --> 00:27:29,119
But yeah, at that point a
lot of the trees are in bloom.

367
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:33,039
They don't like the cold. Yeah, so you pretty much you lost

368
00:27:33,079 --> 00:27:38,000
a lot of crop, caused other
apples to sort of develop into smaller size

369
00:27:38,079 --> 00:27:42,359
than they would normally be. So, you know, very different year.

370
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:48,519
This year might produce different flavors in
the apple. So you know, some

371
00:27:48,559 --> 00:27:53,759
of the apples get yielded every two
years as opposed every year, so there's

372
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,400
lots of different growing conditions, but
they're trying to make a sider that's consistent

373
00:27:57,519 --> 00:28:02,880
year to year. Yeah, So
what they do is they blend a lot

374
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:08,839
of different sort of batches together,
but really from two harvests often some some

375
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,759
from the prior year's harvest and then
and then from the latest harvest, is

376
00:28:12,799 --> 00:28:17,759
what Steve tells me. So,
and some of it's fermented in barrel.

377
00:28:17,839 --> 00:28:21,119
Some of it's a stainless deal,
and so barrel sometimes can pick up some

378
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,680
of that that you would ten and
that might make up here there again add

379
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,079
as an accident. Think of it
like an artist with a palette again and

380
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,640
damn my brush here, damn my
brush here, and then go to different

381
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:36,839
wells to create a consistent thing.
But I think what Met's discussion also underscores

382
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,480
year is that a lot of people
aim for consistency, but it is an

383
00:28:41,519 --> 00:28:48,039
agricultural product. Yeah, protage,
So I just like wine, people accept

384
00:28:48,519 --> 00:28:52,720
that wines have different vintages so that
each year will express itself differently. However,

385
00:28:52,039 --> 00:28:56,359
so it's me sider is meaning exactly
like wine. You know, breosider.

386
00:28:56,599 --> 00:28:57,640
If you're a wine maker, you're
a cider maker, right, you

387
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:03,079
don't you know the sider brewer.
However, many of us experience sider in

388
00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:08,519
discovery, sider in beer sentence,
and so beer folks sometimes one they expect

389
00:29:08,519 --> 00:29:11,319
a little bit more consistency because you
can brew to style, you can control

390
00:29:11,319 --> 00:29:17,200
a little bit more of the variable
out and things like that. So so

391
00:29:17,799 --> 00:29:21,880
it's this this typrope that we walk
between in the worlds of wine and beer

392
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:26,160
are sometimes difficult to to to navigate. Now this one, since it does

393
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:32,279
seem to be a lot more complex, would you have this with a certain

394
00:29:32,319 --> 00:29:37,880
type of meal as opposed to another
one? Well, it's it's a little

395
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,839
bit higher ABV too, so seven
half percent. Yeah, that body is

396
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,559
lifted and so it does hold up
better to bigger, more boulder foods.

397
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,839
Okay, I would say any kind
of I mean that we were out before

398
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,920
Thanksgiving talking to people about this Thanksgiving
dinner. You know, my Christmas Eve

399
00:29:53,039 --> 00:29:59,079
dinner is typically consists of ham.
I make this cheese scooped potato dish,

400
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,559
I make this much shroom dish,
thees braised mushrooms. You know, this

401
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:04,279
is gonna be perfect with all those
things, Okay, because it's got a

402
00:30:04,359 --> 00:30:10,640
nice bright acidity that's really gonna cut
through rich food Yeah, any any any

403
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:15,559
dry cider high acid, you know, the Uncle John's also any type of

404
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,359
rich foods, you know. I
mean, like I said, Thanksgiving dinner,

405
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:22,000
I mean that's a perfect Yeah,
well you got you get really a

406
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,319
lot of butter, you know,
a lot of uh yeah, a lot

407
00:30:26,359 --> 00:30:27,640
of mashed potatoes, that sort of
thing. I mean, it's all gonna

408
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:32,519
really just cut through that, and
it's it's really nice and refreshing. Yeah.

409
00:30:32,559 --> 00:30:34,079
I would say where the Uncle John's, the acid is the star,

410
00:30:34,119 --> 00:30:37,240
and it certainly cuts through. I
think a lot of pork bat and and

411
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:42,119
and great with cheeses and amazing seafood
up hearing the front of Hill might with

412
00:30:42,559 --> 00:30:45,759
a little bit more of that tannic
backbone hold up more to say, like

413
00:30:47,079 --> 00:30:52,599
sausages or duck or or more game
like meat. I typically still want red

414
00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:56,240
wine and I'm having steak, but
this could hold up to a lot of

415
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,839
red meats. Okay, cool?
Now, where can you pick up Farnham

416
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:04,559
Hill locally in the Chicago Land area. Uh yeah, there's a great shop

417
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:08,640
over on Broadway the Lakeview neighborhood called
Bottles Up. Bottles Up all right.

418
00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:14,960
You can also find the extra dry
at some Whole Foods location. So off

419
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,599
the top of my head, Streeterville
Elbhurst has it both Lakeview locations, so

420
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:25,240
you have the Halsted Street and then
also on Ashland. Okay, I go

421
00:31:25,279 --> 00:31:30,279
to for sure. Yeah those guys
have it. Also Wine Goddess in Okay.

422
00:31:30,359 --> 00:31:33,599
Yeah, now I had never been
a wine goddess. Do you like

423
00:31:33,799 --> 00:31:37,880
wine cider? Yeah? Yeah,
a wonderful selection of wine, beer,

424
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:45,680
and cider. Our friend Morgan is
there, uh handles the cider section there.

425
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,240
Certainly they're known for their wine.
They do a lot of wine education

426
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:53,559
up there, but Morgan has has
really created a thoughtfully curated cider select.

427
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,839
Okay, cool, yeah, awesome, So check out Wine Goddess. There's

428
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:02,000
another another one called the Farmhouse Side
Or it's a four pack twelve outs cans.

429
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,400
Okay, bit bit easier, fine, also a wonderful cider, very

430
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,000
similar, a little bit lower ABV. But the seven to fifty is the

431
00:32:10,279 --> 00:32:14,400
like I said, the thirty year
project, it's it's the best buttoned,

432
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,759
the best of the best. And
I don't think when he started and he

433
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:22,480
ever thought he would put cider in
a twelve bounds can. But I think,

434
00:32:22,559 --> 00:32:24,640
you know, after a while,
when he saw the market mature and

435
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:30,920
develop and find new drinkers who expect
their beverages in different locations. Cans just

436
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:35,119
give customers a chance to find and
discover the cider more off. Yeah,

437
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,079
and you're not committing to the seven
to fifty bottle if you want to just

438
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:43,599
have one after work or you know, you don't have to pop open the

439
00:32:43,599 --> 00:32:46,119
whole bottle. Absolutely, Although I
let me chime in here, I will

440
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:51,440
say this is part of our project, is that cider in seven fifties.

441
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:54,519
Folks don't be scared of a seven
hundred fifty millioner bottle. It's two cans

442
00:32:54,559 --> 00:32:59,200
of cider. Yeah, it is. It's a crawler. Yeah, it's

443
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,440
a fancier crawler. And I mean
it's funny. This is a This is

444
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:07,319
actually one of the things that's like
really wild about about saw in cider is

445
00:33:07,359 --> 00:33:09,200
that there's you know, I mean
in beer, we used to see a

446
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:15,920
lot more bombers. Yeah, that's
twenty two ounce bottles or larger format bottles

447
00:33:15,359 --> 00:33:20,640
have really kind of fallen out of
favor in favor of cans. I mean,

448
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,960
sixteen ounce cans. You know,
you got all the core work on

449
00:33:23,079 --> 00:33:27,480
cans. It's really I mean,
you know this the market has moved that

450
00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:30,519
way. Cider has sort of been
caught up in that trend that some of

451
00:33:30,559 --> 00:33:37,839
the trends in craft beer. But
I don't know this cider. There's definitely

452
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,400
some European siders, like some French
siders. Those things are never going to

453
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:45,960
be in cans, you know,
like they're they're they're in bottles and that's

454
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:50,400
you know, like just like wine. I mean it's just yeah, wine

455
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:52,920
is doing fine in seven to fifty. Yeah, So that's that's what I

456
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:54,640
always tell people. So it's a
crawler, Yeah, I just think of

457
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:58,640
it as it's not that much.
Yeah. Are they gonna put it in

458
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:05,240
the nineteen biking? Yeah? One
thing that I was just thinking about,

459
00:34:05,759 --> 00:34:09,480
like I know, with beer,
it's a lot of it is drink fresh.

460
00:34:09,639 --> 00:34:14,800
Can you age any of these siders
like this one year from farmham Ill?

461
00:34:15,039 --> 00:34:17,119
Or is it pretty much you just
need to drink it fresh? I

462
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:22,760
you know, freshness I don't find
is anywhere near as important as with beer.

463
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,440
I think, correct me if I'm
wrong on this, but hop hop

464
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,760
flavor is gonna be the primary thing
that's gonna degrade over family year, right,

465
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:37,159
So just I mean, really simple
cider is wine, So certainly I

466
00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:40,079
think that there are siders that you
would want to drink generally a year,

467
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:45,400
if it's if it's if it's a
year like that's that's pretty generally, pretty

468
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,039
good, pretty safe for any sider. Yeah, that's will also has some

469
00:34:49,079 --> 00:34:52,880
of your sider and cans a year
or two. You know, do I

470
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:54,440
have sider old than that? Yeah? Yeah, I'm a bit of a

471
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:59,800
nerd, but I have bottles of
cider that are eight years old that whole

472
00:35:00,079 --> 00:35:06,000
up. But also the impact will
be tannin alcohol. All these other things

473
00:35:06,039 --> 00:35:09,199
do contribute to its viability over time. Okay, this is the question from

474
00:35:09,199 --> 00:35:13,880
Brian. Do you think of any
siders off the top of your head that

475
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,639
have really got better with age the
way that you would age? I you

476
00:35:17,679 --> 00:35:21,519
know, the wine analogy only goes
so far. I sure figured, Like,

477
00:35:22,159 --> 00:35:24,400
I don't know, I haven't heard
of people like really cellaring cider the

478
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:30,920
way should Some people do it just
changes it. It's better is a value

479
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:34,000
judgment, right, Yeah, so
it starts certainly you're getting there's a trade

480
00:35:34,039 --> 00:35:37,960
off. I think sometimes the longer
you age your sider, some of the

481
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:44,079
fruit quality may be lessened, But
then that allows other aspects of the drink

482
00:35:44,119 --> 00:35:47,039
to emerge, whether that's the acid
or kind of the tannin's dance around mineral

483
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:52,880
aspects to to the blend that might
display a little bit more clearly. So

484
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:58,280
you're just you're you're. It's just
a difference, right, And I certainly

485
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:05,159
I think bigger ABV, you know, more tannins will help preserve that sider

486
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:08,800
over time. I'd say a cider
for ten years, no problem, but

487
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:13,519
maybe not decades the way you can
put away in good red one. Yeah,

488
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,960
at twelve to fifteen percent alcohol,
red wine really has the alcohol to

489
00:36:17,039 --> 00:36:22,840
hold up over decades. Ciders at
six to seven percent not as much.

490
00:36:23,199 --> 00:36:27,079
There are some sighters coming out of
Virginia in a few of the places where

491
00:36:27,079 --> 00:36:30,119
they're at nine or ten percent,
and that certainly helps. Yeah, but

492
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:37,079
I think, you know, certainly
a few years a decade great. Other

493
00:36:37,119 --> 00:36:39,079
than that, just what are you
waiting for? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,

494
00:36:39,119 --> 00:36:43,480
that's true. Hey, I'm pants
Saren, This is Stevie and I'm

495
00:36:43,519 --> 00:36:47,280
Aggie and we are bfytw podcast all
about playing games and having fun. Our

496
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,920
games are usually based on British panel
shows and game shows, but we'll play

497
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:55,519
anything that captures our attention and imagination. Why it's right there in the title.

498
00:36:57,199 --> 00:36:59,760
You'll never guess what the F stands
for. All right, So we're

499
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:04,519
gonna trabbed some of the holiday ones
now in first up is the cranberry from

500
00:37:04,599 --> 00:37:07,000
Uncle John's. That's right, well, both craanberry. This is the winter

501
00:37:07,119 --> 00:37:12,280
seasonal. You know, there's a
there's a core line up year round.

502
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,239
But and they flip in from apricot
in summer to cranberry in the fall and

503
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:19,920
winter, and I just think it's
you know nice, you know, except

504
00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:24,639
fruit combination you'll typically see and of
course it belongs on your Thanksgiving table and

505
00:37:24,639 --> 00:37:30,400
then cranberries, yeah, great,
on your Christmas table. Cranberries. We

506
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:35,199
keep talking about this ballast of fruits, you know, than tamin sugar and

507
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:38,719
acid. Between those elements, cranberries
do have a tannic element and that helps

508
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:44,559
to create a little bit of a
stringency. And then then I'm blended with

509
00:37:44,599 --> 00:37:47,320
the crispapple cider from Michigan. The
acids are dialed up, so it's a

510
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:51,280
it's a good habits. But before
we have this, speaking of blending,

511
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:55,760
you just had a little of this
in some Sierra Nevana celebration. How is

512
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,960
that? It's really nice? You
know, you know you've heard of like

513
00:38:00,079 --> 00:38:04,679
the Irish steak by where you didn't
have like a harp and a strong bow.

514
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:07,079
Yeah, anything like that. I
like to take strong flavors and lend

515
00:38:07,119 --> 00:38:10,000
them together. So I really love
like taking blueberry sider and putting it in

516
00:38:10,079 --> 00:38:14,320
the stouts. This I just saw
cranberry with it with a syrien of out

517
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,559
of celebration. The really bright brush
op element that bitterness I thought would play

518
00:38:17,559 --> 00:38:22,920
well together, and I'm not unhappy
with it. I might have to try

519
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,280
that a little bit later. All
right, So what's gonna We're gonna have

520
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,480
the Uncle John's cranberry. I had
one of these a couple of weeks ago.

521
00:38:29,519 --> 00:38:32,239
When you dropped this off, I
thought it was phenomenal. Yeah,

522
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:39,159
it smells really good. It also
works as a mix in the cocktail than

523
00:38:39,199 --> 00:38:44,079
it would call for cranberry juice.
Use this one. You're getting a little

524
00:38:44,079 --> 00:38:46,519
added boat to AVV, but you're
also adding and that acid element too.

525
00:38:46,599 --> 00:38:50,480
Yeah, so it really helps lift
up a cocktail. Yeah, no,

526
00:38:50,599 --> 00:38:54,800
this is spectacular. I really like
this. This is on draft Rowtown all

527
00:38:54,800 --> 00:39:00,679
the time in the winter, Lincoln
Square over at Gideon Wells, they always

528
00:39:00,679 --> 00:39:05,239
have stuff like this on tap.
He always keeps the apple cans and the

529
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,400
blueberry cans on his menu, but
draft he visits seasonally, and the cranberry

530
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:12,320
is always a welcome edition over there. Yeah, what's the ABV on this

531
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,000
one? Six and six point five? Six point five. It's really nice.

532
00:39:15,039 --> 00:39:20,000
Got that nice pink color, which
you assume because it's cranberry. But

533
00:39:20,079 --> 00:39:22,679
yeah, you get the apples,
you get the cranberry. It's married well

534
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:29,400
together. Yeah. I don't think
one is predominant. One doesn't like overpower

535
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,519
the other. You get both in
every sip. I think this one's really

536
00:39:31,559 --> 00:39:37,480
good. Now, with some of
these holiday ones, would you would you

537
00:39:37,519 --> 00:39:40,239
a this with the meal or would
these be more of like a dessert after

538
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:45,559
your big holiday meal. Not a
bad idea, certainly would go well with

539
00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:49,559
some desserts. I do like the
playing with it as a cocktail. Addition,

540
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:53,440
you could even with people mull wine. You know, you could mole

541
00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:58,719
cider too and eat it up in
the winter and create your rota spice and

542
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,599
its whatever it is, and in
those types of things really lend itself well.

543
00:40:01,639 --> 00:40:05,880
So any of these siders would be
fine. The mold as well.

544
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:08,119
Okay, cool, Yeah, that's
very good. And you said that's the

545
00:40:08,159 --> 00:40:12,719
winter seasonal that's right. Okay,
it'll be around for a couple of months

546
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,519
at stores and undrafted, and then
we'll be getting ready for spring before you

547
00:40:15,599 --> 00:40:17,599
do it, all right, and
what comes out after that? Then the

548
00:40:17,599 --> 00:40:21,800
apricot again or is there an Aprica
will come up in spring. But we

549
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:28,840
also we'll talk maybe next year when
Seagull to Mile comes around, we'll talk

550
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,960
about the tapace. Okay, So
that's usually that's a that's a treat from

551
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:37,119
from Mexico. Yeah, and so
we we we make it a few times

552
00:40:37,159 --> 00:40:38,400
a year. It's not just for
that season, but that's really what I

553
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,239
like to celebrate with. Oh.
Absolutely, I'll be in for that,

554
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,679
all right. Next one up is
gonna be the Happy Holidays from Storm Alone.

555
00:40:46,119 --> 00:40:51,679
Yeah, Happy Holidays holiday spice sider. Now, when I ran into

556
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:57,639
you at Files and Cans and you
were pooring this, I was sold.

557
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:01,079
I'm like, I gotta grab a
four pack this, This I thought was

558
00:41:01,159 --> 00:41:06,000
absolutely phenomenal. Thanks. Yeah,
uh yeah, this is uh, this

559
00:41:06,079 --> 00:41:12,000
is definitely a favorite of fans of
Storm Along. This is uh. Brian

560
00:41:12,079 --> 00:41:15,519
mentioned mold cider this is a this
is a mulling mulling spice blend that's used

561
00:41:15,519 --> 00:41:21,360
in the cider, which is incidentally
the same blood of spices as you get

562
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,480
an apple pies. Okay, storm
Along works with the local spice purveyor to

563
00:41:27,199 --> 00:41:31,239
uh make a custom blood of spices. They roast that grinded fresh for them.

564
00:41:32,039 --> 00:41:37,800
One thing about Stormlong never any concentrates
or artificial flavors at all, and

565
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,199
no natural flavors. It makes surreal
deal. So it's okay, it's apples

566
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:45,480
and it's it's it's fresh spices that
are infused. So yeah, it's got

567
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:52,599
three different kinds of cinnamon actually all
spice, clove, ginger, nutmeg,

568
00:41:52,079 --> 00:41:55,960
and a little brown sugar. Yeah. So tastes just like yeah, it

569
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,719
was like apple pie and a yeah
what did it taste like? Smells like

570
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:07,440
too? Well? Yeah that that
cold oar worm would be amazing. Yeah.

571
00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:10,719
That that's just so good. I
know, like after I saw you

572
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,440
when I bought the four pair,
you know, I cracked it open.

573
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:16,360
I'm like Ruby, my wife,
I'm like, you got half hits.

574
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:21,119
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's really
good. Yeah. People are really enjoying

575
00:42:21,159 --> 00:42:22,519
this one. It's been it's been
a huge hit. This is this is

576
00:42:22,599 --> 00:42:28,079
storm Along's one of their you know, biggest salads siders, biggest hits in

577
00:42:28,119 --> 00:42:30,880
the home home market in Massachusetts and
on the East Coast. They, uh,

578
00:42:31,119 --> 00:42:35,440
this is kind of everywhere. Everybody's
really waiting for this to come out.

579
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,639
It's it's it's a perennial, you
know, release every year they release

580
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:42,840
it. But uh, yeah,
I guess it's it really just started off

581
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,679
as as kind of a one off
side or they just decided to make it

582
00:42:45,679 --> 00:42:46,920
and they said, oh, let's
call it Happy Holiday, isn't it,

583
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,719
And then it really stuck. So
yeah, it's it's it's sort of that

584
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:54,920
a little tongue in cheek. It's
a little shamelessly named, but uh,

585
00:42:55,079 --> 00:42:59,800
it's it's definitely perfect for this time
of year. Yeah, it gives you

586
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,840
the kind of just notes of a
Yeah, typically have a flavor like this

587
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:07,639
warm, like warm apple pie.
Yeah you could. You could certainly warm

588
00:43:07,639 --> 00:43:13,280
this up a bit and certainly wouldn't
wouldn't hurt it. Yeah, Well,

589
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,920
put a little vanilla ice cream,
a little a little flow like you could

590
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:21,599
add a little booze if you want
to make it a little boozier for those

591
00:43:21,639 --> 00:43:25,079
particularly cold nights, but uh yeah, it's actually it's nice low abb two

592
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:30,719
five point two percent. I think
we're we're discussing, you know, some

593
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:36,079
other holiday ciders uh tend to be
you know high ABV. Yeah you know,

594
00:43:36,519 --> 00:43:42,000
I mean whatever is your thing for
some family. Yeah, yes,

595
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:45,800
well, yeah that's right. But
this one is is you know, nice,

596
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:49,960
nice, low five point two and
certainly a crowd pleaser. I mean,

597
00:43:50,519 --> 00:43:52,719
just haven't met anybody that that's stunned
into the cider. Yeah, that's

598
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:57,800
just you know, if you like
apple pie, you're gonna love this.

599
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,599
Happy Hobbodies. Our work is beautifull
two. Whoever their art director is,

600
00:44:02,039 --> 00:44:07,480
I mean, great funds, the
coloring, the label, everything about this

601
00:44:07,639 --> 00:44:15,719
is just killer. We've touched several
times on the idea of nostalgia, you

602
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:17,800
know, and I think this really
hits that. You know, I'm like,

603
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:22,079
oh man, yeah, that memories
come flooding back. Yeah, that's

604
00:44:22,199 --> 00:44:27,199
really good. Now. You also, we're not going to crack it open

605
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:30,000
here. What's the difference between this
and the Bear? I mean, obviously,

606
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:34,760
outside of being aged in a barrel, is it kicked up and yeah

607
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:37,920
V a little bit, yeah,
yeah, a little higher ABV. They

608
00:44:38,039 --> 00:44:44,639
do barrel aged version. That's the
collaboration with a local liquor store, the

609
00:44:44,679 --> 00:44:51,039
Messa Jesus Julio's Liquor. Actually we
entered that in the phobab this year.

610
00:44:51,639 --> 00:44:55,840
So they actually said a few a
few cases and a couple of six barrels

611
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:59,960
just really for the festival. We
had, I think there were four cases

612
00:45:00,119 --> 00:45:05,079
left over that and so there was
a couple of select stores that went out

613
00:45:05,079 --> 00:45:08,920
to just really quickly got snapped up. Barrel age is pretty uncommon. Maybe

614
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:13,639
we'll do more with it in the
future. There wasn't too much of a

615
00:45:13,679 --> 00:45:17,880
difference other than you know, obviously
the barrel flavor six point nine percent a

616
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:22,639
BV is apposed to five to two, just just a little bit higher,

617
00:45:22,679 --> 00:45:25,199
and yeah, gave it a little
little bit like you know, apple pie

618
00:45:25,199 --> 00:45:30,000
with bourbon. Yeah, so you
know, nice combination of flavors with the

619
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:34,239
barrel ages as well. When does
this come out? Is this just like

620
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,639
a November December tight deal? September
September, okay, so like all the

621
00:45:37,679 --> 00:45:46,079
other Christmaster September October, Yeah,
September December. Really this is there's another,

622
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:52,119
uh, another spice sider after this
one. So it's called White Mountain

623
00:45:52,159 --> 00:45:54,840
Magic. It's a different blend of
spice and it's got a little New Hampshire

624
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:59,440
maple syrup. Okay, so that'll
be hitting the market soon. All right,

625
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:04,159
Happy holidays. We uh you know
this first year that storm all has

626
00:46:04,159 --> 00:46:07,199
been at Chicago. So we shipped
once and went right away, shifted again.

627
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:10,400
It just got snapped up really quick, so we shipped a third time

628
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:14,920
and then that's probably it for the
year. So if you see it,

629
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,400
you better throw it. Yeah,
yeah, get it better samp out there

630
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:22,199
for sure. Yeah, it's it's
it's getting Yeah, it's it's definitely out

631
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:24,599
there right now. A couple of
weeks probably probably be all gone. Hi.

632
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:28,719
Cool, So you said it was
going pretty quick. Is this in

633
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:32,360
all the markets or all the stores
that storm along is or are there any

634
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,320
like markets that really you know,
you know they have a lot of this

635
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:40,280
left. Yeah. So Taste Food
and Wine is in Jarvis Square, Hi,

636
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:44,519
it's just there today. I know
they've got some. Uh. You

637
00:46:44,519 --> 00:46:47,519
can also find it at Bottles and
Cans. The Open Bottle in Tinley Park

638
00:46:47,639 --> 00:46:52,400
location has it. It's also going
to be on Draft hop Leaf really January

639
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:55,840
first, January first, Yeah,
all right, so you can definitely get

640
00:46:55,880 --> 00:47:00,000
on drafted hop leafs. They got
wild last, hopefully hopefully the last.

641
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,719
First. I got a couple kegs
of it, so that's pretty cool.

642
00:47:04,679 --> 00:47:07,719
And then the green Post has cans
of it right now, so you cannot

643
00:47:08,199 --> 00:47:14,519
go there, sit by the fireplace, enjoy happy Holidays there with some beers.

644
00:47:14,599 --> 00:47:20,280
You notice the difference between draft and
cans or bottles, Like for me

645
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:25,679
personally, Sammy Adams Boston Lager on
tap fresh is still one of my favorite

646
00:47:25,679 --> 00:47:30,519
bears of all time. In the
bottle, eh, it's good, but

647
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:36,559
there's a huge difference between draft and
can. What's the difference? Is there

648
00:47:36,599 --> 00:47:40,719
any between this Happy Holidays on tap? Brian can let us know if he

649
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:45,119
thinks differently, But I think that
there's virtually no difference okay, of cider

650
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:51,920
on draft versus in a can or
bottle, except that your carbonation level might

651
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,880
be different. So for example,
Front Extra Drive higher carbonation than the seven

652
00:47:55,920 --> 00:48:00,519
hundred and fifty millimeter bottle, then
you're typically to get on draft. That

653
00:48:00,519 --> 00:48:05,559
that'd be a difference. But outside
of that, I think that again it

654
00:48:05,639 --> 00:48:10,679
goes really I think to that freshness. Yes, so in seasonality, right,

655
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,199
you know, like be or Boston. You know, damn it was

656
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:19,559
making batch after back here throughout the
year. Many siders are made once or

657
00:48:19,559 --> 00:48:22,960
twice a year. Yeah, and
so the cider you get in draft is

658
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:27,320
the same batch that was in the
package. Okay, and so that should

659
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,599
create some more consistency. Again,
depending on your the scope of the cider

660
00:48:30,639 --> 00:48:34,800
company. You know, how Happy
Alladay is probably would be made once a

661
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,920
year because there's a seasonal the spices, everything else. So hopefully whatever wherever

662
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,960
you're experiencing it, it shouldn't be
consistent. All right. Cool? Yeah,

663
00:48:43,679 --> 00:48:45,800
if you're hearing this now, go
to your liquor store, go pick

664
00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:50,280
up the storm along Happy Holidays,
because I don't think you're going to be

665
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:52,840
disappointed. I think this one's Vanada. All right. What are we going

666
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,039
to finish off with you, Brian? Well, that's a fancier looking bottle.

667
00:48:55,159 --> 00:49:00,760
Well it's yeah, this is we've
talked about a different occasion or different

668
00:49:00,159 --> 00:49:05,000
food pairings. You know, what
you would would would have with with a

669
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,880
particular cider blend. When you end
a meal, typically that's when you put

670
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:13,239
the wine, the cider and the
beer way and the spirits come out.

671
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,039
Yeah, so I figured why not
bring a bottle of brandy. This is

672
00:49:16,119 --> 00:49:22,320
apple Brandy from Uncle John's ninety proof. Oh, there you go. That's

673
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:25,480
a blend of you know, two
three five year barrels. Uh, this

674
00:49:25,639 --> 00:49:29,920
is an older label. They have
a new label out for it, but

675
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:36,400
this is an older bottle. And
this vintage won the best in show at

676
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:43,119
the largest cider competition in America.
And this is the apple brandy from Uncle

677
00:49:43,199 --> 00:49:45,599
Jones. Oh sweet, and just
like you know kognac, you know,

678
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:51,360
any other type of brandy, it's
gonna be sweeter. Ye. But but

679
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:53,920
but it's gonna have a lot of
commonality with whiskey, more so than I

680
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:58,119
think coniac. I think apple brandy
the way distills. There's a lot more

681
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,800
familiar flavors, and maybe that is
in its barrel treatments. But I think

682
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:06,960
whiskey drinkers will find a lot to
like. Here. Okay, well I'm

683
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:12,159
looking forward to it. Cheers here
here. It smells really good and for

684
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:16,000
night of proof, pretty smoid.
Well yeah, you know, certainly put

685
00:50:16,039 --> 00:50:19,880
it, put it over a glass
of ice if you like. But just

686
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:24,199
as it is like that, really
enjoyable. Oh yeah, it's really good.

687
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:30,000
Plenty of barrel there, Yeah,
yeah, warms you up. Yeah,

688
00:50:30,039 --> 00:50:31,480
so I mean for a season,
I mean when we're in the winter.

689
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:35,840
Yeah, if you're looking for a
winter warmer, this would qualify.

690
00:50:36,039 --> 00:50:38,599
Yeah. No, it's good.
You get you definitely get like at the

691
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:44,599
end you get that alcohol burned,
but initially you get like the sweetness of

692
00:50:44,639 --> 00:50:47,119
the apples. There. You do
get the barrel notes on there. That's

693
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:53,599
really good. May I take a
half a minute to stump for brandy here?

694
00:50:53,800 --> 00:51:00,400
Absolutely, brandy is, in my
opinion, another thing that I my

695
00:51:00,519 --> 00:51:06,280
time at the Northman really opened me
up to that I didn't expect growing up.

696
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:08,480
I you know, brandy was a
thing that I would just think of

697
00:51:08,519 --> 00:51:14,639
this kind of old dusty bottle,
yeah, you know, sitting on Yeah,

698
00:51:14,679 --> 00:51:19,239
I mean something super sweet. You
know. Lots of misconceptions about brandy,

699
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:22,800
just like there is about cider.
Oh something only your grandparents mind you.

700
00:51:22,119 --> 00:51:28,559
Yeah. Yeah, apple brandy is
just wonderful. Calvedots from France obviously

701
00:51:28,679 --> 00:51:32,440
is well not obviously actually, uh, most people don't don't know calvedots.

702
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:36,840
I did, I certainly didn't until
just a few years ago. But wonderful

703
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:40,239
stuff. That's an apple brandy that's
made in Normandy. This is an American

704
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:45,000
version just just really like Brian said, you know, if you're a whiskey

705
00:51:45,079 --> 00:51:46,800
drinker, try out try out some
brandy. It's very unique. It's a

706
00:51:47,199 --> 00:51:52,039
spirit that's distilled from fruit, so
okay, but you know, the barrel

707
00:51:52,159 --> 00:51:55,679
it also plays a big part in
the flavor. And uh, there's just

708
00:51:55,800 --> 00:52:00,079
you know, there's as much complexity
as there as there is in a you

709
00:52:00,119 --> 00:52:04,639
know, a great Scott. Yeah, can this Can you buy this everywhere?

710
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,360
Or pretty limited? This is really
only available on the farm. Okay.

711
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,480
I have a few cases of it
here in Chicago, and I bring

712
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:17,679
you to a couple of accounts known
again I Uncle John's has been in Chicago

713
00:52:17,679 --> 00:52:21,000
market for a long time. Yeah, and I think when we started,

714
00:52:21,519 --> 00:52:25,159
we weren't really prepared and we didn't
really know how to sell spirits. The

715
00:52:25,159 --> 00:52:30,920
distribution team that I work with now
glunts. They are they're beer salesmen,

716
00:52:31,039 --> 00:52:34,480
right and milk. I don't want
to ask them to sell booze. But

717
00:52:34,599 --> 00:52:37,760
now, of course a lot of
beer brands are making their own spirits.

718
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:40,159
Yeah, and so one of Glouns's
largest brands is Maplewood, and they have

719
00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:45,800
great spirits, really good, really
good stuff. They're good the great spruce

720
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:50,039
gin, they have a beer gin, they have fre Net, they have

721
00:52:50,199 --> 00:52:55,360
all this great U and so the
salesforce is becoming more knowledgeable, more comfortable

722
00:52:55,400 --> 00:53:00,559
with selling spirits. I might have
to to get back on us and try

723
00:53:00,079 --> 00:53:05,800
which is it's it's pricey as far
as brandy goes. But I think for

724
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:12,360
some accounts, some establishments really might
uh champion this and it would find a

725
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:15,719
nice home there. Yeah, I
mean you mentioned Maplewood, but I know

726
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:22,480
that Rogue was doing it New Holly. I think they are one of the

727
00:53:22,519 --> 00:53:28,960
first ones that started coming up with
their own line of spirits. Yeah.

728
00:53:29,199 --> 00:53:31,920
I mean, it's just a good
extension of the brand. Yeah, agreed.

729
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:37,639
And this is certainly the cider maker
and apple grower Mike Beck, fifth

730
00:53:37,639 --> 00:53:40,000
generation apple grower. This is where
his heart is. Okay, you know

731
00:53:40,079 --> 00:53:44,719
he he likes he loves cider,
he loves you know, wine, But

732
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,719
if he's hanging out with you,
he's more likely to have a cocktail as

733
00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:51,400
hand than anything. Yeah, you
know, not a big beer drinker,

734
00:53:51,519 --> 00:53:54,400
so spirits he really does love.
He's but you know, he has his

735
00:53:54,440 --> 00:54:00,639
own brand. He still he's also
works with MSU that has a distillation program

736
00:54:00,719 --> 00:54:05,840
on campus, and they make vodka
from apples. Vodca's unreal. Yeah,

737
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:08,960
that's really like a very very good
vodka. The first time I tried it,

738
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:13,880
I couldn't believe how smooth and clean
it was. It's uh yeah,

739
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:17,559
it's made from apples, fay neutral
spirit, you know, distilled. What's

740
00:54:17,559 --> 00:54:23,079
the deal brandy? You know,
continue to distill it. Vodka's distilled more

741
00:54:23,119 --> 00:54:28,679
times, right, So brandy is
typically like you look at a copper brandy

742
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:31,519
steel has got like three windows in
it, so or three trays and it's

743
00:54:31,559 --> 00:54:35,199
like the main big fat one,
then two above it, right, and

744
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,199
that's clarifying it, and you know, making the brandy right there in the

745
00:54:38,199 --> 00:54:45,599
copper pot. Still the and I'm
not a distillation expert, but the vodka

746
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:52,079
are two stainless steel columns, nineteen
trays each, okay, and this this

747
00:54:52,159 --> 00:54:58,119
is poking through the roof of this
facility just to ac comminate this giant steel

748
00:54:58,199 --> 00:55:01,199
column of vodka. And so each
tray, each tray is a glass window,

749
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:06,239
and you see the vodka being clarified, and it's stilled again and again

750
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:08,320
and again. So it's really getting
that essence of this, you know,

751
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:14,840
the spirit. It's very aromatic.
It keeps a lot of the fruit aromas.

752
00:55:15,039 --> 00:55:19,800
But this is not an apple flavored
body. Okay, it tastes like

753
00:55:20,119 --> 00:55:23,320
vodka, but on the aroma,
holy cow, that smells fresh. It

754
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:28,880
smells like an apple blossom maybe you
know, a flower. But then you

755
00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:31,519
drink it and it's just so smooth, so clean. Yeah. Now,

756
00:55:31,559 --> 00:55:37,000
man, you were mentioned in full
band with this Brian. Do they age

757
00:55:37,039 --> 00:55:40,840
any of their ciders in the braindy
burrels? They have not done that.

758
00:55:40,920 --> 00:55:47,599
Okay, he's not a big barrel
aging proponent of cider in spirit barrels.

759
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:52,039
Okay. The only thing he makes
that touches wood is his perry, all

760
00:55:52,119 --> 00:55:54,880
right, and that's just you know, white you know, American white oak.

761
00:55:57,079 --> 00:56:00,639
Uh. It's and that's you know, not in barrels. It's wood

762
00:56:00,679 --> 00:56:04,760
ships because we're not doing it for
that long and so it's a process convenience

763
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:07,119
thing. It's you know, it's
it's only on wood for a couple of

764
00:56:07,159 --> 00:56:10,440
weeks, not months. If you're
not putting something, if you're not gonna

765
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:14,000
let it be there for months,
then why would you take the labor to

766
00:56:14,039 --> 00:56:15,280
put it in a barrel? Empty
the barrel, do all that? Yeah,

767
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:20,159
it just it's an invitation and mess
things up. So so it's the

768
00:56:20,159 --> 00:56:25,159
Perry has as as as oak maybe
someday. Yeah, I just don't it's

769
00:56:25,159 --> 00:56:29,760
not a big program of spirits.
I don't know if there's enough there for

770
00:56:29,880 --> 00:56:35,320
him to utilize. Boira likes it. I wonder, I wonder if we

771
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:38,280
could convince him for a couple of
years. Do you do they sell any

772
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:44,880
of their barrels to other breweries like
local Michigan breweries do. Maybe not?

773
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:49,400
Okay, he might trade, I've
never that's a good question. If I

774
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:52,840
can, I'll ask him. Okay, maybe there's a couple of Chicago bowers

775
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:55,039
that would pick them up. Yeah, that's a really good idea. I

776
00:56:55,360 --> 00:57:00,079
know. I think in Michigan the
community is pretty tight and then trade a

777
00:57:00,119 --> 00:57:02,039
lot of stuff back and forth.
So maybe that's already getting done of this.

778
00:57:02,199 --> 00:57:05,480
Yeah, so yeah, you would
think with all the great breweries of

779
00:57:05,559 --> 00:57:07,559
Michigan exactly. Yeah, but no, Yeah, that was excellent. Mean,

780
00:57:07,599 --> 00:57:10,880
I thank you so much for bringing
that over. I'm glad you like

781
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:15,440
to do a way to cap off
our fun discussion here. Yeah, so

782
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:20,239
real quick, once again, the
holidays are coming up. We've had regular

783
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:25,079
sider, We've had spice siders for
people, whether you're Christmas Honika Kwanza,

784
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:31,400
most people have a meat dish.
Now, obviously you should be drinking Uncle

785
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:37,079
John's Storm along in Farnham Hill.
But if you can't get that in your

786
00:57:37,119 --> 00:57:43,440
area, are there styles that you
would suggest? Like should people go with

787
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:47,880
a meat dish a dry sweet?
What would you suggest for people out there

788
00:57:49,199 --> 00:57:52,320
for a good like meat dish?
I mean, you know, a sweeter

789
00:57:52,679 --> 00:57:58,000
French sider, pairs of very well
with like leg of lamb. Okay,

790
00:57:58,199 --> 00:58:04,000
if you're having that, you know
what else? Yeah? I mean I

791
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:12,400
mentioned Perry earlier. Harry is a
cider made and that is a perfect substitution

792
00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:17,079
for chardon A so like great you
know, shellfish cheeses, things like that

793
00:58:17,119 --> 00:58:23,400
would be wonderful. We did an
event earlier in the year with our friend

794
00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:30,760
Alicia, who's a mortal milk more
than wilk guess cheese pairings with cider Uncle

795
00:58:30,840 --> 00:58:37,639
John's Perry with Perry with blue cheese
uite good, Yeah, very nice pairing.

796
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:40,559
Yeah. And Alicia Norris runs a
mortal milk great cheese mowner here in

797
00:58:40,639 --> 00:58:47,280
Chicago. She consider that any independent
teeth bounder, independent cheese mownor so Mortal

798
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:52,159
Milk. Alicia Norris Independent Cheese in
Chicago, puts on great events, does

799
00:58:52,239 --> 00:58:58,119
collaborations with producers all over. Has
even collaborated on like making a beer with

800
00:58:58,199 --> 00:59:01,400
Mars at one time. Okay,
so really some cool cool stuff coming out,

801
00:59:01,880 --> 00:59:07,000
and we work with with Immortal Milk
at Sleeping Village for cheese and cider

802
00:59:07,079 --> 00:59:13,400
pairing. We mentioned cheese several times
here. Cheese is an incredible partner with

803
00:59:13,679 --> 00:59:22,760
most ciders. I bring up Sleeping
Village because they are an incredible destination for

804
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:28,679
folks looking to discover siders. There's
typically seven to eleven siders. Yeah on

805
00:59:28,679 --> 00:59:31,880
town, I'm usually seven to eight, I would say safely, Yeah,

806
00:59:31,960 --> 00:59:37,880
yeah, yeah, always carry with
Farnam Hill Extra Dry, which is known

807
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:42,599
as Doyord Cider on draft. But
it happens at this moment to be exactly

808
00:59:42,639 --> 00:59:45,760
the same, like what is the
extra dry. That's not always the case,

809
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:51,880
getting a little bit into the weeds
with yeah, but yes, Sleeping

810
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:54,599
Village typically has Farnam Hill, they
have storm Along and Uncle John's Perry.

811
00:59:54,639 --> 01:00:00,119
You can find there virtually all the
time. Yeah, really really great or

812
01:00:00,119 --> 01:00:04,360
as a cider in the Chicago area, excellent well, guys, I thank

813
01:00:04,400 --> 01:00:07,199
you so much. I thank you
for bringing over some great siders. Beer's

814
01:00:07,239 --> 01:00:10,639
you know I love beer. Obviously, this is all when I talk about

815
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:15,719
fifty one weeks out of the year. But there's some great siders out there

816
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:20,199
all around the Chicago ere. You
could pick up a good sider. It's

817
01:00:20,280 --> 01:00:24,679
not just your angry orchard. It's
not just angry orchard. If that's what

818
01:00:24,719 --> 01:00:29,840
you think of cider. Broaden your
horizons. Pick up some of these from

819
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:35,679
Storm Along, Uncle John's, Farnham
Hill, other international sideries, even local

820
01:00:35,719 --> 01:00:39,000
ones here that are made in Chicago. Check out a great sider. They

821
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:44,199
go well with all of your holiday
meals. And guys, thank you so

822
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:52,960
much again, Dave, Thank you, Dave. All Right, I'm gonna

823
01:00:52,960 --> 01:00:59,800
have a couple of local Chicago siderrees
to try right now. First up is

824
01:01:00,119 --> 01:01:05,719
Arras. They're located on Irving Park, right off the Kennedy Expressway, about

825
01:01:05,920 --> 01:01:10,480
a block west of ninety. Great
location. The ciders are great, their

826
01:01:10,519 --> 01:01:15,760
beers are really good. They've won
some GABF hardware for their beers too,

827
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:21,960
so that's just a really good spot. Food is good. The cider that

828
01:01:22,039 --> 01:01:25,119
I'm going to have from them is
called Pedestrian. This is a dry,

829
01:01:25,360 --> 01:01:32,760
crisp tartsider like a glass of Granny
Smith. So let's bust open the Pedestrian

830
01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:39,079
from Aris. It has a nice, good golden color here. It looks

831
01:01:39,199 --> 01:01:46,559
really good. Yeah, definitely,
you get that Granny Smith notes out of

832
01:01:46,559 --> 01:01:52,239
the aroma. I think it smells
really good as well. This is five

833
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:59,840
point nine percent alcohol airis if you
did not know, this is inspired by

834
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:05,719
the Greek goddess of Chaos. So
I'm all for chaos. So let's drink

835
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:12,239
the Pedestrian. No, it's very
nice. You get that nice tartness that

836
01:02:12,320 --> 01:02:17,760
you would from a good sour green
apple. Really good flavors here. I

837
01:02:17,920 --> 01:02:22,079
like this one, and I've had
this before. I think I've talked about

838
01:02:22,079 --> 01:02:24,320
it on the show before. If
not, I know I've had some of

839
01:02:24,360 --> 01:02:30,840
their other stuff. But this is
yeah, very It's a dry tasting cider.

840
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:36,840
I like this one. I think
this is really good. Yeah,

841
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:42,039
definitely something you should go there and
pick it up in person. But if

842
01:02:42,079 --> 01:02:46,960
not, it is available all over
at your little grocery stores, liquor stores,

843
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:51,519
what have you. But definitely,
if you see anything from Aris,

844
01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:57,960
I recommend it. You need to
put this one in the carts. All

845
01:02:58,039 --> 01:03:01,360
right. The next local Chicago area
a cider that I'm gonna have comes from

846
01:03:01,559 --> 01:03:07,360
Right to B. They're located at
eighteen thirty North Costner Avenue in Chicago.

847
01:03:08,159 --> 01:03:14,000
Great spot, great owners. I
really like their sider a lot. I'm

848
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:21,679
gonna have their clementine. I always
associate clementines with the holidays. I'm not

849
01:03:21,800 --> 01:03:25,360
saying this is a holidays cider,
but you could always get your bag acutis

850
01:03:25,800 --> 01:03:30,280
right around this time of the year. So when I was picking up some

851
01:03:30,440 --> 01:03:35,599
right B, I wanted to grab
the clementine. This has clementine, cinnamon,

852
01:03:36,119 --> 01:03:39,480
rose hip, and hide biscus in
it. Let's bust open the right

853
01:03:39,519 --> 01:03:47,880
be sider. Clementine has a nice
pinkish orange color. I'm assuming it's pink

854
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:53,719
because of the hibiscus. Smells good. I get the clementine, I get

855
01:03:53,719 --> 01:04:00,440
some other tartness in the aroma.
I think it smells really good. Oh

856
01:04:00,440 --> 01:04:03,679
that's fantastic. You get everything there. You get the cinnamon, you get

857
01:04:03,719 --> 01:04:08,840
like the tangerine, the clementines in
there. I don't get as much as

858
01:04:09,079 --> 01:04:14,679
the rose hip and the hibiscus that
I do the others, but they're there.

859
01:04:15,199 --> 01:04:19,239
I think this is phenomenal. I
could see this being a holiday sider

860
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:25,920
with your cinnamon and clementine, so
I might have started something. Maybe this

861
01:04:26,119 --> 01:04:30,039
was their intention, but if not, it's a holidays cider right here,

862
01:04:30,559 --> 01:04:34,599
so By I said before, right
Be's great spot. They put out some

863
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:41,840
great siders, Chicago based. Once
again, it's at eighteen thirty North Costner.

864
01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:45,559
I think they're really good. You
could pick up right Be everywhere in

865
01:04:45,639 --> 01:04:50,559
Chicago Land. Look in the cider
section you'll find right Be. I like

866
01:04:50,679 --> 01:04:55,079
the Clementine, so if you see
this one, I would definitely throw this

867
01:04:55,119 --> 01:05:10,960
one in the cart. That's gonna
put a nice shiny bow and ribbon on

868
01:05:11,119 --> 01:05:15,280
this episode of Beer in Front.
I want to thank again Matt, Augustine

869
01:05:15,320 --> 01:05:19,800
and Cider Brian for coming by and
talking cider. I hope you learned a

870
01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:25,400
lot from them. I'll include their
link in the show notes. Both gentlemen

871
01:05:25,440 --> 01:05:30,239
would be happy to answer any cider
questions you might have. If you're in

872
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:34,400
an area that carries the brands that
we discussed, Barnum Hill, Uncle John's

873
01:05:34,719 --> 01:05:39,920
Storm along, those are all worth
grabbing. And I'm not just saying that

874
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:44,840
because they brought them over I've purchased
them on my own, and we'll by

875
01:05:44,840 --> 01:05:48,480
all means purchase them again, like
the Chicago ones I talked about, right,

876
01:05:48,559 --> 01:05:54,079
Bat Cider and Heiriss. All of
these I bought before and will buy

877
01:05:54,159 --> 01:05:57,440
again, and I think you'll like
them. I'm taking the rest of the

878
01:05:57,519 --> 01:06:00,119
year off from the podcast, so
I hope you and your family have a

879
01:06:00,159 --> 01:06:06,400
great holiday season in twenty twenty four. And remember sometimes the beer or cider

880
01:06:06,519 --> 01:06:11,239
in front of you is the best
one yet. All Right, Happy New

881
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:14,400
Year, Happy holidays, folks.
I'll talk to you in the first week

882
01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:27,159
of January.