Posts Tagged ‘home’
ACA Members Raise Over $7000 for Berryland Cidery
The American Cider Association is pleased to announce that events hosted by ACA members raised over $7000 to help support the efforts of Berryland Cidery to rebuild.
Berryland Cidery is an award-winning Ukrainian cidery, fruit winery and meadery located near Kyiv. In March 2022 Berryland was bombed beyond recognition by Russian troops. Berryland’s owner and cidermaker Vitalli Karvyha is committed to rebuilding. To support Vitalli, cideries and cider industry friends across the United States held events to raise funds to help.
Events were held by Press then Press LLC, Slyboro Ciderhouse, Meriwether Cider, Courthouse Creek Cidery, Liberty Ciderworks, OK Cider Co., Blue Bee Cider, Houston Cider Company, Keepsake Cidery, Ash & Elm Cider Co., Spring Hill Cider Works, Eden Specialty Ciders, 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Lassen Traditional Cider, Space Time Mead & Cider Works, Seattle Cider Company, and Cider Summit.
“We were delighted with the number of events held across the United States to help Vitalli rebuild Berryland,” stated Michelle McGrath, Executive Director of the American Cider Association. “It really shows the camaraderie amongst people in the cider industry, not just here in the United States, but around the world.”
Individuals wishing to support Vitalli in his effort to rebuild Berryland Cider can contribute to this GoFundMe campaign.
Additional Ways to Help Ukraine
Polish cidery Kwasne Jablko has multiple relief efforts underway both in Poland and in Ukraine. Currently, owner Marcin Wiechowski purchased a sprinter van and has organized deliveries of humanitarian supplies. Each week, they buy what is needed and volunteer drivers make the run into Ukraine to deliver them where they are needed.
In addition, Kwasne Jablko is currently supporting 70 refugees. 12 of the refugees are living on their cider farm, while the cidery has rented flats and houses for the others. They assist in job searches, support them financially, and assist in everyday problems that arise.
After hearing about the work Kwasne Jablko has been doing, Eleanor Leger, ACA Board President and owner of Eden Ciders made the decision to begin collecting money to send to Marcin to help him with purchasing and transport. He has set up a special account for the aid work he is doing. If anyone is interested in contributing, please contact Eleanor at eleanor@edenciders.com for more information and details on how you can help.
CiderCon® 2023 – Call for Proposals
CiderCon® is the world’s premier networking and educational event for the professional cidermaking community. CiderCon® 2023 will take place in Chicago, Illinois from January 31 – February 3, 2023.
We invite presentation proposals from qualified experts who meet the criteria of being able to educate cidermakers, apple growers, cidery owners, retailers, wholesalers, marketers and other cider industry professionals about best practices, new trends, research, and improving processes.
Successful proposals will state clearly:
-Target Audience – role in industry as well as business model.
-Also include if material is best for beginner/intermediate/ or advanced audience members.
-Educational Goal – what skill, tool or new understanding will attendees walk away with?
COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION
We are committed to ensuring CiderCon® is a safe and welcoming space for all regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability or sexual preference. We strongly encourage BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, veterans and speakers with disabilities to submit proposals.
Additionally, we invite speakers from outside but related industries to cider. Our industry will be strengthened with fresh perspectives.
Particular topics of interest we seek applicants for through this RFP: Compliance, Branding, Marketing, Distributor Relationships, Chain Retail Sales, DtC Sales, Market Trends, HR, Finance, Operational Safety, Team Leadership, Equity & Inclusion.
Proposals are due to the CiderCon® committee by June 17. Approved speakers receive a complimentary pass to CiderCon® which includes lunch for 2 days.
ACA Announces Results of Inaugural Harvest Driven Cider Survey
Cider is a beverage category, not a beverage style. This is a leading rallying cry by the American Cider Association, who recently released the results of their new annual survey looking at the segment of cidermakers making cider once a year during harvest season much like a winery. The survey was undertaken in an effort to measure the size and growth of these makers, which the ACA names as harvest driven cideries. These ciders are usually made by small producers, are typically packaged in glass bottles, and are sold through channels that are usually not measured by retail scanner data providers such as IRI. The survey revealed 2021 was a year of significant growth for US harvest driven cidermakers.
For the purposes of the survey, harvest driven cidermakers are defined as those who make 75% of their cider with apples or pears that are pressed at or close to their harvest date and aged at least 3 months prior to packaging. Michael Uhrich of Seventh Point Analytic was chosen to undertake creating and analyzing the survey results.
The conclusion is that the harvest driven cider segment is small but growing. Nearly one million gallons of harvest driven cider was produced in 2021 alone. The harvest driven cider segment share grew by one third from 2020 to 2021, from 1.8% to 2.3% of the US domestic cider market. Production of harvest driven cider also increased dramatically from 2020 to 2021 with an average production increase of 26%.
“This corner of the cider market has been around for decades and has produced some of the more storied brands in our industry, yet we have never had a mechanism for measuring its growth and progress. We are excited to release these first results of what will be an annual survey, and celebrate the growing success of this segment,” says Eleanor Leger, board president of the ACA.
Uhrich also looked at packaging, club, fruit and channel trends for the segment. Uhrich’s webinar report is available to ACA members, but there is a Harvest Driven Cider Fact Sheet available for download here. Please contact Executive Director Michelle McGrath with any questions regarding the harvest driven cider survey process or results.
Meet Your Board Member: Christine Walter
Where do you work and what is your position?
I am the owner and head cidermaker at Bauman’s Cider in Gervais, Oregon. I started the company in 2015, making cider on my family’s farm.
Tell us about your family farm/orchard.
My Great Great Grandmother Elizabeth homesteaded the original property back in 1895, having come from Austria-Hungary by way of North Dakota, with her two sons. Today we have nearly 1000 acres under cultivation, and about a dozen family members playing one role or another in farming, operating the farm store, and now, making cider!
We grow a wide variety of crops, including many cane berries, hazelnuts, fruits and vegetables. Currently we have about 22 acres of apple orchards.
How did you get into cider?
The first time I drank a bottle of cider was around 2013. I was on a fishing trip in rural Alaska and the beer selection was pretty slim. I ordered an Angry Orchard and it literally shocked me that it was basically fermented apple juice. Upon returning home to Portland, I began searching out all of the local craft options and just fell in love. I immediately started trying to convince my family that one of them should make cider on the farm with our own juice. In attempting to make the case for cider, I met makers and heard their stories, and began taking home gallon jugs of my family’s cider, experimenting and developing recipes.
My cousins didn’t get the cider bug right off, the way I did. But I convinced them to trust me and let me get a license and start with a little corner of one of the barns. Now I can’t get enough space and I take more than half of the apples grown on the farm to make cider, and I love it!
Why did you decide to run for a position on the board?
I really appreciate the role that the ACA plays in advocating for cidermakers. It is really important work and mustn’t be taken for granted. In my short tenure as a cidermaker, I have seen some really significant changes to the rules regarding land use, alcohol production and labeling, and taxation. Those changes don’t happen on their own, and not without a lot of work and planning from people who really care about the industry. I want to be part of that work. If we don’t fight for our own interests and values, no one will.
Additionally, I see that webinars and events like CiderCon® are what shape the future of the industry in keeping cidermakers and cider sellers at the top of their games professionally and educationally. If we are all left in our own little islands of knowledge and experience, we miss out on a lot of growth opportunities. CiderCon® is a big part of what will keep us as an industry moving forward, growing, adapting and innovating.
What are your hopes for the future of the US Cider Industry?
Of course I want to see it continue to grow, but also to be seen as a success story with regard to adaptation to changing climate and market conditions. We are perfectly poised to thrive. Apples have an amazing and diverse biological history. They have stood the test of time again and again, both through natural evolution as well as human-aided adaptation and hybridization/breeding programs. I hope that cidermakers can be as resilient and creative as an industry as our dear fruits have shown to be.
How do you describe your cider region?
I feel pretty darned fortunate to be from the Pacific Northwest. We not only have a nearly rogue sense of adventure, but the market supports this level of innovation and aversion to staunch traditionalism. Just as nature favors adaptation and evolution, the craft beverage market in this beautiful corner of the US appreciates and even demands that we always push the edge of what has been done before, in search of new frontiers of culinary and beverage experience.
At the risk of seeming irreverent, the culture of cider in the PNW can be said to take traditional methods and turn them on their heads, or maybe interpret them through a lens of kaleidoscope.
What’s your favorite apple to work with and why?
That’s a big old three-way tie between Porter’s Perfection, McIntosh, and Mountain Rose (aka Airlie Red). And even in saying this terribly non-committal response, I feel guilty for not saying Yarlington Mill, or Golden Russet, etc. I’m not good with decision making. Maybe my favorite apple is the one I’m picking or fermenting right at the moment…and I spent yesterday mulching my McIntosh trees, then cracked a bottle of last season’s McIntosh SV, so we can say that one for today.
What is your favorite cider/food pairing?
Ok, I think I can commit here: CHEESE! and most any cider. One specific favorite combo is a French Comte and a juicy acidic Porter’s Perfection Cider.
What is your favorite nature/cider pairing?
Summer paddle boarding on the river with dear friends, sipping a Cosmic Crisp by 2 Towns (in a life jacket.) Doesn’t get much better.
What would you like our members to know about you that they might not know?
Once I spent the night in a hammock, alone, in the jungle of Tikal, Guatemala so that I could watch the sunrise from the top of Temple IV. I am certain that the only reason I was not eaten or attacked by wild animals was that they were in complete awe at my stupidity. I could see their eyeballs watching me.
Meet Your Board Member: David Glaize
Where do you work and what is your position?
Co-owner of Glaize & Brother Juice Co. and Old Town Cidery
Tell us about your family farm/orchard
Glaize Apples are grown in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Since the early 1900s, four generations of Glaizes have added to the history of premium fruit harvests between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains
How did you get into cider?
In 2012 my brother and I convinced our dad to top work existing trees into cider specific fruit. Around that same time I started experimenting with 5 gallon carboys and fell in love with the natural chemistry, and history, of the process. In 2017 we put in a juicing facility to service the cider/wine/beer industry with fresh pressed juice. In 2019 we hired a cidermaker (Stephen Kelly), and in 2020 launched Old Town Cidery.
Why did you decide to run for a position on the board?
I wanted to represent our region not only as a cidery but also as a grower. I want to help promote the growth of cider but also the expansion of apple orchards. It is important for me to keep the land in apples and working directly with cideries, orchardists, and law-makers can help achieve that goal.
What are your hopes for the future of the US Cider Industry?
I want to see the US Cider Industry continue to grow and establish itself as a leading producer of top notch cider throughout the world. We also need to better understand the demand for fresh juice vs concentrate, and the global supply/scale of apples and concentrate. The US Cider Industry has potential to play a large role in helping promote sustainable growing/juicing practices.
How do you describe your cider region?
Our cider region is dense with apple varietals, rich in history, and very complex. Virginia offers mass produced sweet ciders, fruity adjunct ciders, and also traditional single varietals of heirloom fruit. Virginia is home to some of the oldest apple varieties in the US, and some would argue Virginians were the first to drink, and perfect, the craft.
What’s your favorite apple to work with and why?
The Idared and Black Twig. The Idared is one of the first to come off the trees so it is early to the press. It is my favorite to ferment. Its flesh is straight white and loaded with fruity notes plus the perfect touch of acidity. The Black Twig is one of the last apples we pick and stores very well in cold storage. It showcases a thick body with an earthy aroma that is hard to find in any other apple. Both the Idared and Black Twig produce amazing single varietals, but also do well blended.
What is your favorite cider/food pairing?
In my eyes, it all pairs well together. I’m not too picky when it comes to food nor drink. But if I had to say something, it would be pork.
What is your favorite nature/cider pairing?
Its hard to beat drinking a cider while walking through the orchard that helped produce it.