Before
I get into the rest of my CiderCon highlights, I do want to share a
few facts I've learned about this year's event. Baltimore's
convention hosted 1100 people from 12 countries and 41 states. Wow!
That's fantastic attendance, and the number one thing that shocks
people when they ask me about CiderCon. No one expects it to be this
populated. I think folks must under-estimate the devotion cider
inspires!
Also,
if you haven't read Part 1:
http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cider-con-2018-pt-1-eden-specialty.html
My
Friday started with an amazing panel, “Heritage Cider: Keys to
Success in this Next Growth Category.” Diane Flint of Foggy Ridge
Cider (https://foggyridgecider.com/) led this talk with verve, humor,
and a compelling argument. Flint used pictures of her home state of
Virginia to start in on the connection of land to cider, but soon
used what at first seemed like a little local color with pictures of
church signs to make her largest point. One sign said “Repent,”
and Flint took us on a little etymological journey about the word.
The takeaway was that to repent means to think again.
Flint
used this theme to discuss several facets of heritage cider:
orchards, format, style, and sales. What I appreciate is that she
didn't just bring her own perspective as a talented cidermaker and
business owner, but also brought on folks affiliated with on and off
premise sales as well as Autumn Stoscheck
of Eve's Cidery. Stoscheck
has been growing her We also tasted a few heritage ciders
Eve's
Cidery: Autumn's Gold
Three
significant cider apples adding to this blend include Ellis,
Dabinette, and Yarlington Mill. This cider was generous with smoky
and overripe apple aromatics. Autumn's gold is a champagne style
cider that has undergone two fermentations, spent nine months on the
lees, and was finished with hand disgorgement. Like many Finger Lakes
Ciders, much of the mouth feel comes from the double impression of
high acids and medium to high tannins. The lingering finish on this
cider totally wows me.
Castle
Hill's Levity
The
heritage fruit in the Levity includes Yarlington Mill, Golden Hornet,
Dabinette and Albemarle Pippin. This cider spents time underground
fermenting in amphora. Whatever they did, the resulting cider had
more sparkling champagne-esque bubbles than anything in the
champagne-style cider tasting the day before. Mesmerizing! I found it
floral balanced with grassy. My primary experience was the duelling
excitement of really strong bubbles with lippy, grippy tannins. There
are almost no ciders in the world that do this tense and exciting
combination like the Levity does.
Dragon's
Head Cider Traditional Cider
This
is an estate bittersweet cider. I enjoyed how it is a little yeasty
and wild in its aromas. The most like an English cider in style, I
found the Traditional astringent, bitter, and leathery. It is full of
big big flavors and substantial body. It did have some excellent
bubble in the mouthfeel. It's earthy, funky, with medium high acidity
and wowza levels of tannins. This cider was a lot less fruity than
the others in the tasting.
Hearing
from not only cider producers but also from folks selling heritage
cider both on and off premise made this panel well-rounded and
persuasive. It had to be a highlight of the conference for certain!
Friday
afternoon centered around the events planning and management panel:
“Let's Get this Cider Party Started” with Jenn Smith, Eric Foster
and Mattie Beason. In addition to having that adorable name and
greeting us with cans of wonderful cider, this panel covered a hot
topic of the conference.
This
was a fantastic panel that packed the room with folks passionately
eager to learn how to run events with their cideries. It said to me
that if there's one area I think next year's Cider Con could
meaningfully expand upon its this! One panel gave the audience a lot
of help, but we were hungry for even more. Our speakers brough a
pleasing variety of event experience to the stage including events
large and small, for individual cideries, groups, and focuses that
range, including, education, food and drink pairings, music, fund
raising, and just enlivening slow week nights at a taproom.
Panelists
gave answers to moderator questions that started out with the basics
but included lots of real life stories and even got into some of the
tricky stuff. How does one estimate how many people will show up for
an even the first, second, or third time it happens. Audience members
shared questions and got thoughtful answers that really showed the
usefully different perspectives represented. It really makes me want
to run some fun cider events up in the Finger Lakes!
Cider
Con ended with a “New Zealand Cidermakers Panel” that led
directly into the “Grand Tasting and Commencement Toast”. Here
our guest cider makers from New Zealand answered questions from
Ciderologist Gabe Cook (http://www.theciderologist.com)
and from the audience.
My
favorite of these was Wild all the Way by Peckhams
Cider(https://peckhams.co.nz/).
This cider is a bit non-traditional in that a third of the juice is
from Comice pears. All of the New Zealand ciders showed some real
stylistic differences from other cider regions; this was great for me
to learn as I went into Cider Con 2018 with virtuall no knowledge of
a New Zealand cider culture. I didn't even know what I was missing.
The
evening continued with generous sharing and good times. I spent it at
a Hawaiian fusion restaurant with cider friends old and new eating
coconut milk lobster bisque and vegetable tempura. Delightful!
What's
next you might, ask. The Gathering of the Farm Cideries in Albany!
At this sold out event, 17 New York
State Cideries will be sampling there wares under one roof! I'll be
on the scene with some beverage industry friends to scope and sip and
tell you all about it!
