A Few Words About Cider
Cider fest: cool location. |
Last night, Greg Hall--erstwhile brewer at Goose Island--hosted a private event to introduce people to his new project, ciders made from Michigan apples. I buttonholed him for a few minutes to ask about why a Siebel-trained brewer with a generation of experience brewing beer would switch to cider. He offered some interesting insight. In a word, place.
"Apples are much more like wine grapes. But [unlike grapes] apples grow everywhere--different apples grow in different places. I think in ten years the cider market in the US is going to be like the wine market in France where you come up to the NW and you're drinking ciders made from NW apples; in the Great Lakes they're different. In Virginia they're different. There's even a guy in Texas making cider with local apples.
"For beer drinkers, there's the appeal that it's very drinkable like beer, but it's lighter-bodied and you can go with that local thing. Portland is a great example. Everybody wants to know where their chicken came from, right? We can tell people where their apples came from. The local terroir appeals to them."
Greg Hall of Virtue Cider |
Back when America was an agrarian country, ciders were ubiquitous--far more popular than beer. We're not headed back to that time, but ciders have a way of scratching an itch no other beverage can. I will always drink more beer than cider, but I hope to be drinking a lot more cider than I used to. I hope you do, too.
To how many fests can you commute by tram? |