It’s Dry, But It’s Also Sweet

Reading Time: 11 minutes

This has been the winter that just keeps on giving. If we’re not digging out from six new inches of snow every few days, or huddled together for warmth during the polar vortex, we’re getting pelted with sleet and freezing rain during an icy thunderstorm. I’ve lost track of the number of days where we’ve just been trapped inside the house, because it’s either too cold or the roads are too slick to venture out anywhere. Spring truly can’t get here soon enough.

When I left off in my last post, I’d made it down to Mount Pleasant to wait for the train to Chicago for CiderCon. I had gone there Tuesday night, so I didn’t have to drive on ice-covered roads for an hour that morning. In town on Wednesday morning, the roads weren’t terrible, and it was easier to get into my ice-coated truck than I thought it would be. The thickest part of the ice fell off the driver’s side in several small sheets. It was enough to get inside the truck, retrieve the ice scraper, start the engine, and remove enough ice to navigate a few blocks to the train station parking lot.

The train was delayed several hours, so I missed out on the cider share on Wednesday evening. I didn’t make it to the hotel until about 9 pm on Wednesday, so I just called it an early night. From the accounts I heard from others the following morning, the cider share on Wednesday evening was a lot of fun, and I’m really bummed that I missed the event. Had I known that the train was going to be as delayed as it was, I would have gone to Chicago a day earlier, and I would have missed the ice storm completely. Live and learn, I guess.

After getting a decent night of sleep, I was ready to meet some cider makers and other industry professionals during the morning keynote. Some of the other people at the table were moving a bit slowly after having a bit too much fun during and after the cider share the night before. The keynote ran a bit long, but it was packed with a ton of great information. As we’ve mentioned previously on our Cider Finder social media accounts, cider is one of the fastest-growing segments of the alcohol industry, growing faster than both beer and wine. The cider category is 10 times larger today than it was ten years ago, and the multitude of options available and cider makers present at CiderCon demonstrated this. The keynote presenters also noted that people who choose cider tend to be more health-conscious and tend to drink in moderation more than consumers of other varieties of alcohol. We need to play to our strengths in order to gain more market share, as market share looks to be the next big battle between different alcohol types.

The first breakout session focused on the legal aspects of direct-to-consumer cider sales. Originally, Cider Finder wasn’t going to get into the weeds of selling cider to people, but as we’ve gone along, one of the main features people have mentioned as important is the ability to purchase cider they’ve had that may not be available in their local market. We don’t want to tackle this on our own just yet, so partnerships are going to be a key part on this front. The main takeaway from this breakout session is that liquor laws are as big a mess as I originally thought. Every state has different licensing and reporting requirements, and some local municipalities have their own rules as well. As you expect with governments, paperwork is king. Working with a partner on this will be the path of least resistance, in order to give app users what they want.

There was a short break in between the first breakout session and the lunch keynote, so I went to the trade show, just to scope it out. It was spread between two large rooms on the lower level of the Hilton. Most of the vendors were in the business of processing and packaging cider, so I was able to bypass the majority of the booths. There were a couple of cider makers offering samples from their booths, and GLINTCAP had a booth with about a dozen different ciders from Michigan available to sample. There were also a row of academic poster presenters along one wall, highlighting the science behind the industry. The event organizers had also set up some games to play in the lounge, which were heavily used during the happy hour event on Thursday evening. I was glad that there were several breaks during the programming, so I have time to scope out the entire trade show floor.

The presentation on the history of alcohol laws took place during lunch on Thursday. It was a bit difficult to hear what was being presented, as most people were carrying on their own conversations. This presentation would have been better suited as a breakout session during the day, and it would have been nice to just have conversation with others at the table during lunch. The lunch of Friday was a bit less structured, but I’m hoping that they just let people connect over lunch next year, and keep the structured presentations to the breakouts.

After filling myself with fried chicken and mashed potatoes at lunch, I was ready for my first tasting event of the conference. I sampled four different “natural” ciders, which were essentially the cider version of farmhouse ales that you find in the craft beer section of the store. Natural ciders, by definition, have to be “low intervention” – the cider makers start the process of fermentation, and then do as little as possible during the process, checking the product and adding things when absolutely necessary. Three of the four ciders had a lot of funk in the nose, very similar to a saison or a farmhouse ale on the beer side, but had a very smooth taste and had almost no carbonation. The fourth cider in the lineup was a 2012 vintage, and had mellowed out considerably compared to the other three, which were all 2017 vintage. At future conferences, I’m hoping they put together a session on cellaring cider – very successfully done with the 2012 vintage in the lineup, and probably could be done with other natural ciders, depending on the details of the process the cider makers used during production.

The happy hour at the tradeshow was the highlight of Thursday. The most popular place during the happy hour seemed to be the GLINTCAP booth. I was able to make most of my connections with cider makers during this event, mostly by stationing myself by the row of taps and talking to just about everyone I encountered. I met a decent contingent of Canadian cider makers – not the target of the app right now, but could be a great second market in which to expand in the next few years. I wound up talking with cider producers from coast to coast, and was able to connect with the folks responsible for the Cider Chat podcast, complete with an invitation to join them for dinner and more beverages that evening.

Dinner on Thursday involved giant bottles of hand-crafted cider and several different dishes made from goat. The chef at Twain had roasted an entire goat, and at least half a dozen dishes on a special small plate menu were made from it. We were too late to get a serving of the ribs (“one goat only has so many ribs”), but we ended up having this Sloppy Joe derivative using meat and marrow from the goat. After dinner, we ended up going to The Northman, a bar specializing in cider on Chicago’s north side, for another beverage before we went back to the hotel for the night. I had an English-style cider, which was very bitter on the tongue but very smooth drinking. By the time we called it a night, the wind had picked up significantly. We were glad to be back to the warmth of the hotel.

After chugging a couple cups of coffee Friday morning, I was ready for day two of CiderCon. I skipped the membership vote at 9 am – I didn’t know enough about the candidates running for offices, so I didn’t want to spoil the results. The first thing I attended was at 10:15 am, and was a tasting and discussion of how to stay small in the cider industry. In many different industries, cider making included, there’s always the push to grow your business and your operations. However, I could tell that there was a bit of a backlash against this among a sizable contingent of cider makers attending the conference. They seemed to be much more interested in the craft of creating cider from their own orchards – the art of cider making, rather than the business. These were the folks who I found were the most interested in the Cider Finder app. They aren’t business people or technology people – artisan would be the most accurate descriptor of what they do. The four ciders that we tasted during the session were all fantastic. They were all small batch products, and probably the only opportunity I’ll have to taste those specific ciders before they disappear forever.

Lunch on Friday was less structured than Thursday, and I was able to talk with several different Midwestern cider makers during the hour. After lunch, I attended a breakout session on marketing cider through traditional channels and social media. The information was much more rudimentary than I thought it would be – great for the cider makers in attendance, since much of their marketing is more of an afterthought, but the information was too basic for me. If I’d been able to get a ticket, I would have rather attended the Quebecois Ice Cider tasting. While not currently in the scope of Cider Finder, it would have been a fun experience to try more cider not available here in Iowa. Nearly all the ciders I sampled during CiderCon are not yet available here at home – this was one of the reasons I wanted to attend the conference, in order to further my education on the topic to build a better app.

The final breakout session of the conference was a food and drink pairing, bringing together modern cider styles and large-market culinary trends. Of the three tastings, this was by far my favorite, and was a great way to finish out the breakout sessions. We were presented with four different cider styles and four different dishes – three entrees and a dessert. To my surprise, my favorite of the four was the spiced cider paired with the chicken in mole sauce. The mole sauce made the chicken taste a lot like my homemade chili, and the cider had a bit of a kick to it, but not enough to be off-putting when standing alone. In second place, a dry cider was paired with a scallop on top of a mango salsa – this reminded me a lot of pairing a dry white wine with seafood. I am hoping they have another tasting like this next year.

After the food and drink pairing, the conference moved back to the large ballroom for the final toast featuring Canadian ciders. I reconnected with several of the Canadian cider makers who I had met during the happy hour the evening before. They brought some of their cider to share, and we were all treated to four different ciders from across Canada. It was an excellent way to finish out the event, as it turned into its own social event. Organizers finally had to kick us out of the ballroom – we all probably would have stuck around chatting and enjoying the remaining beverages for another hour or two had they not forced us out.

I reconnected with Eric, a cider maker from the Kansas City area who I had met at lunch earlier in the day, and we ended up heading back to The Northman for dinner and more beverages. While I was there on Thursday evening, I had noticed that people a couple of tables away were enjoying what looked like a Spanish-style cider. So, I decided to get a flask of the stuff so we could give it a try. You have to pour it from the flask as far as you can from your glass, and then drink it within a minute of pouring it, or the taste of it turns to vinegar. After drinking a couple of small glasses, you could start to feel the sensation of vinegar on the back of your throat. Here, I learned the definition of astringency.

While I definitely recommend the cider selection at The Northman, the food is worth the trip as well. The fries I had on Thursday were amazing, and the crepe I had on Friday was a fantastic complement to the Spanish-style cider. Honestly, I didn’t end anything bad during the entire trip – Twain’s special goat-based menu was amazing, even if it was a bit off-the-wall. The lunches on both Thursday and Friday were great as well – fried chicken on Thursday and hot dogs and fries on Friday. I guess it was Restaurant Week in Chicago during CiderCon, so I wish that I’d been able to get out and try more places throughout the city. Perhaps next time, the weather won’t be as uncooperative as it was this year.

On Saturday morning, I made my way to Navy Pier for Cider Summit Chicago, a tasting event that was open to the public. I’ve been to several tasting events for beer, so I had a general idea of what was in store at this event. There were roughly 50 different cider makers from all over the world, serving the best of what they make. There was no possible way to get to every cider maker there, so a little bit of strategery was necessary to make the most of the event. I had invited Eric to join me at the event, and we also ran into Samantha, a cider maker from Canada who we had met during CiderCon.

The three of us decided to walk along Lake Michigan on our way back to the Hilton. It was a brisk walk, but the frozen lake was beautiful. We went past “The Bean” and stopped at a wine bar for a late lunch. They each had cheese plates that looked absolutely amazing. I opted for a pasta dish drenched in a creamy, cheesy sauce. In a past life, Samantha worked in the wine industry, so she picked our beverage. The food and drink was a great way to warm up on the way back to the Hilton, and after lunch, we only had about eight blocks to walk before we arrived back at the hotel.

After three days of education and connection, I decided to take the evening off. We got back to the hotel around 4 pm, and I decided to lie down for a nap – a nap that lasted until nearly midnight. I was up for about an hour before I dozed back off again, waking up around 8 am Sunday morning. I packed up all of my things and took a cab back to Union Station to catch the train home. We left the station on time, but due to weather and a lot of freight traffic, we ended up getting back to Mount Pleasant about 90 minutes late. The roads were still pretty dicey going back north, as it had snowed a good part of Sunday in eastern Iowa.

I arrived home a little bit after 8 pm, tired from the trip, but energized by the experience of the week. I made so many great new connections during CiderCon, and I can’t wait for next year’s conference in California. It will be my first trip to the Bay Area, so I’m planning to build in at least a couple of extra days around the convention for some sightseeing and other touristy nonsense. I’m hoping for a much milder winter next year, at least around the end of January when I’m on the move.

I’m also hoping to bump into at least a few of the people I met during CiderCon when I’m at GLINTCAP in May. The folks from the Cider Chat podcast should be there, along with some of the cider makers and other enthusiasts I got the chance to meet. I filled out the application to volunteer during the event, so I’m looking forward to seeing how I can help during the proceedings. Rather than the trade show and industry meeting aspect of CiderCon, GLINTCAP should be more of a learning experience about the different types of cider and the craft of cider making.

Here’s hoping that I can ride the positive energy I got from CiderCon through to the spring, through the (hopefully) last few weeks of winter weather. We’re due for a couple more storms here in eastern Iowa in the next few days, with the active weather pattern continuing into March, based on long-range forecasts. With all of the snow we have sitting there, here’s hoping for a dry spring.