Malaika Tyson is one half of the running a blog duo Cider Soms, which was began as a solution to introduce wine-lovers to the world of cider. Created alongside along with her husband Sean, the “Soms” weblog seeks to uncover and clarify the complexities of ciders in a enjoyable approach.
One among my regulation college classmates first launched me to Stan Wash, founding father of Overgrown Orchard, shortly after the cidery’s founding in 2017 (he graciously stated we have been the foremost cider connoisseurs he knew). Overgrown Orchard is predicated in Chicago and makes heirloom cider at its four-acre orchard in Gary, Indiana, utilizing apples sourced from the Midwest. It’s been wonderful to observe Overgrown Orchard’s progress over time, and we’re excited to share extra of its story by this Cidermaker Q&A.
Stan Wash of Overgrown Orchard
(The questions and solutions have been edited for brevity and readability.)
Cider Tradition: Why did you begin Overgrown Orchard?
Stan Wash: A part of the rationale our cidery exists is to fill a void within the dialog. For instance, Chicago has many educated drinkers, and other people have a vocabulary that lets you have a nuanced dialogue about alcohol. However while you point out cider, most individuals don’t have an excellent understanding. For us, we’ve been capable of slot into the pure wine group that enables for dialog and exploration.
Your whole ciders are in crown-capped 500mL bottles. Is {that a} format you propose to stay with?
The large push can be to go to cans, and there are a few driving forces behind that. Nevertheless, we attempt to make our product look increasingly like wine, and going to a can is dangerous as a result of it will get away from the message we are attempting to convey to shoppers.
We additionally follow bottles due to quantity. We’re making 2,000-2,500 gallons proper now, so if we moved to cans and dropped to can costs, we might promote out in a month. We work on classic cycles — press, bottle after which label. That works for our bottle format, as we just like the slower gross sales in order that we are able to have merchandise on the shelf.
How do you make your ciders?
We don’t add to our ciders, with the one exception being our espresso cider collaboration with Darkish Matter Espresso. So, consequently, we now have only a few “dials” we are able to use to tune the cider. Since we’re placing out six SKUs a yr, a number of thought is put into how one can differentiate when you may have an identical apple base.
A type of “dials” can be the number of apples together with utilizing wild fermentation. We barrel-ferment the cider utilizing primarily white wine, pink wine and calvados barrels.
While you age a cider in a pinot noir barrel, it’s nearly like an adjunct in that [the liquid] picks up a number of the pinot traits and offers a definite taste profile. Cider can be fragile and delicate (particularly when there’s a decrease ABV), and including extra strong flavors (like oak chips) can overpower the apple flavors. We’re fortunate to have an excellent relationship with our barrels, they usually give some distinctive flavors linked to the barrel’s microbiome.
Are you able to give an instance of how barrel-aging has performed a task within the ciders you produce?
Our Joujou (a mix of heirloom cider apples, together with Cox’s Orange Pippin, Reine des Pommes and Dolgo Crab) and Gris Gris (a mix of heirloom cider apples, together with Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg and Hyslop Crab) are comparable on paper, however flavor-wise, they couldn’t be extra reverse.
Gris Gris is like floral champagne, whereas Joujou tastes like a lambic or an off-color wild ale. They each sat in calvados barrels for almost all of the time, however we now have one set of 20-year-old calvados barrels which have some actual funk in them, and we did some open-top fermentations. However going again to the “dials,” the one factor we modified in there was a slight variation within the barreling, and the ciders went in two reverse instructions. That is among the enjoyable issues about cider: You may make very minute adjustments, they usually can have an infinite influence on the ensuing beverage.
How does the mixture of wild-fermentation and bottle-conditioning have an effect on the ensuing product?
In case you are wild-fermenting, you may have all these completely different yeast strains competing, and a number of the strains are tapped out on the finish of fermentation. So while you come again and add sugar to carry the strains again to life, some can’t be revived, and others are simply not as strong, so bottle-conditioning could take six months (as a substitute of a few weeks). Through the course of, you may have a strained yeast working actually laborious, which can produce completely different esters and phenolics within the cider. So bottle to bottle, you get variation. Some bottles could find yourself with extra carbonation, and a few have completely different flavors. I embrace these variations, however it’s simply an added degree of complexity in educating shoppers as a result of no two bottles could style the identical.
Since Overgrown Orchards’ ciders are vintage-based, is there one thing completely different you might be exploring this yr?
We’ve 40 beehives in our orchard, and I’ve a lot honey. I drink largely Champagne, and there’s a Champagne home referred to as Lelarge-Pugeot that makes a champagne, Bises, that makes use of a honey-based tirage, and has candy caramelly notes. A tirage is an answer added to the nonetheless base cider to create the secondary fermentation (i.e., carbonation) within the bottle. We add some type of sugar resolution into our ciders in order that the yeast comes again to life, eats the sugar, and produces carbonation. Historically I at all times use cane sugar, however I made a decision to make use of orchard honey as a substitute. I simply opened the primary bottle (which has been bottled for two-months), and it’s precisely what I’m in search of. Additionally, that is one other solution to differentiate between a slender band of ciders.
What are a number of the challenges you’ve encountered?
Id. Should you decide up Joujou, Gris Gris, or a cider from one other producer, the common client would don’t know the way it tastes. It could be like if all beer was labeled “Beer,” and also you didn’t know in case you have been shopping for a stout or an ale, and subsequently didn’t know what to anticipate when tasting it.
Should you drink one in all our ciders and have been informed it’s akin to Champagne (i.e., Gris Gris) and your thoughts locks into that zone, you’re all in for what you get. Nevertheless, if that’s not what you expect, you then’ll be sad. For example, somebody as soon as reviewed our cider and stated that cider tastes like Champagne however rated it 2 out of 5 as a result of it wasn’t how they anticipated cider to style.
Who do you suppose is your common client?
Somebody who doesn’t like beer however who already drinks cider after which tries one in all our ciders and actually enjoys it.
Are there any challenges which have been distinctive to the pandemic?
Not having the chance to have face-to-face interactions with shoppers. We used to do many pours at small wine retailers, and the common shopper would have a fairly good vocabulary for wine. Half of the folks we work together with can be excited and know a number of issues about cider. The opposite half have been those who stated they don’t like cider however do like wine. These face-to-face interactions allowed us to make use of a number of the wine vocabularies to speak concerning the cider and assist construct infrastructure on the place some ciders match, and now that client has a method for accessing the beverage.
Is there the rest you wish to discover?
If I had the money and time, I’d be serious about exploring distilling. I believe making brandy is the neighbor of cidermaking. I’m not serious about making brandy per se, however I’m serious about making vermouth and different aperitifs. Typically, American alcohol tradition doesn’t have the identical aperitif tradition as some European international locations. There are drinks in these cultures which might be decrease ABV sippers, which might be often floral, fragrant, and herb-based, nearly like an alcoholic tea. A number of these are blends of fortified ciders or wine. This growth would even be on-brand for Overgrown Orchard as a result of it fills within the dialog.
Should you have been caught on a desert island, what three issues would you carry with you?
Netflix and a practical winery — I can spend my days tending to the grapes and making wine. And the Will Shortz crossword puzzle assortment.
To be taught extra about Overgrown Orchard, try its web site, Fb, and Instagram pages. Overgrown Orchard ciders can be found for buy all through Chicagoland (see retail places right here). Contact Overgrown Orchard at data@overgrownorchard.com.
- Pictures: Overgrown Orchard
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