New York's Passive House Certified and Organic Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery

This month I received two ciders from New York's Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery as part of the BevFluence New Perspectives on Cider campaign.  Seminary Hill is located in the western Catskills, specifically in Callicoon, a small town on the Delaware River that separates New York and Pennsylvania. It is owned by Chicagoans Doug Doetsch and Susan Manning although Doetsch's pedigree in the region extends back multiple generations.  The property is named after a Romanesque-style seminary that Franciscan priests built in 1901. Besides the cider house, which utilizes wood reclaimed from the now-demolished Tappan Zee Bridge, the property includes a Boarding House that occupies a former hospital and doctor's office. 

Through the assistance of architect James Hartford and River Architects, Seminary Hill is the world's first Passive House certified alcoholic beverage facility.  Many people are more familiar with the LEED sustainable building certification, but the Passive House certification identifies "a handful of practices that have the biggest effect. This makes it simpler for more people to get involved in making sustainable buildings and thus increases the cumulative effect. Through computer modeling, it was determined that the key elements were a super-tight envelope, with all air exchange going through an energy recovery ventilator; high levels of insulation; and solar orientation and shading to gain solar heat in the winter and reject it in the summer." 

Although Seminary Hill is a relatively new operation, they utilize the services of long-time cider-maker Stuart Madany. I first encountered Stuart 11 years ago when he was the cidermaker at Castle Hill Cider in central Virginia and introduced us to cider aged in Georgian Kevri. See Winemaker Series: Castle Hill Cider & Kvevri.  Through email, he was able to explain some of the differences and similarities between cider-making in New York State and Central Virginia:

Both New York State and Central Virginia have pretty well-developed tasting room cultures - so to speak. People like to go and spend time tasting various craft beverages and visiting the places they're made. I think Harvest-Driven cider is probably a little more prevalent and a little more broadly appreciated in New York.

Certainly, the soil is different with the tremendous amount of rock and ledge here. My first week here someone told me that the gardeners here have a saying, that there are two rocks here for every dirt. There's a good bit of clay here too, but not as red as the heavy clay of Central Virginia.

And of course, the growing season is shorter, with colder, and snowier winters.

For me, the big difference this translates into is which varieties really shine in the cider. We're not growing Black Twig here, and the GoldRush I've found to be underwhelming. But, there are extremely exciting bittersweets and aromatic apples up here. While Harry Master's Jersey, or Tremlett's Bitter might give you a bit of aroma along with their high tannin in Virginia, they can be bursting with aroma and flavor up here. The French Amere de Bethencourt has some fantastic exotic spiciness. Aromatic apples like Ribston Pippin and Egremont Russet are also just packed with aroma and wonderful to work with. I'm hoping to have more apples of these varieties to work with this fall.

For the BevFluence tasting, we received two ciders representing the breadth of the Seminary Hill Orchard. The Delaware Dry 2020 is a bone-dry blend of Chisel Jersey (bittersharp) 42%, Baldwin (sharp-sweet) 26%, Golden Russet (sharp) 20%, and Northern Spy (sharp-sweet) 12%. Slightly sweeter, the Cackling Hen 2021 is a semi-sweet blend of Dabinett (bittersweet) 35%, Wickson (sweet) 19%, Newtown Pippin (sharp) 15%, Chisel Jersey (bittersharp) 8%, Golden Russet (sharp) 7%, GoldRush (sharp) 4%, Harry Master's Jersey (bittersweet ) 4%, Puget Spice (bittersharp) 2%, and others 6%. See the LARS classification below for what each apple variety contributes to the blend.

Because the orchard is so young and there are very few cider apple growers in the area, Seminary Hill decided to plant as many varieties as possible in order to determine which are most suitable for Sullivan County in terms of both harvest size and flavor. In total, Seminary Hill's orchard contains 54 apple varieties and 7 perry pear varieties. This explains the large number of apple varieties in each of these ciders but obscures the number of blending and small-batch trials used to create each composition. According to Madany, "Eventually, it will mean that our blends reflect the best of the potential of our spot on earth".

Being a new orchard, Seminary Hill is working through its pest management regime, particularly being an organic cidery.  Fire blight is a contagious bacterial disease that can only be prevented and is becoming more of a problem in New York over the last couple of yours. Infected trees must have the fire blight 'strikes' cut out after infection.  Cooler weather, particularly through the bloom season, helps contain this bacteria. 

The labels of the two ciders also reflect the history and geography of the region -- obviously Delaware Dry for the river. Dutch hunters tracked beaver along the Delaware River during the 1600s and the town of Callicoon is based on the Dutch "Kollikoon" which means: wild turkeys. Thus Cackling Hen references both the town and wild turkeys -- which are still abundant today. 

On the palate, the Delaware Dry contains a tasteful, fleshy, and chewy distribution of tannins and acidity  There are also noticeable malic qualities providing a long and clean finish.  The Cackling Hen has a stronger nose and is more tart and tannic which I think the sugar and fleshy apple flavors help control. I added a little Sagebird Cider Pommeau which accentuates the acidity while tamping down the tannins, and without adding much additional sweetness. 

LARS Classification:
Sweet (low acid, low tannin)
Sharp (high acid, low tannin)
Bittersweet (low acid, high tannin)
Bittersharp (high acid, high tannin)

Five Takeaways from CiderCon 2023

The American Cider Association's CiderCon 2023 took place in Chicago from February 1st through the 3rd and the event offered "a full range of educational sessions covering topics that included cider production, marketing, sales, branding, sensory evaluation, compliance, business strategy, and orcharding". We attended several of these sessions as well as the trade show, a tasting organized by the New York Cider Association, unofficial cider shares, as well as visiting a couple of local craft beverage establishments. Here are our five takeaways from the conference.

Consistent and Systemic Approach to Tasting Cider
Cideries and reviewers should create a systemic approach to both cider tasting and descriptors as advocated by Richie Brady in A Proposal for a Systematic Approach to Tasting Cider. In other words, the industry should use a consistent method of describing the aromas, flavors, and structure of cider. This consistency involves focusing on the liquid in the glass, preferably in a blind fashion, without any preconceived expectations. Evaluate the Aroma (light, medium, pronounced), Flavor (in terms of major categories -- green, stone, citrus, tropic, red, and black fruit and then secondary flavors due to fermentation methods and oak treatments), and Structure (intensity, sweetness, acidity, tannin, length, and complexity). Finally, use descriptors that consumers understand. Barely anyone knows what cassis tastes like so use a more common alternative. An example that Brandy provided is "Lightly sparkling, sweet and vibrant cider with pronounced flavors of stone and tropical fruit, fragrant flowers, sweet vanilla, and caramel. Long and complex finish".

Fire Blight
Apple and pear orchards are prone to numerous pests and diseases not unlike grapevines -- such as a shared threat from powdery mildew and deer. At the conference, I also heard orchardists discuss groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels, and various insects but it was during The 4 Components of Flavor: Orcharding for High-Flavor Fruit seminar presented by Stina Booth that I first heard of Fire Blight. This is a bacterial illness that affects fruit trees and thrives in hot, humid climates, usually appearing in the spring and declining as dryer summer temperatures occur. The bacteria infects trees undetectably in the fall or winter, hiding in branches and unopened buds. Then in the spring, it begins to emerge through openings in the branches and foliage and becomes apparent. Unfortunately, fire blight is very difficult to treat effectively, and overusing certain bacterial sprays can cause the tree to develop resistance to treatment. The best way to fight fire blight is prompt pruning and sanitizing tools. -- MinneopaOrchards.com

Chicago Cider Scene
The conference coincided with Chicago Cider Week and two urban cideries hosted several events and were accessible during the conference. The Right Bee Cider Semi-dry Cider was available at a couple of spots at the host Chicago Hilton hotel and was a clean cider sweetened with honey from their own beehives. Their Dry Cider was also poured during an unofficial tasting and as I recall packed plenty of flavors. I was able to visit Eris Brewery and Cider House where the brewery is located in a historic old masonic temple that was renovated in 2018. I started with the Eris Cherish, a cherry cider produced in collaboration with Sleeping Village and the CIVL Foundation where the proceeds go towards providing music venue workers access to mental health awareness. I also turned to another collaboration, this time the Eris Apfelort which is a dry cider aged in used Jeppson's Malört barrels from CH Distillery. I had read about this wormwood-based digestif and how CH Distillery had purchased this "astringent and notoriously bitter 70-proof liqueur". The cider is neither and provides apples up front and subtle wormwood and a strong grapefruit finish.

Cider is North American
Just by casually talking to attendees it's easy to see that cider is produced throughout North America. We met producers and orchardists from north Georgia to Manitoba, across Canada, and from Nova Scotia to San Diego. I stood in line with a startup producer from Orlando and a representative from Bold Rock. I sat at tables with producers from Wisconsin, Oregon, and Tennessee and shared Michigan cider with the same from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio. The New York Cider Association hosted a tasting showcasing Empire State producers from the "Niagara Frontier to the Finger Lakes to the Catskills to the Hudson Valley to Long Island and to New York City". During unofficial cider shares, I sampled excellent cider from Washington State and Washington DC as well as from to. And my favorite cider of the week came from Greenbench Mead & Cider in St. Petersburg, Florida with their Giants in the Sky (Fresh-pressed Kingston Black, St Edmund's Russet, Pioneer, and Wickson Crab apples, wild-fermented in oak with native yeast.).

Cider is for Everyone
This is the official theme of the American Cider Association but is also a true statement based on industry analysis presented in the Alcohol Beverages and Cider: 2023 and Beyond and More Than a Beverage: Cider Category Performance sessions. Presenters from both sessions showed industry and consumer data beneficial and discouraging for the cider industry. First, the total per capita consumption of ethanol has remained relatively constant for the past 20 years with beer being the largest, albeit, slowly declining sector. The volume of cider sold peaked in 2016 and slowly declined since - losing market share and shelf space to Hard Seltzers and to a lesser extent RTDs. The good news is that the average alcohol consumer is becoming "Omnibibulous" a term created by Bart Watson, the Head Economist of the Brewers Association to describe how consumers are more "able and likely to drink almost anything (alcoholic)". And this group will continue to grow as younger consumers continue to experiment, and on the other hand, the baby boomers move into more leisurely lifestyles. Other facts based on consumer studies point to avenues where cideries can focus to attract customers. These studies show that 54% of all consumers have made a purchase in-store of a brand they first tried at a restaurant and 1/3 of cider consumers prefer a sweet version. Some ideas to consider. 

A Popup New York Cider Tasting at Cidercon 2022

One unexpected and memorable event at CiderCon 2022 was a popup cider tasting organized by the New York Cider Association.  This consisted of a handful of Empire State cider makers, mostly from the Hudson River Valley, pouring multiple ciders to attendees. This tasting not only showed off the array of different apple varieties favored in New York, but also a range of styles.  

I started with a familiar sight: Graft Cider and Pennings Farm Cidery pouring at the same station. Although Graft has not opened a tasting room, their Flagship ciders are widely available in the mid-Atlantic -> try their  Farm Flor Rustic Table Cider.  I've visited Pennings in the past, but until this tasting, didn't appreciate their single varietal ciders as I've always brought home their light & dry Simple Cider. I really enjoyed the English Yarlington Mill with its astringency and tart flavor. Two more English apples were the Cox's Orange Pippin -- which bursts with various flavors -- and the tart Harry Masters Jersey. Can't wait to return to Warwick, NY. 

Abandoned Hard Cider, from Woodstock, poured the most interesting ciders, some made from a single tree. They also bottle and can cider made from foraged apples. The bottled 2020 Foragers Reserve was fermented naturally and carries a fresh yet farmhouse feel, whereas the canned The Forager is finished in a barrel to promote a rounder structure. Abandoned also cans a Barrel-Aged cider that provides even more vanilla and spices to the fresh cider. 

For true farmhouse ciders, search for those produced by Elizabeth Ryan at Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider.  The apples are grown from two Hudson Valley orchards and made using "classic European cider making techniques". This includes natural fermentation, unfiltered, and sometimes naturally effervescent.  Expect plenty of complexity and a pleasant funk in these ciders. 

Clarksburg Cider is located just outside of Buffalo and releases a plethora of ciders. Their Dry Hard Cider is very solid but I had a special affinity to their Savory Citrus which is made with a twist of lemon and a touch of sea salt.  A Gose cider. In addition, their Bourbon Barrel Cider is delicious where the bourbon notes do not overwhelm the apple flavors. 

Another non-Hudon River Valley cider producer was Lindner’s Cider located just east of Binghamton in Delaware County. They poured their 2021 Highlands made from Newtown Pippin, Winesap, and Gold Rush apples. This is a refreshing cider, slightly effervescent with some oak-induced notes and roundness from barrel finishing. 

The final, yet perhaps most interesting portfolio, was presented by Angry Orchard Hard Cider. The first was the single varietal Potter's Perfection - a medium bittersharp English apple. This was far from the semi-sweet ciders which Angry Orchard is known for and provides savory, tannic, and sharp acidic elements to the cider. They also produce a "manufactured" Ice Cider ($36) where the juice is left outside to freeze. This concentrated juice is then fermented producing a delicious dessert cider. Finally, Angry Orchard created a Pommeau (Pommeau of Walden - $48) where they blended eau de vie spirit with traditional French bittersweet apples and then aged three years in French oak. Fantastic.  I need to plan a trip to their Walden tasting room to purchase each one of these. 

Richmond Cider Roundup During CiderCon 2022

CiderCon 2022 provided Richmond cideries a tremendous platform to showcase their ciders during several after-hour events. Augmenting the River City's vibrant craft beer scene are three cideries, Buskey Cider and Blue Bee Cider (located in the popular Scotts Addition neighborhood) and Bryant's Small Batch Cider -- situated just south of the State Capitol.  A few weeks ago I was able to visit Bryant's primary orchard tasting room in Nelson County and gained an appreciation of that operation. However, the first night of the conference was my first visit to both Scotts Addition cideries. 

Buskey Cider

Buskey seemed to be the center of attention at CiderCon hosting tasting events on consecutive nights. They started by pouring cider from almost a dozen other Virginia cideries including Albemarle CiderWorks and Old Town Cider.  This Winchester cidery's dry Albemarle Pippin cider is excellent and its sharp dry finish was very similar to Buskey's dry cider.  Both are very worthy everyday refreshing ciders.  CiderCon also allowed me to meet a few orchard growers who tutored me on the intricacies of the Black Twig apple which led to a more interesting tasting.

On the second night, I participated in a seminar presenting Buskey's barrel program.  This session consisted of a sampling of five barrel-finished ciders, all but one currently bottled. These ciders all started from Nelson County apples which were fermented dry then placed in different barrels they purchased through a broker. One of these was a Gin barrel and this imparts several botanicals into the cider's aroma leaving citrus and some coconut on the finish. The Brandy barrel overwhelmed the cider with too much apple fruit and was the least favorite. The Mezcal barrel imparted an abundant amount of smokiness, but in an enjoyable amount, which elevated this as one of my favorites. The Sherry was also appreciated because of the nuts and dried fig and raisin flavors that the cider absorbed. Finally, we were served their Scotch cider, straight from the holding tank and peat was everywhere.  This was a fascinating tasting both from the ciders and the opportunity to talk to the Buskey personnel and other attending cider makers. 

Blue Bee Cider
After apprenticing at Albemarle CiderWorks, Courtney Mailey headed to the city to open her own cider operation and plant an urban orchard. From that orchard and another in Nelson County, she creates some of the most delicious ciders in the Commonwealth.  Many of these are single varietal ciders that you can sample through a Manchester flight. This penta-flight starts with the Harrison, a colonial-era cider apple from the northeast where the full-body, tannic, and abundant acids match the tasting sheet.  The Hewe's Crab follows and this was the most common fruit variety grown in eighteenth-century Virginia. It is thought to be a cross between the native American crabapple, Malus angustifolia, and a domesticated European apple. The funkiest of the group was the Spitzenburg, discovered in the late 1700s by an early Dutch settler of that name. It was found at the settlement of Esopus, on the Hudson River, in Ulster County, New York.  Lots of sweet and tart flavors but also some funk. The English Dabinett cider apple was the most interesting of these single varietals. The aroma is pure apple, like biting a kid's packaged lunch apples.  However, the flavor is bittersweet and tart. The final cider was the Golden Russet, a cider apple that arose in upstate New York in the 19th century, possibly derived from an English russet variety.  This cider showed a nice balance between tannins and acidity.

On a return trip, I had a glass of their Aragon 1904 which is one of Blue Bee's original ciders. This off-dry cider is made from a blend of modern and heirloom apples and is full of flavor, slightly tart - nice acids.

Bryant's Small Batch Cider
As much as I love Bryants'Brite Good dry brut cider, I used this visit to taste some of their flavored ciders.  For the conference, they made sure they had on tap a Banana Bread cider that tasted as advertised.  Not over the top, but noticeable walnuts and banana. I also went with a Coffee Chai cider for a little caffeine boost. The tea strongly presented itself and adversely overwhelmed the coffee.  I definitely preferred the version I sampled at their Nelson County barn. The Richmond taproom has another difference from the barn. With the paintings and other art, you feel like you are tasting in a Victorian parlor as opposed to a 1900s barn. 

CiderCon 2022 – Interview with Keynote Speaker Diane Flynt

CiderCon 2022, the annual trade conference of the American Cider Association will be held in Richmond, Virginia from February 1-4, with excursions scheduled for two days prior. I published a preview and interview with Keynote Speaker Diane Flynt at BevFluence, but thought our readers would be interested in some of her comments on the industry since closing Foggy Ridge Cider (click the link above for the entire interview).  And privately we reminisced about our long-ago video with The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.  

During the conference, I plan on attending these sessions: Top of the Mitten: High Latitude Ciders from Northern Michigan; A Cider Among the Faults; and 400 Years of American Alcohol: Cider, History, Cocktails and More. I will also spend most of the after-hours at Bryant's Cider.  Let me know on social media if you plan on attending and we will share a pint of cider. Cheers. 

What have you been doing since the last release of Foggy Ridge ciders? 
Since releasing Foggy Ridge Cider’s Final Call blend in 2018, we have sold our apples to cidermakers in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In early 2020 I signed a contract with the University of North Carolina Press to write a general trade book on the history of apples in the South. This book focuses on the stories and history behind the South’s almost 2,000 apple varieties. Through research at University Special Collections, the National Agricultural Library, and interviews with multi-generation apple growers I’ve learned surprising stories about southern apples. The book should be published in 2023. 

What can content creators do better or more in helping to promote the cider industry?
Many in the cider world are proud to say we are a “big tent” industry, and that there is a place for every price point, every method of production, and every quality level for ingredients…from apple juice concentrate to estate-grown cider apples. While this view has merits, it also flattens the discussion. I’d like to see content creators dig deeper into the ingredients and production methods of top-quality cider. Content creators are smart people, “thinking drinkers” if you will, and you should be able to see what is a “marketing message” from producers and what is an authentic practice or value that is carried out in cider-making every day. I see too much content that seems generated by a PR engine for a cider company large enough to hire a PR engine. 

Nelson County Route 151: Bryant’s Cidery & Brewery

This Saturday I had an engaging visit to Bryant’s Cidery & Brewery where founder Jerry Thornton was managing the taproom. Over a couple of flights of cider and beer, he provided an overview of his operation and the significant history of the Century Farm property.  In 1865, Maj Waller Massie Boyd returned from the Civil War and was given a tract of land by his father that included an overseer’s log cabin.  Boyd established an orchard called Edgewood which has remained in the same family through six generations for these 155+ years establishing the Century Farm designation. Thornton recalled the reasoning behind the name, "by the early 1900s a granddaughter of Boyd married R.L Bryant whose family farmed nearby. R.L expanded the orchards and built the infrastructure to support the farm".  Historic photos document the family and property's response through aviation in both world wars and to national calamities. 

In establishing the cider house, Thornton refurbished a barn for the tasting room and the overseer’s log cabin for the production facility. The taproom has a very rustic feel with the walls populated with historic photos documenting the family and property's response through aviation in both world wars and to national calamities. He also kept the feeding trough and reclaimed beams and boards & planks from the 1700s.

Bryant's offers a diverse selection of ciders with many infused with fruit or aged in barrel. For the tart sour beer fam in me, I enjoyed the Unicorn Fuel, a brut cider infused with organic rosehips and hibiscus. The Legend (I believe that was the name) was another favorite - a cider infused with coffee and cocoa bits. For the beer, the Roberta's Revenge Stout is solid - far from an Irish stout and more an American stout with chewy malts and dark chocolate on the tail.

However, the cider that immediately captured my attention and proved that Thornton was a serious producer was the brut Brite Good.  This cider is bone dry but packs plenty of tart apple flavor, finishing with refreshing effervescence. I mentioned the possibility of blending with Campari and confirmed the next day that this combination works beautifully.

I'm looking forward to visiting their Richmond taphouse during CiderCon early next month. But for those who are touring Nelson County's Route 151 or staying at Wintergreen, just keep driving south -- over the mountain pass -- to Bryant and the cider house. It's well worth the extra 20 minutes.