PODCAST · society
Cider Chat
by Ria Windcaller: Award-winning Cidermaker, Podcaster | Craft Beer Columnist
Interviewing cidermakers, importers, orchardists, foodies, farmers and cider enthusiasts around the world. Let's delve into the semantics of cider…or is it hard cider, cidre, sidra or fermented apple juice? The truth is out there in Ciderville and we are going to find it. We toast in celebration of cider; As a libation, a gift from the gods, a taste of terroir, and a hard pressed good time. Ready to quench your thirst? Grab a glass and join this chat! See you in Ciderville!
Episodes
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517: What Made ACE Cider Brand Worth $40+ Million
Jeffrey House and his wife Angela founded the California Cider Company in 1993 and built ACE Cider into a nationally distributed brand before selling the company in 2021. In this Cider Chat, Jeffrey gets into what it actually takes to build a cider business: distribution, margins, product...
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516: Tasting Time | Totally Cider Tour '26 - France
What does time taste like? Join Cider Chat MC Ria on the 2026 Totally Cider Tour through Normandy, Domfrontais and Brittany, where cider, poiré, Pommeau and Calvados become a way of experiencing place, people and time. The journey begins with a reconnaissance adventure near Étretat and continues...
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515: World of Cider: The Baltic Region
What happens when a cider region has the apples, but not centuries of rules telling cidermakers what cider is supposed to be? Recorded at CiderCon 2026 in Providence, Rhode Island, this World of Cider session brings together three Latvian cider makers and Asnāte Ziemele of Baltic Cider. The…
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514: Doing More With Lees | Ryan Monkman
Lees are more than sediment at the bottom of a tank. Recorded at CiderCon 2026 in Providence, Rhode Island, cidermaker and fermentation consultant Ryan Monkman explores how cidermakers can put lees to work throughout fermentation, élevage, and bottling. Ryan digs into fine and gross lees…
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513: Still Cider, Single Apples and Time | Sowams, Rhode Island
What happens when a cidermaker decides to do less and give cider more time? Spencer Morris of Sowams Cider Works in Warren, Rhode Island, makes cider with more than 70 apple varieties, old mechanical rack-and-cloth presses, glass demijohns and a remarkably hands-off approach. Explore still cider,...
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512: Plant the Damn Apple Tree | Special Edition
Cider Chat MC Ria Windcaller reads her August eCiderNews editorial, Plant the Damn Apple Tree, reflecting on entrepreneurship, uncertainty, abundance, and what an apple tree might teach us about the time in between. FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK: SUMMER 2026 NEWS CYCLE REFLECTIONS Cideries close. People...
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511: Hungarian Cider Comes of Age | Bright Cider
Hungary may not have a centuries-old cider tradition like England or France, but that is exactly what makes its modern cider movement so exciting. In this episode, Cider MC Ria Windcaller travels to Budapest to meet András Kovács and Marcell Lukatsi, founders of Bright Cider, who are helping…
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510: From Barrels to the Pub | The People's Cider Co., Michigan
Most cider makers dream of expanding their barrel program. Jason Lummen did the opposite. In Episode 510, Ria Windcaller visits The People's Cider Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Jason explains why he shifted from barrel-aged ciders to dry, sessionable ciders that keep people coming back...
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509: Mr. Plūme | In the Heart of Latvia's Fine Cider
Episode 509 takes us to the heart of Latvia to meet Dace and Māris Plūme, the husband-and-wife team behind Mr. Plūme, an award-winning orchard cidery known for both still and naturally sparkling ciders. Their journey began with a chance taste of homemade cider that inspired Māris to train in...
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508: The American Cider Association Responds to Questions About CiderCon 2027
The announcement that CiderCon 2027 will be co-located with the Craft Brewers Conference sparked one of the most active online discussions the cider community has seen in years. In this episode of Cider Chat, ACA Board President Christine Walter joins host Ria Windcaller to discuss why the…
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507: Expand Your Universe | Woodfolk Cider, Ontario Canada
Sometimes all it takes is one sip. It happened to the founders of Woodfolk Cider, Martha Lowry and Alistair Whitehead, and it can happen to YOU! What began as a shared love of food, drink, and hospitality eventually led them to plant orchards, build a cidery, and welcome visitors to their 87-acre...
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506: Richard Yi on Craft, Family, and the Future of Brooklyn Cider House
Richard Yi of Brooklyn Cider House isn't interested in making cider that appeals to everyone. He's interested in making cider with personality and if you've ever enjoyed hearing a cider maker tell the story behind the glass, you're going to enjoy this conversation. In this epiosde, you'll hear…
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505: Cider Senseis: Discipline, Craft, and the Cost
There is a question that keeps coming up in cider, small business, and independent media: Is this sustainable? In this episode, Ria sits down with Adrian Luna, known as the Hard Cider Guy, for a conversation that goes well beyond cider. What starts as a discussion about content creation quickly...
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504: Why Breweries Are Making Cider (and What It Means)
What happens when breweries start making cider… not because they have to, but because they want to keep drinking beer? That question kicks off episode 504 featuring Dan Kramer and Ben Anhalt of Element Brewing Company. "Most breweries probably see cider as a way to let them continue making beer."...
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503: Audio Snapshots from the UK Blossom Time Tour | What Is Proper Cider?
Episode 503 takes you through England and Wales with audio snapshots from the UK Blossom Time Totally Cider Tour while exploring one big question: What is a proper cider? Travel orchard roads through Somerset, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Wales as tour guests share reflections on…
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502: Hungary Uncorked / Cider Going UP
Travel with Cider Chat to Hungary for audio snapshots from the country's first Cider Salon, featuring makers from across Central and Eastern Europe, orchard visits, and a look at why Hungarian cider is a region to watch. 00:00 Budapest Travel Update 02:24 Cider Salon Plans 04:13 Litke Champagne...
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501: How to Taste Cider
Welcome to Season 11 of Cider Chat. After 500 episodes exploring how cider is made, Episode 501 brings it back to the glass—how to taste cider in a way that actually feels natural. No jargon. No pressure. Just a simple, sensory approach: What do you smell? What do you see? What do you feel? Do…
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How Cider Is Made | Lessons from 500 Episodes of Cider Chat
In this milestone Episode 500, we return to a simple question that has come up again and again over the past ten seasons of Cider Chat: How is cider made? After hundreds of conversations with cider makers, orchardists, historians, and fermentation experts around the world, this episode brings...
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499: The Omnia Era of Cider | Pommes in Art Revisited
Episode 499 of Cider Chat looks at the "Omnia Era of Cider" - a time when everything is happening at once in modern cider, from traditional methods to new styles and experimentation. Using art history and the Pommes in Art story as a guide, this episode explores how we often don't realize we are...
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498: Heeman's Cellar | Somewhere Cider from Ontario
In this episode of Cider Chat, we visit Heeman Cellars in Ontario, where a multi-generational strawberry farm expanded into cider and mead production focused on heritage apples, terroir, and experimentation. We taste blends, single varietals, and rare apples including Wayne, Swayzie – Pomme…
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497:Beginner Cider Makers Q&A | Advice from Professional Cider Makers (Archive)
This archival episode of Cider Chat brings together five experienced cider makers answering real-world questions from beginners at CiderCon 2019. Originally released as Episodes 174 and 175, this combined feature presents a comprehensive Q&A covering everything from fermentation and stabilization...
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496: Liberty Ciderworks | Spokane, WA
Liberty Ciderworks in Spokane, Washington is an urban cidery focused on traditional methods. While located in the city, their cider reflects deep agricultural roots. Cider maker and founder Rick Hastings ferments with wild yeast, ages cider for 3 to 12 months, and source fruit from nearby…
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495: Cider Barrels Speak | Bâtonnage & Barrel Aging
In this archive episode of Cider Chat, we go in a barrel cellar in Prince Edward County, Ontario, with Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider and Lee Baker of Keint-He Winery. Listening to Fermentation What Is Bâtonnage in Cider? Find Key Takeaways for Home Cider Makers Barrel Room Glossary SO₂…
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494: Humboldt Cider and the Historic Orchard of Albert Etter
In this episode of Cider Chat, we hear from Tom Hart of Humboldt Cider Company, located in Eureka, California along the rugged Pacific coastline behind what locals call the Redwood Curtain. We also discusses preserving the original Albert Etter orchard in Humboldt County and continuing the legacy...
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493: Cider as a Sport | Sidra in Asturias (Archive Edition)
What is Asturian cider? Asturian cider (sidra natural) is a traditionally fermented apple cider from Asturias, Spain, served through a high pour (escanciado) and shared socially in small servings called culines. This episode is part of the Cider Chat archive documenting global cider traditions…
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492: Absolem Cider Company | Maine Cider Energy
This episode of Cider Chat explores the growing Maine cider scene through Absolem Cider Company in Winthrop, a farm-based cidery helping shape New England's evolving cider identity. Located on a 60-acre farm in Winthrop, Maine, Absolem Cider Company is a cidery that expresses place, heritage...
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491: Revisiting Randall Grahm | Cider Exploration Without Hesitation
An early conversation that explored possibilities cider was only beginning to consider. As Cider Chat moves toward its 500th episode, we revisit conversations from the earliest seasons, taking a long view of the moments that quietly shaped where cider and this podcast would go. This episode,...
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490: Let Cider Lead
An editorial on leadership, scarcity, and why cider no longer needs to borrow authority from beer or wine. In Let Cider Lead, host Ria Windcaller steps back from interviews to offer a clear-eyed reflection on the state of the cider industry, drawing on more than three decades in cider and nearly...
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489: Natural Cider Production Seminar | CiderCon 2025
Natural cider is often misunderstood as funky, volatile, or flawed. Recorded live at CiderCon 2025, this seminar reframes natural cider as a philosophy of low intervention, balance, and intentional care, not a free pass for faults. Moderator Haritz is joined by Richard of Brooklyn Cider House and...
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488: Vintage Cider Label Lawsuit
A pending lawsuit spearheaded by Ron Extract of Garden Path Fermentation could change how cider makers label harvest year and "vintage" on cider over 7% ABV. Ron explains why the current TTB rules block truthful harvest-year labeling, how this impacts both producers and consumers, and what…
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487: Further Tales of Chocolate Pears
In This Episode, We Cover Why Sorbus domestica is often nicknamed "the chocolate pear" (and why that name actually helps people get it) What bletting means, and why sorbs can be delicious before they turn fully brown (depending on the fruit) The "custard stage" vs. fully bletted "medlar-like"…
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486: Apples, Cider, and Community | 450 Years of Cider Culture in Chile
Recorded live at CiderCon, this episode brings listeners into a rare, in-depth conversation about Chile's living cider tradition—one shaped by more than 450 years of apple fermentation, deep regional biodiversity, and community-based agriculture. Moderated by Eli Shanks, this panel features cider...
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485: Cider as a Catalyst for Chile's Edible Forest
Carlos Flores is an architect, landscape designer, and co-founder of Punta de Fierro Fine Cider. At the 2025 CiderCon in Chicago he presented Carlos presented "Developing An Experimental Edible Forest in a Heritage Apple Orchard." - this episode features his full presentaiton and you will also…
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484: Rethinking American Cider History with Patrick McCauley
Meet Patrick McCauley, a Michigan-based cider maker and researcher, who is questioning some of the most common myths about American cider history. What Patrick uncovers is a far more regional, farm-based, and resilient cider story than the usual "cider died because of Prohibition" narrative.…
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483: The Talking Pomme's Grand Winter Party
Enjoy this annual winter tale from Cider Chat Central! In this special holiday episode, Cider Chat invites you to step into the enchanting world of the Talking Pommes. The Talking Pommes Grand Winter Party is more than just a story - it's a celebration of all things pome, community, tradition…
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482: FLX Cider & Cheese Pairing with Cheesemonger Rachel Freier
At the New York Cider Fest in November, there were 2 Cider and Cheese sessions. Cider Chat Emcee Ria Windcaller attended one featuring ciders from 4 different makers. This cider and cheese pairing was led by Rachel Freier, a cheesemonger who is based in the Finger Lakes. She brought deep…
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481: Totally Cider Tour: A Merry Visit to Tom Oliver's
Tom Oliver is delightfully talented, mischievously witty, and not only a renowned cider maker but also a top-notch perry maker. He may say, "If you're going to make perry and work with pears, you've already identified yourself as being criminally insane," but what we found was simply a bold maker...
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480: Holiday Cider Gift Guide 2025 and Playing with Pommeau
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview 00:32 French Pronunciation Fun 02:27 Holiday Gift Ideas for 2025 02:59 Cider Chat News and Updates 04:42 Listener Stories and Experiences 07:49 Upcoming UK Cider Tour 2026 12:47 Featured Presentation: 2025 Holiday Cider Gift Guide 13:35 Cider Chat Partners...
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479: New York Cider Fest | Audio Snapshots
New York Cider Fest 2025 brought together makers and enthusiasts for an unforgettable day at City Winery Manhattan. In this special collection of on-the-floor recordings, Cider Chat® captures Audio Snap Shots with festival patrons. Hear how attendees at the New York Cider Fest are viewing cider...
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478: Pommeau: What Happens When a French Classic Lands on U.S. Labels
What is Pommeau? Pommeau is a: fortified blend of fresh apple must (unfermented) and apple brandy (typically Calvados in Normandy or Lambig in Brittany). The unfermented apple juice and brandy are combined before fermentation, which halts the process entirely and preserves natural sweetness. By…
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477: 2025 Ultimate Cider Pairing Guide for Thanksgiving
Learn how to pick the right Cider and Perry for every dish on the Thanksgiving table. This week we are not chasing brand names. We are building flavor intuition. Consider Thanksgiving not as one single taste on a plate; it is a stack of distinct taste worlds. Each one asks for its own kind of…
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476: Be Medieval, Rack that Cider| Secondary Fermentation
How to clarify, stabilize, and finish cider the right way The Purpose of Secondary Fermentation when Making Cider Once the apple juice has started fermented and it is now slowing down, it is time to rack over your cider for secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation is where your cider moves...
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475: At the UK's National Perry Pear Centre and the Story Behind 99PINES
Perry making has deep roots in Gloucestershire, stretching back to the 17th century when French wine imports were cut off during the Napoleonic Wars. Local farmers turned to their own fruit, and the rich soils around Hartpury proved ideal for growing Perry pears. This episode features audio...
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474: The Romance of It All | The Temperleys of Somerset Cider & Brandy
At the base of Burrow Hill life moves at the pace of apples and oak. Here, Julian and daughter Matilda Temperley are testment to the value of family for carry a business such as cider and brandy forward into the next 100 years. "You have to believe in the Romance of it because you are thinking so...
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473: Tiny Bubbles | How to Make a Pét Nat Cider
What makes a Pét Nat cider sparkle naturally and how is it connected to the rural method you might have heard about in the UK? In this episode, we take a practical look at: What Pét Nat cider is and how it relates to the "rural method" A clearer way to describe fermentation: Active Ferment →…
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472: Perry to FOMO — A Cider Dinner to Remember in the Malvern Hills
A Toast to Perry and Place Enjoy an intimate recording from the 2025 Totally Cider Tour_UK Edition. This unforgettable evening featured James Forbes of Little Pomona, leading guests through a cider dinner pairing in the Malvern Hills located on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in...
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471: Cider Tourism 101 | Newton Court, UK
Newton Court Cider began as a 30-acre farm selling apples to Bulmers. When the market changed, Paul Stephens turned those same orchards into a modern day cider business. Front view of Newton Court's restaurant and visitor centre in Herefordshire, surrounded by orchards and outdoor seating. His...
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470: Hedgers, Crossman's, and Coates: UK Cider's Entwined Histories
In October 2024, Cider Chat MC Ria Windcaller recorded with Tom Vowles of Hedger Cider and Ben Crossman in Somerset. Initially, the two recordings felt like separate brand stories. Then, nearly a year later to the day as the produciton of this audio began and the transcript peeled away a story of...
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469: Getting Lost, So You Don't | UK Totally Cider Tour 2025 Recap
UK Cider Tour 2025 Audio Snap Shots Wallace and Ria in Bristol In this Episode 469 of Cider Chat, we brings listeners inside the UK Totally Cider Tour 2025 through the voices of the guests who joined. From Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, to Wales guests on this tour discovered not just...
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468: Foraging Flavor: Pierrepont Cider | NY
Cider Maker and Founder Lee Van DeWater of Pierrepont Cider shares his story in this episode on how he is forages apples to share a taste of terroir from New York's North Country. Lee Van DeWater Foraging Apples for Cider - Sustainable? Lee's cider journey started with childhood memories of sweet...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Interviewing cidermakers, importers, orchardists, foodies, farmers and cider enthusiasts around the world. Let's delve into the semantics of cider…or is it hard cider, cidre, sidra or fermented apple juice? The truth is out there in Ciderville and we are going to find it. We toast in celebration of cider; As a libation, a gift from the gods, a taste of terroir, and a hard pressed good time. Ready to quench your thirst? Grab a glass and join this chat! See you in Ciderville!
HOSTED BY
Ria Windcaller: Award-winning Cidermaker, Podcaster | Craft Beer Columnist
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Cider Chat have?
Cider Chat currently has 520 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Cider Chat about?
Interviewing cidermakers, importers, orchardists, foodies, farmers and cider enthusiasts around the world. Let's delve into the semantics of cider…or is it hard cider, cidre, sidra or fermented apple juice? The truth is out there in Ciderville and we are going to find it. We toast in celebration of...
How often does Cider Chat release new episodes?
Cider Chat releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 520 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Cider Chat?
You can listen to Cider Chat on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Cider Chat?
Cider Chat is created and hosted by Ria Windcaller: Award-winning Cidermaker, Podcaster | Craft Beer Columnist.
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