Cider: Not Just for Reading About

Or drinking, for that matter, though it’s definitely for that! No, what I’m talking about, dear reader, is audio.

That’s right: sound waves, transmitted through the air to the machinery of your ears, then through some unimaginably complex biological processes in the brain that render it back into words. Words about cider.

Turns out there’s a growing amount of audio content out there around cider–which I’m thrilled about because I’m fast becoming a podcast fiend. Below are some examples that I think you’ll enjoy.

Cider Guide

If you haven’t worked your way through Eric West’s Cider Guide Podcast episodes yet, you’re missing out: there are some great interviews there to be perused.

My particular favorites among these are:

• Tom Oliver of Oliver’s Cider and Perry
• Nicole Leibon of Farnum Hill Ciders

Cider Chat

I have to admit that I’m a bit late to the Cider Chat podcast party, so I don’t have a lot to say about it yet. That won’t last long, however–I’ve started into the content generated from Cidercon 2016, and I like what I hear.

Here are a couple examples:

• Got Juice? (an interview with a major apple juice supplier to the cider industry)
• Cider Cocktails with Darlene Hayes, author of Another Bite of The Apple.
• West Coast Cideries — with Nick Gunn and Dave White

Speaking of Cidercon 2016, I’ll have some related content coming out soon–I attended it, and it was enlightening. I was there less as a cider blogger this year as someone looking to get into the cider production business, so my observations are more along those lines and will likely appear on ciderschool rather than here.

Heritage Radio Network

The Heritage Radio Network has recently featured cider within such programs as Beer Sessions Radio and Fuhmentaboudit.

A basic search of their site will give you a good idea of what’s available overall. Here are a few recommendations

• Greg Hall (of Virtue Cider) on Beer Sessions Radio
• John Bunker — with John Bunker of Fedco Trees
• Cider Cocktails–with Darlene Hayes and Eric West
• Cider Week 2014–a whole bushel of interviews; a bit dated, but still golden

MeadMakr

Seeing as I’m just about as obsessed with Mead as I am with cider, I’d be remiss without mentioning the MeadMakr podcast. I feel like there’s a lot of overlap between the cider and mead communities…some meaderies make great cider (e.g., Moonlight Meadery’s How Do You Like Them Apples), some great ciders have added honey, and both segments are small (in absolute terms) yet fast-growing.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

• Ken Schramm on Fruit in Mead
• Making Mead Consistently with Michael Fairbrother
• Cyser Symposium — with yours truly and Matt of Winemaker’s Academy

The Brewing Network

If you’re looking for beer geeks’ perspectives on and experience in branching out into cider–and you don’t mind a lot of on-air burping and swearing–The Brewing Network has some interesting content.

For example:

• Brewing With Style: Cider

I actually find the collision of the beer and wine schools of thinking that cider is at the epicenter of to be very interesting. As more and more consumers are finding cider after cutting their teeth on craft beer, I think it’s a dynamic cidermakers from the wine tradition need to consider.

While education is the goal, talking over the heads of novice craft beer fans who just showed up at your tasting room with rarified wine terminology is probably not the best approach to easing these folks into the world of cider, given their experience with both beer-drinking culture and the mass-market sugar bomb ciders that they’ve likely encountered.

Food for thought…

Micro Brewr

Here’s another one that I just recently discovered–it’s oriented toward micro brewery startup, and has a few episodes about cider (I’ve yet to listen to them, but they’re next on my list):

• Micro Brewr Cider-Related Episodes

Miscellaneous

Maybe you’re not in the mood for cider per se. That’s fine, though normally my response would be that you’re reading the wrong blog. Today, though, here’s a not-explicitly-cider-related apple podcast that is nonetheless fascinating:

• The Miracle Apple

Audiobooks

The books page is a resource which includes numerous cider-related books and other publications. I’ve recently added audiobook links to the entries there for those books which have a version available on Audible. Enjoy!

Final Thoughts

Have I missed any interesting cider-related audio content that you’d like to recommend? By all means, mention it in the comments section!

Oh, and in case you were wondering what connection the featured image of a can of cider and my cat has to do with cider podcasts, don’t: there’s no connection.

I like cider and cats and podcasts…do I really need to have a reason to inflict any of them on you?