A born and raised Seattle (Ballard) native David White now resides in Olympia Washington were he attended The Evergreen State College between 1997 – 2000. A victim of the dot.com explosion/implosion/fallout of the early 2000’s, Dave now acts as the creative director and art department for Espresso Parts and is a partner in Olympia Coffee Roasting Company. When he is not at work designing or playing with kick ass espresso equipment he spends his spare time pickin’ the mandolin and fermenting/drinking traditional American style hard ciders.
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Trade links? I’ve added yours, here’s mine:
General cider site:
http://www.lostmeadowvt.com
Cider Blog:
http://www.lostmeadowvt.com/blogs/applepress/index.html
Sure thing Terry… Consider it done.
Nice to make yer acquaintance. Your sites have some excellent information and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in cider. Terry’s links are on the right —-> Lost Meadow VT & Apple Press at LostMeadowvt.com.
Hi there,
I saw that you tagged Robinette’s and our video on Facebook. Thanks so much! I’m glad you liked it. I was wondering if you could email me and let me know how to tag a fan page in a post on Facebook. I know that with a personal friend you just put the @ sign before you type their name, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to tag a business fan page. I’ll try to add your link on the “Partners” part of our website. Love your site!
Wow and you are a coffee addict too??? 🙂
Join the club!
Dave rules! Still haven’t had any of your cider (but i think i took your photo ;-)).
I’d like to brag up the fine cider coming out of Foggy Ridge Cider here in VA. Diane Flynt is creating a craft cider and selling it! joy joy.
http://www.foggyridgecider.com
Please make a spot in your link list for Foggy Ridge so that she gets the exposure she needs and deserves.
Thanks,
Al Yelvington
Arlington, VA
Thanks for the heads up Al. Their site and product look great. I can’t find a way to obtain some Foggy Ridge Cider and give it a proper review.
Send me a mailing address, and I’ll see if I’ll send a bottle out to you when I get more.
Al
Dave,
I just found your blog, and find it fascinating. I am a strict amateur, but believe I make a fair traditional Cider. I live on Whidbey Island, and make a pretty dry finishing cider, which I love. Recently took it to the County Fair, and they panned it. (I don’t think they know what real cider should taste like. They all are used to Spire and Wyders) I won best in show for a raspberry mead, which was surprisingly smooth.
I would be interested in your sense of the Mt. Vernon Class. The price tag seemed prohibitive to a hobbyist like myself.
Hey thanks for the comments. I’ve meant to blog on the Cider School experience however it was so overwhelming its been hard to find a place to start. I’ve also meant to do more blogging in general but alas Summertime activities and house guests have kept me pretty busy.
Cider School, well it was great! Peter Mitchell is quite a guy and an excellent ultra-knowledgeable instructor. I couldn’t have asked for anything more for a starting class.
As for you being a hobbyist my only comment would be “If you have the money and the time go for it”. Besides you live on Whidbey almost half the cost of attending is the lodging. However for that drive gas could cost you more than lodging.
In all seriousness for me there was a terrific array skill sets. A good number of folks were thinking business but not all currently engaged in it. I’m 100% positive that you’d have a blast, learn a thing or 10, and dramatically improve your cider.
BTW… Your ciders at the fair. Eh… I bet you are right about people’s expectations of cider. They probably have no concept of what real cider should be and from the sound of your cider I’d love it. In any case there is a lesson to be learned there. I’ve been seeing more and more craft cider makers here in the States making that cider that “bridges the gap” for and tests the boundaries of the “un-washed” masses. With a little bit of help some of them just may come around. We don’t want them all to come around anyways. Now do we?
Hi Dave,
Great website…I coordinate a new youth development and sustainable community building initiative in Olympia. Our first event will be the West Olympia Apple Harvest and Community Cider Press on Sept 13, 2008.
I wonder if you might be able to help me (1) promote the event on your site or elsewhere, and (2) locate a cider press to rent or borrow.
Thanks so much!
J
[…] on the Canucks “fan zone” and slap up some self-referential screenshots of myself and old-timey dave’s hat for […]
Do you want some apples? They are not perfect 😦 Just picked today!!!
I just discovered your site and will link to Old Time Cider from our site, http://www.foggyridgecider.com. We grow cider apples and make hard cider in the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains. We just finished our last pressing so come visit! I see you are a mandolin player—our part of VA is on the Crooked Trail and home to much music. You are lucky to be near talented cidermakers like Nick Gunn and the folks at Blue Mountain.
Diane Flynt
Hi Dave,
It’s been great to look through your website. As a fellow cider addict I like checking out the different cideries. I’m also a part-time employee at Sutliff Cider Company in Lisbon, IA and would appreciate if you could include us on your site. We’re pretty small (only four official employees) but we specialize in making a traditional dry cider, soft cider, and fresh pressed cider. We have a brand new tasting room in the bottom floor of a 120 year old barn that we’re excited about. We’re also currently in the process of updating our website and we’ll try to include your site when we make some improvements. Thanks for the great site and cheers! Check us out at http://www.sutliffcider.com
tom
Dave White,
Interesting material here, I have been pressing cider myself for a few years. Just curious how to contact you and ask specific opinions concerning our mutual hobby.
At one time I had a blog and sprinkled some cider posts in it, among other personal ramblings… (see above).
Hey Dave,
looking at your map… looks like you forgot almar orchards in Flushing, Michigan who make JK Scrumpy cider- arguably one of the most unique ciders I have ever had- it is almost a still cider- it is somewhat sweet with some tanins which give it a bite- there are tones of spice to this cider which I can’t pin point. This cider is also an unfiltered cider so it has the appearance of a hefeweizen.
On a side note- I’m trying to find info on ciders while I spend the next month in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic- it’s been very challenging to get info. Know anything about austrian or czech ciders?
I’m a fairly new home cider maker and would lik to connect with other cider makers in the Pacific Northwest.
Last summer I constructed my own cider cart to mount both a medium size press and a grinder. I made the grinder from a stainless steel sink/1 hp disposal unit. Photos of its construction are on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31423823@N08/
The grinder works great, but the press seems to be a bottle neck by being too slow (I’m thinking of building a larger compacity unit with a bottle jack as the energy source).
My wife and I invited friends and family over to our vacation home in the Lake Chelan area for a weekend of pressing. Everyone could experience a cider squeeze first hand, and leave with some very good sweet cider. I then placed two 5 gallon batches of that sweet cider in a process to make hard cider. The resulting batches were pretty good. So last spring, I added six cider apples to our small/hobby apple orchard. These trees were; Ashmead’s Kernel, Esopus Spitzenberg, Golden Russet, Harry Master’s Jersey, Muscadet de Dieppe, and Newtown Pippin.
I would enjoy communicating with and meeting other cider enthusiasts to share ideas and results.
Hi Dave:
We thought you may be interested in posting this event on Old Time Cider and possibly on your Facebook page. This is a great event for cider enthusiasts or newbies who were always hankering to try hard cider but just didn’t know where to start.
More info here: http://ivars.net/index.php?page=2nd-annual-fall-cider
For Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IvarsRestaurants#/event.php?eid=170198624273&ref=mf
Thank you,
Jim Werth, Ivar’s
Nice to see another fermenter/mandolin player.
OK, I’m learning the mandolin. Not sure if I would call myself a player just yet. One day.
Anyway – great site!
Hi Dave –
Wanted to recommend a cider house in Northern Michigan that we enjoy very much, Tandem Ciders. They are located in Suttons Bay, MI. The owners, Dan and Nikki are incredible people and their cider is outstanding.
I don’t believe they have a website at this time, but here’s a nice article profiling them:
http://www.visittraversecity.com/a-quot;hard-cider-revivalquot;-in-michigans-wine-country-234/
They definitely deserve to be featured on your site.
Keep up the great work!
Mike
Detroit, MI
Thanks Mike! Love all the great feedback I’ve been getting this season. Michigan cider folks, I knew were out there and very abundant but they seem to be coming out of the woodworks these days! I’ll have to visit one day very soon. Glad to see it and glad to have them on the map and featured on the blog too.
I got a number of ciders from the Great Lakes Cider Festival organizer recently. A few of them are from Michigan too although not Tandem Cider unfortunately. Since my apple pressing is mostly done and my fermenting is started I think it is time to buckle down and kick out some blog posts and reviews.
Dave__Am hoping to talk to you on Friday a.m. in Seattle, as we discussed on the fone. I am the guy who called you at your office; I;m writing a book about apples, including hard cider.
ham davis
Hi Dave-
We emailed last spring about our upcoming cider release. Well, it’s finally happening next week with two of our sparkling ciders. one is a traditional champagne style- methode champagnoise, the other is more a farm-style lees left in the bottle.
I’d be keen to introduce you to our ciders and ask if you’d post a link, etc. Let us know if you are ever in the Chimacum (Port Townsend) area so we can give you some cider and a tour of the cidery and the farm.
TBA are a iced apple wine, a pommeau, apple cider vinegar, and perry. We’re messin around with various fruit dessert wines…
Grateful you are doing what you do to help cider make it’s way into appreciating hands.
Best,
Keith Kisler
finnriver farm and cidery
finnriverfarm.com —-farm website
finnriver.com —-cidery website that is in the infant stages.
First, my wife (Garrel) and I truly enjoyed the cider event at Ivar’s Salmon House last fall. We tasted some great ciders and met a number of folks new to the realm of hard cider. Most said they liked a number of the ciders that had tasted and look forward to drinkng more.
A lot of cider has gone through my press since my last post above of August 4, 2009. Last fall my wife and I expanded our cider making experience into Perry. But alas, our lack of true perry pears caused us to use cider apples with mixed results (still it is quite drinkable).
This year we are going to experiment with cherry cider (Sweet and Hard). My own new, six apple trees , whose variety had historically been used for cider, should be fruiting this fall. I also am looking for scions of other cider apples (especially; Kingston Black & Yarlington Mill) to graft in my small hobby orchard near Lake Chelan.
I was not pleased with the effectiveness of my ratchet style press. So, following the lead of some other cider makers on the web, I built a new press based on a 12 ton bottle jack and a heavy oak catch basin. I used 1/2 inch food grade plastic cutting boards as my racks and ordered heavy pressing cloths from a source back East. I found this equipment to be more effective in pressing most of the cider out of the pommy.
We are now looking forward to this fall’s cider blending!
Carl… Thanks again for the post. We have to taste ciders this year in Chelan. I’ll be there Labor Day weekend on the lake by Pat & Mike’s. Lets stay in touch.
Dave:
I’ll plan on Labor Day. I can show you my cider grinder, presses and a tour of our small collection of cider apple trees while we try some of the cider.
Right now, I hoping to get some cider apple scions at the Seattle Fruit tree society meeting. I will then take them over and gaft on apple trees in our little hobby orchard.
Have you heard much feedback about the cider tasting last November at Ivar’s Salmon House? My wife and I attended enjoyed the selection of commercial ciders and met a number of people that were tasting cider for the first time.
Let’s keep in touch via email.
Hello,
I am trying to find a way to contact American cider producers for a festival and competition we are having in San Diego in conjunction with our county fair. There will be a three day festival patterned after the GABF that will draw 10,000 people.
The entry information can be found at http://www.sdfair.com/beer where there are entry guildelines and on line registration. Any help you can give me in spreading this information or providing a contact email for me to send it to would be much appreciated. Thanks much, Tom Nickel, Festival Coordinator
Thanks for mentioning the opening of our new tasting room.
mike Beck
uncle john’s
No problem Mike. Anytime!
So, how do we get more restaurants to serve cider? I’m pretty tired of seeing 30+ beers (come on, how different are some of them, really) served and not a single cider.
We need to get the word out there that people drink cider. Just like beer, there is the mass-market stuff; but there are the crafted products as well. The more exposure cider gets, the better the market for the crafters becomes.
Good question! I’d love to expand on that in a post. I’ve always meant to and perhaps I will still.
Cider makers can do a few things.
1. Keg their cider? I know wine serves in 750ml bottles but perhaps not having to buy a whole bottle or possibly 2 whole bottles would help.
2. Make sales calls to restaurants and emphasize Cider’s food friendliness and pairing opportunities.
3. Help restaurants put on special cider events. This just might help them see the values in cider.
Cider Enthusiasts can do one important thing.
1. Ask your favorite places for a good local craft cider.
just viewed your cider photos on flickr. What a treasure! Thank you for sharing true wealth.
Hey there… Well it has been so long you might not remember even sending me your note about my cider pictures on Flickr. Thanks for the kind words. The reason I hadn’t seen them until now is because I moved the site to a new location and no longer use WordPress. If you want to see updated posts from here on out just check out http://www.oldtimecider.com
Thanks again!