It’s almost time for HipCider. Months of research (drinking), weeks of prep (writing about drinking) and days of photo shoots (taking pictures of bottles I drank) are adding up to my first real book…ever. I’ve been infatuated with cider since my November 2012 arrival in Portland, and after I saw 1500+ people show up to a CiderFest at a local … Read More
Welcome to HipCider
The first book, “HipCider: Beginner Guide to Cider in Portland” was published in June 2013. You can purchase the ebook from Amazon.com. Please pardon our dust as we build out the site with lots more cider knowledge…coming soon.
Seth Godin Book Review With Chris Franklin Of Portland Creative
(Want to know what other people thought of the book? Seth shared early reactions on his blog.) The idea that anxiety is experiencing failure in advance, that the voice in our head is only a narrator, and that focus is important above all else seem self evident and pretty life coach-y now that I’m reading this as I type it, … Read More
Changes are fermenting
In the past nine months HipCider has been around, I’ve learned a ton about cider. I’ve learned about fermenting, yeast, apples, business, BIG business, teamwork, food pairings and even bottling. I’ve also consumed quite a bit more cider than I ever thought possible. But nine months in, I’ve realized that something just isn’t quite right. For as hard as I … Read More
What would you do on an #AmtrakResidency?
(The idea of an Amtrak Residency, where writers book a round-trip ticket to work there and back, is fascinating. Here’s how I convinced myself to go.) I make my living by, mostly, arranging letters into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories. Whether I’m running a Facebook campaign, tweeting incessantly, or crafting a blog post, I’m … Read More
Portland Cider Company Is Opening A Tasting Room With New Styles
Portland Cider Company is opening their own tasting room, complete with three new styles of cider and plenty of swag.
Is MillerCoors Advertising Ridiculously Sexist?
MillerCoors ridiculous sexist Smith & Forge is an embarrassment to the industry, but after their take on Miller Fortune, I’m not surprised.
Second Sunday Cider With Schilling Cider Recap
Our first three Second Sunday Cider events were held at the inimitable Cheese Bar. While the cider paired with cheese was fantastic, the turnout just wasn’t what we had hoped for. We wanted to try something else. We wanted it to be a community-driven event, we wanted people to have access to plenty of cider and cheese, and we wanted … Read More
Snowdrift Cider Co is EXACTLY what I’d expect an (East) Wenatchee cidery to be
This past weekend, while in eastern Washington for a memorial service (read about that here, if you like), I made stopping by Snowdrift Cider Co a requirement. You see, most of my family members grew up in Eastern Washington, my parents went to rival high schools in East Wenatchee and Wenatchee, and my grandparents owned an apple orchard that they … Read More
Pacific Northwest Holiday Seasonal Cider Guide
(TL;DR – seven of these nine bottles (all except for Providence and Seattle Cider’s) are available at Bushwhacker Cider at SE 12th Ave and Powell in Portland.) The bells are jingling, the turkey has been eaten, the chestnuts are roasting and holiday party season is in full effect. As the days creep ever closer to actual winter, we figured you … Read More
Meet The Cidermakers | Galen Williams Of Bull Run Cider
In case my last post wasn’t clear, I’m digging the simple purity of Bull Run Cider. The guys behind the company, Galen Williams and Pete Mulligan, are great spokesmen for the cider industry AND were the first cider makers to buy HipCider. (I’m glad I like their stuff, as thanking them for buying a book and then later insulting their … Read More
Initial Review | Bull Run Cider Gravenstein & Powerhouse
Bull Run Cider’s label is the most intimidating cider label I’ve ever seen. It looks substantial, the bottle looks thick, and I fully expect such a thing will be found as evidence if I ever get into a bar fight. Seeing as how I had no idea Bull Run Watershed was Portland’s main water reservoir, I assumed Bull Run was … Read More
Meet The Cidermakers | Jeff Parrish of Portland Cider Company
I sure do love the Portland Cider Company logo. Yes, I know the logo outside has little to do with the cider inside, but it certainly can’t hurt for the bottle to look as good as the cider tastes. As you can likely tell from my previous initial review of Portland Cider Company, I dig both flavors and think they, … Read More
Initial Review | Sorta Sweet from Portland Cider Company
My appreciation of Portland Cider Company’s offerings have flip-flopped since I sat down with my first bottle. Drawn to their simple, straight-forward label (nutty bottle designs obscuring flavors and company names are a huge issue to me) and local-ness, my wife and I eagerly sucked down a Sorta Sweet and Kinda Dry, respectively. While I, at that time in early … Read More
Meet The Cidermakers | Colin Schilling of Schilling Cider
In my search to know more about the food I eat, where it comes from, and who’s making it, my wife and I have checked a variety of co-ops, read up on fermentation and recipes, and talked to a bunch of people making their living feeding others. This past April 2013, we were excited to attend Schilling Cider’s first Portland … Read More
Initial Review | Schilling Original, Ginger & Oak Aged Cider
My wife loves this stuff. From the first day we met Colin Schilling at Bushwhacker Cider in April 2013 until yesterday, my lovely lady has raved about the “two drinks in one” Original and now, more recently, the amazing Oak Aged (better when cool, not cold). While I’m loving the Oak Aged first, the Ginger second, and Original third, they’re … Read More
Initial Review | Finnriver Black Currant & Dry Hopped ciders
Apples, on their own, are pretty good. If Congress passed some law requiring all cider to be apples only, I’d be okay with that (you may too, considering the many thousands of apple varieties). But plain apple cider, despite all its tastiness, are GREAT when mixed with other flavorings. From apricot to cinnamon and hops to pepper, mixing it up … Read More
Meet The Cidermakers | Nathaniel West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider
Rev Nat used to scare the hell out of me. He was this long-goateed, mysterious dude who seemed to be everywhere cider was being talked about, dared to MIX cider during the Schilling Cider launch at Bushwhacker Cider, and never responded with more words than necessary when I’d asked him about Providence last winter. If Jeff Smith of Bushwhacker Cider … Read More
Initial Review | Rev Nat’s Newtown Pippin
While I’m hard at work sampling Oregon ciders as research for the SECOND version of my book (we’re doing all Oregon ciders this time), I wanted to share some of my first drafts before they get researched, edited, and made into book-worthy chapters. While I’d love to post them daily, my cider drinking budget doesn’t currently allow me to consume … Read More
Cider News for August 29 — Woodchuck introduces Cellar Series, Seattle Cider Summit Sept 6-7, and My Current Cider Favs
Woodchuck Launches New ‘Cellar Series’ Hard Cider Line “The cellar series is a really exciting project for us,” said Cider Maker John Matson. “It gives us the opportunity to take some of our most experimental, previously unreleased ciders, and put them in the hands of our fans. Dry Hop is a great balanced cider and it represents just the tip … Read More
Cider and Lego Star Wars
Saturday afternoons and hell, most weekends, are often spent traveling, outside, volunteering and/or catching up on work that we couldn’t get done during the week. The wife and I usually spend the entirety of them together or completely apart, which makes for some…non-relaxing moments if we’re both stressed out. But this weekend there’s little to do work wise, no volunteering … Read More
The Clichéd Life
It feels childish to write in the first person. It feels immature to talk about my life as if I face unique challenges. It feels depressing to constantly compare what I’ve done to what I think I should have done. Yet, here I am, writing a post on a blog named after me. Some would say this is classic narcissism … Read More
Time For Cider Riot!
As cider grows more popular, it’s easy to cash in on the wave. Cideries will be born, books will be written and blogs will be created, each hoping to latch on to the momentum spearheaded by other people. But Cider Riot! is not one of those upstarts. Cidermaker Abram Goldman-Armstrong has been making cider each year for nearly 20 years, … Read More
Why I Drink Cider
Last night, while attending Willamette Week’s Best Of Portland party, I was re-introduced to Stella Artois’s cidre (that’s cider in the U.S.) for the second time. My initial reaction was one of disappointment, as I didn’t understand how a party allegedly meant to celebrate Portland featured a mass-produced drink that isn’t even from this country. After bitching to Martin Cizmar, … Read More
What Is Hard Cider?
I have a confession: when I first started drinking fermented apples with either hops, carbonation or neither or both, I called it hard cider. Why? Because most people think cider means spicy cinnamon drink served in the fall, usually with some sort of holiday-themed cookie. But the answer to what is hard cider is easy: it’s called cider, thank you … Read More