Hey there freezing friends,
How’s it going? It’s pretty cold. For me, it’s colder this year than last because last year we were living in a very humid apartment, and this year we are in a dry, large windowed, high ceiling space. The heat is trying but there’s not much it can do, it’s like the last 300 Spartans, it can put up a good noisy fight, but it’s doomed to fail against the unrelenting chill air. We discussed closing the blinds. That would help. Might help a lot. It might make all the difference for our poor Spartan heater. But man, I do love the view. Instead I bought some thicker sweatpants and fleece on discount over the weekend. Cause, I think Chris and I agreed we’d rather freeze to death before we deprive ourselves of bird and people watching. Your cat knows what I’m talking about.
I thought about getting a tree this year. Remember a couple of years ago I flocked a tree? I really loved how that looked. But, with these massively tall windows, anything under like 7ft and I’m afraid it might look goofy. And I’m used to purchasing little shorties, like carry in one hand trees all the way home, and I wasn’t too taken with the idea of spending, you know, whatever it costs these days for a giant tree. For the business you can bet your ass I will, nothing is too good for our ciderhouse. Instead, for this year, we got some massive poinsettias from Costco. $20 each, and just look at the beauties. I’m very happy with them.
Cider Test
Disclaimer: This section, I got wordy! It’s a big decision for us because we’re going to spend some real money now, put our name and brand out there, and we want to get it right. But, go ahead and skim or skip this if you value your time.
We finished our first filter vs non-filter cider test. It went well, but filtering was very time consuming. It took a lot of sanitizing, and pushing the cider from one keg to the other, partly because we filtered it twice (first with a larger and then with a smaller filter), partly because we want to try to save the filter, but mostly because we’ve never done this before so doing it right took more effort. But it turned out! We only filtered half of the cider and the other half we did the usual pasteurizing and left it cloudy. I was a little nervous about making the extract or concentrate. Since the filtered version was not going to be pasteurized I needed to take the little bit of apple juice we add back after fermenting and add enough tea to replicate the taste we get from adding tea to all the cider before pasteurizing. I used the same amount of tea for both, but I wasn’t sure it would have the same effect. Namely, I was afraid my concentrate would come out bitter and not really disperse the flavor the same. But they both had the same level of flavor, just different flavors were highlighted in each.
Bottling for some reason, is emotionally hard for me. I become such a hater. It’s our first taste of the cider, when it is done carbonating and ready to go. Rarely have I felt it tastes great. I think because I’ve already smelled the little tea bags after I’ve pasteurized which always smell ridiculously good. Warm apple cider soaked tea bags… there’s not much that smells better. So I’ve already decided in my mind what I think our stuff is going to taste like, and it’s never that. So I’m always disappointed which makes me angry. Then, I go to bed. And the next evening I try it again expecting it to be our worst cider yet, and I’m always happily surprised, and I’m like, “This can’t be the same cider as yesterday! This is great!” My opinion can’t be trusted.
For this cider, we used Queen Mary’s Spiced Blood Orange which has orange, hibiscus, rose hips, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. I feel that the filtered cider is much more orange forward, whereas the unfiltered is much more heavy on the cardamom and cloves. There is definitely a difference between the two ciders, but we like them both. The filtered has a very smooth, bright taste to it and seems a little sweeter. The unfiltered is definitely more complex, leaving everything from fermentation it means, to me anyway, that there’s more of a beginning, middle and end. I taste the spices first and then there is the tang from the yeast… there’s a lot going on. I can be persuaded that either is better than the other.
We’ve been collecting outside opinions. First, we need to know if people can tell a difference, or if it’s just us, and if they can, how big of a difference is it? Is one hardly better than the other? And then, which is better. We took some big bottles to Chris’s work and after a seminar asked people to sample them and rate, on a sliding scale, if there was a difference between the two, and then on a sliding scale, which was better. Mixed results, same as Thanksgiving when we took bottles there. One thing everyone agrees on is that there is a difference. People who tend to drink beer really liked the unfiltered, I think they might be the stinky-cheese crowd. They relate it to a beer they like, or say it reminds them of more specialty-craft products, and one person says the filtered in contrast tastes watered down. The people who like the filtered say it tastes sweeter and more apple-y (true, I think because there isn’t any fermentation by-product in there covering it up). I agree with what one person said, the filtered would be ideal in the summer and the unfiltered in the winter. Wholeheartedly agree. And, personally, for this tea, I prefer the filtered. It was really nice having that bright orange flavor. I’m not sure if I’ll prefer filtered for all of our flavors though, especially the ones where we add wine barrel chips, and unfiltered is so unique.
Overall, it’s great to know that the filtered tastes good. That means we can make a large batch of cider with The Facilitator using his equipment and not have to buy a large piece of equipment to replicate pasteurizing at home. Immediately after bottling we did start a new batch of cider here at home. We knew we’d want more tests. Switching up the way we’ve been doing things, when we’ve liked the results, and made something like 70+ batches, is a little scary. We’re going to want more proof which way to go for our actual business, when we buy our own equipment.
Contacting Bars and SCORE Mentor Meeting
As I’ve mentioned before, finding places that will commit to temporarily putting one of our kegs on tap to test the market has been challenging. Staff are usually pretty enthusiastic that what we’re trying to do is something they think the owner would love to support, but my emails have been going unanswered. I finally thought to reach out to a friend that owns a business and asked his advice, I was thinking maybe there was something about my wording or style of email that could be improved. He explained that he receives tons of emails from unknown individuals and companies wanting to use his business to promote their products or services. I bet my previous emails have gone unread, there is too much spam/scam to cut through.
One of his suggestions was to add things to my emails to show that I’m legit. Adding a profile photo, link to the substack, something in my signature, a website landing page… He also mentioned leaving a business card when we visit. I have been feeling our lack of a business card for a few months now. Whenever we go to business events people want a tangible card to remember us. It’s kinda awkward to provide nothing, but I always think that business cards come after I have a business phone number and address. Meaning that so far, when visiting bars, all we can do is take a business card from the staff, hope we aren’t forgotten, and contact them. But a website! That would really help, all we have is the substack link to give people and I always share what’s happening currently. To know what our business is and our overall goal, I think you’d have to scroll the list to the first one, all the way to 2019! A page that quickly says who we are, our goal, and contact, would be pretty useful. It also gives us something to put on a business card, other than: Location - to be announced, and Phone Number - it’s a personal number, just text, the ringing frightens me.
After I got all this great advice, the next day I had a meeting with The Mentor. I had to admit that we didn’t have a list a places willing to take our kegs yet. (He really cares about this. He doesn’t want us to make a giant batch of cider with The Facilitator and have nowhere for the kegs to go.) But to me, I’d rather just get going, the cider will take weeks to make, and as we wait, I can, with more assuredness, tell owners kegs will be ready at X time, will you take one for free? He became pretty down at first about our progress and then about our entire business.
I told him the advice we’ve been given, and that I want to try getting some business cards and give this a better chance. He said that we’re just “pissing into the wind” and that we need to figure out how much we are willing to pay bars. Like essentially bribe them to take our cider and give it to them for free. I just don’t think we’ve come even close to exhausting all of our options. But he doesn’t think talking to staff will help at all, “they’re staff, what do they control? What power do they have?” Then the meeting got even worse.
He had us go to a website for a beverage group that works with businesses like Pepsi to re-brand themselves as healthy products and then helps them get on store shelves. These meetings are over the phone, so The Mentor couldn’t see Chris’s face. Utter repulsion with a mix of depression. Come to find out, our mentor doesn’t know what we’re about after all. He said, “What do you have to lose? Call them! Look at how many brands they’ve helped!” We aren’t a freakn’ soda though! We aren’t trying to get on shelves! He’s just trying to help, so I did my best to kindly let the idea go, while Chris listened in pained silence.
I tried to explain it’s not just the cider, we want a taproom, a place for everyone to casually get together because we like doing that! And it’s needed. So then he went right ahead and said exactly what he thinks finally. “A taproom is just a bad idea.” And then, “Here, right now go to bizbuysell.com. Just buy a business.” Jesus. I will say I was surprised by how little the businesses around here go for. Barrio is going for $150K, which is not nothing, but when homes are 1 million, it’s surprising. So I learned something. But how messed up is that? Seriously. I’m not that stupid. I know I’d be buying the business’s debt too and any other flaws. We’d inherit everything. I wasn’t inspired to do this, put all this time and effort into business ownership to own something!!!! I want to make something!
So what’d I do? I scheduled another meeting with him. What? It’s good to hear “truth” or what people think is true. I don’t know our mentor’s age, but we’ve Googled him, and I believe he’s in his 70s, and I know he lives in Bellevue. I always want to meet in person but he likes the phone. I’m not sure that he lives much like me. I don’t think his reality is my reality. I don’t think he desperately feels the need to get out of his space, and I don’t think the price of a drink would be his first concern. So he’s probably the most useful person to talk to. We’re going to deal with a lot of people who don’t understand what we are doing. It’s good to know what kind of thoughts we are up against.
Leaving on a Good Note
We went to another business network group event put on by Banner Bank. It was reassuring for us. There were some folks there we hadn’t met before, they had experience in the beer business and we chatted for awhile. First off, they agreed that all the money is in the taproom now, that is where the profit is, and if you want more money open more taprooms, don’t bother with store shelves. What a relief! They have a number of connections and recommended bars that might be interested in our kegs. They also drink cider :)
I also got some advice and help on how to get started on a website. I’m taking a minute messing with images, here let me show you:
I’ve had this idea in mind that the dots above our “o” could be the eyes of a jötunn. It was nice to try it, because I don’t think it really works. Too much going on? After playing around with so many hairy monsters, I’m kind of gravitating back to just the northern lights.
I also contacted The Facilitator about starting a big batch of cider under his license, and he’s going to meet with us this weekend! So exciting. And, our homebrew will be ready to filter in a few days so we can try this again and see how it turns out filtered with a different flavor.
That’s all for this edition of the newsletter. Thank you as always for staying with us. Things can get discouraging, but it always brightens our day to see who opened the newsletter and remember you. Thank you for that encouragement.
Watch this video, a bear makes music:
Previous Newsletter: Filtering the Plan