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Brewsers #382-Talia with Haykin Family Cider · Brewsers

0:02
Speaker 1: What Welcome to Bruisers podcast, be your coffee, Booze and Bruisers.
0:23
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Roddy John and today we talk to
0:26
Speaker 1: Tally with Hakeen Family Cider. We talked about how Hacen
0:29
Speaker 1: Family Cider started, how the industry is going, and so
0:33
Speaker 1: much more. They're doing absolutely phenomenal things when it comes
0:35
Speaker 1: to the world of cider. We don't have enough sider
0:38
Speaker 1: people on this show, so I love that we actually
0:40
Speaker 1: get to get another one. So you don't hear from me,
0:42
Speaker 1: you want to hear from her. So without further ado,
0:44
Speaker 1: here is Tally you with Hacen Family Cider. I would
0:59
Speaker 1: like welcome to the show. Tell you with Haken Family Cider.
1:03
Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
1:04
Speaker 2: I'm doing well, Thank you.
1:05
Speaker 1: How are you doing well? So flows listen kind of
1:08
Speaker 1: paintings or word picture. Where you at and what's going
1:10
Speaker 1: on around you?
1:11
Speaker 2: Oh?
1:12
Speaker 3: I am pulled up in a corner of our warehouse
1:16
Speaker 3: at our sidery. Try to stick myself away from the
1:20
Speaker 3: noise as much as possible. We've got a lot going
1:24
Speaker 3: on in production today, so just trying to find myself
1:27
Speaker 3: a quiet corner. We've got a production facility and tasting
1:31
Speaker 3: room in Aurora, Colorado, and I am in a very
1:36
Speaker 3: far little corner of it.
1:39
Speaker 1: So what is a regular Wednesday. As we're recording this,
1:43
Speaker 1: it is Wednesday, So what is a regular Wednesday?
1:45
Speaker 3: Look back at the sadary, I don't think that there
1:48
Speaker 3: is a regular Wednesday.
1:51
Speaker 2: Every Wednesday brings to excitement, new challenges. No, I mean it.
1:56
Speaker 3: Depends on really for us heavily the season. Apples are
2:00
Speaker 3: ripe in the fall, and we start to receive apples
2:05
Speaker 3: in for processing in as early as late July and August,
2:10
Speaker 3: so we will start making cider like with fresh apples
2:15
Speaker 3: around that time. So we try and purchase as much
2:19
Speaker 3: Colorado fruit as possible, and that's all delivered.
2:22
Speaker 2: To us in bushels of apples.
2:25
Speaker 3: And that'll come in and either we'll let it sweat
2:28
Speaker 3: for a little bit, or we'll process it and press
2:31
Speaker 3: it and perment it, or.
2:34
Speaker 2: We you know. So that's like our.
2:36
Speaker 3: Fall time and then the rest of the year just
2:39
Speaker 3: depends on what our projects look like. So we could
2:42
Speaker 3: be riddling bottles. So we have a traditional method cider
2:46
Speaker 3: that we make, not exactly like champagne because they do
2:51
Speaker 3: add dosage or addition of sugar to their product, and
2:54
Speaker 3: we do not. So we do, but it is a
2:57
Speaker 3: traditional method secondary fermentation in bottles. So we do hand
3:01
Speaker 3: riddle all of those bottles, which sort of means we
3:03
Speaker 3: turn it upside down and we knock it around to
3:06
Speaker 3: get the yeast to come down in the neck of
3:08
Speaker 3: the bottle, so that you know, some days we're shaking
3:12
Speaker 3: a bunch of bottles and some days we're racking batches,
3:16
Speaker 3: so transferring from one vessel to another. So you know,
3:20
Speaker 3: we're taking gravity measurements to see how far the fermentation
3:25
Speaker 3: has progressed. And you know, we are launching a distillery
3:30
Speaker 3: this fall, so we are also running are still and
3:35
Speaker 3: making cuts on that product as well.
3:39
Speaker 1: Oh man, I want to go into so many things.
3:41
Speaker 1: Let's let's start on the distilly. Talk to us about this.
3:45
Speaker 1: What is how long has this kind of been in
3:46
Speaker 1: the thought process? And then I guess, coming to fruition,
3:51
Speaker 1: when do you expect to start actually selling your own.
3:54
Speaker 3: Well, I guess maybe to start with, you have to
3:57
Speaker 3: understand how my husband's brain works, so it never stops working,
4:02
Speaker 3: is the answer. He is constantly thinking and processing and
4:07
Speaker 3: plotting and planning, and early on in our business we
4:11
Speaker 3: have very high standards for the sider that we want
4:14
Speaker 3: to release. One is that he and I we have
4:18
Speaker 3: to enjoy drinking it, so we don't ever release something
4:20
Speaker 3: that we don't personally enjoy drinking. But two, you know,
4:26
Speaker 3: it may have a flower, may have gotten too dry,
4:30
Speaker 3: and we weren't happy with it because we never add sugar.
4:32
Speaker 3: We never add flavorings or additives to our cider, so
4:35
Speaker 3: there's kind of if your fermentation goes too far, there's
4:38
Speaker 3: kind of no real fix for us at that point
4:41
Speaker 3: if it really is too far. So he said, well,
4:46
Speaker 3: we're not going to sell the sider. We refuse to
4:48
Speaker 3: sell it. We were dumping it down the drain. Well,
4:51
Speaker 3: that's a huge waste. So around maybe twenty nineteen, his
4:55
Speaker 3: brain starts percolating on this idea that we can just
5:00
Speaker 3: still this and create an apple brandy, and so we
5:03
Speaker 3: purchased a still from Portugal, a copper pot still that
5:06
Speaker 3: arrived during the pandemic, which was fun. And so we
5:12
Speaker 3: started playing around with distillation, little bits and bobs that
5:16
Speaker 3: we had sitting around and trying to learn how to
5:19
Speaker 3: become a distiller in addition to a cider maker. So
5:22
Speaker 3: that's sort of like the genesis of it was taking
5:25
Speaker 3: waste that we weren't going to use and finding a better.
5:29
Speaker 2: Life for it, and it's taken on a life of
5:31
Speaker 2: its own.
5:33
Speaker 3: So we make a pomo, which is sort of like
5:36
Speaker 3: a port wine, but made out of apples instead of grapes,
5:39
Speaker 3: so it's a fortified wine. So we make apple brandy,
5:43
Speaker 3: or the distillery makes apple brandy, and the sidery then
5:48
Speaker 3: takes the brandy and the juice and it's in a
5:51
Speaker 3: barrel and it ages eighteen months to twenty four months
5:54
Speaker 3: or so, the fresh juice and the brandy, and then
5:58
Speaker 3: we release it as a pomo. So that was like
6:01
Speaker 3: the first product line that we started working on that
6:03
Speaker 3: became publicly available I want to say a year or
6:06
Speaker 3: two ago, two years ago. But we've also been putting
6:10
Speaker 3: away actual brandy in barrels. We have o to vs
6:13
Speaker 3: so unaged brandy, clear brandy, and then the aged oaked
6:18
Speaker 3: brandy that we've been sitting on for a couple of
6:21
Speaker 3: years now trying to perfect the craft and figure out
6:25
Speaker 3: what tastes best and what works, and that is hopefully
6:29
Speaker 3: launching this fall. We're hoping to like fully bring that
6:33
Speaker 3: those products online this fall.
6:35
Speaker 1: Very nice will. So what will the distillery name be.
6:39
Speaker 2: It's Haken Family Distillery.
6:41
Speaker 3: While they are two distinct businesses and enterprises for all
6:45
Speaker 3: intents and purposes, but they are run by the same
6:48
Speaker 3: people we run that we run both of them.
6:50
Speaker 1: Okay, I was thinking it was going to be a
6:52
Speaker 1: Haicken family, but I wasn't sure.
6:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I joke, we have the Hagen family of businesses, so.
6:58
Speaker 1: The Hacken family umbrella exactly.
7:01
Speaker 2: My children are thrilled that their name is all over everything.
7:03
Speaker 1: Oh I imagine, Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. So,
7:07
Speaker 1: I mean I saw the online even your kids or
7:09
Speaker 1: the workers at the orchards, obviously they're the uh they
7:13
Speaker 1: are going to hopefully inherit everything. And then I've heard
7:15
Speaker 1: from so many different like breweries or distilleries that you know,
7:18
Speaker 1: when the kids grow up in it, obviously it's it's
7:21
Speaker 1: become so much easier for them to and especially nowadays,
7:24
Speaker 1: we see so many more kids out at the breweries
7:27
Speaker 1: and distilleries where you know, everyone wants to be you know,
7:30
Speaker 1: it's a community situation and it's everyone's family. So, but
7:34
Speaker 1: when you are growing up in it, do they kind
7:36
Speaker 1: of also think it's theirs? I mean, obviously their name
7:39
Speaker 1: is on it, but like you know, do they kind
7:40
Speaker 1: of go around and like do little things that you know,
7:43
Speaker 1: you clean up or even just you know, whatever it is.
7:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, obviously there are restrictions because it is alcohol,
7:50
Speaker 3: and we hauled everything to the highest standards. I will
7:54
Speaker 3: just say, though, we actually don't have an orchard ourselves,
7:56
Speaker 3: so we don't grow apples. We have a few trees
7:59
Speaker 3: that are house in suburban Denver, but we don't ourselves
8:04
Speaker 3: grow the fruit, so they aren't tending trees. Hopefully, one
8:08
Speaker 3: day maybe we can have property and that'll be a thing.
8:10
Speaker 3: But we you know, they love to come to the
8:14
Speaker 3: sidery and hang out with me when I'm working when they.
8:16
Speaker 2: Are off school.
8:18
Speaker 3: Usually that entails them sitting at the bar with their
8:20
Speaker 3: iPads and getting McDonald's or some sort of takeout food
8:23
Speaker 3: fast food. And I think that's secretly why they like coming.
8:27
Speaker 2: But you know, I have a.
8:28
Speaker 3: Great picture of my oldest who just turned eleven, when
8:31
Speaker 3: we were in the process of building out the space.
8:34
Speaker 3: He was two and a half and he used to,
8:37
Speaker 3: you know, where everything's not quite done yet, and he
8:40
Speaker 3: used to go behind the bar and take the cordless phone.
8:43
Speaker 2: And climb into our one of our five hundred gallon tanks.
8:47
Speaker 3: And he would like lean out the nandor and be like,
8:50
Speaker 3: this is my side of the house and like slam
8:53
Speaker 3: it shut. And I was like, yeah, dude, that's that's
8:56
Speaker 3: your cider house man. He's rather famous at his school.
9:01
Speaker 3: In preschool, he used to wear the labels because they're stickers,
9:04
Speaker 3: you know, So he used to put the labels on.
9:06
Speaker 2: He insisted on a front and a.
9:08
Speaker 3: Back label on him, and I would like text the teachers,
9:11
Speaker 3: I'm like, please don't report me. And he does have
9:13
Speaker 3: an ABV on him, but like, they're just stickers, you know.
9:18
Speaker 3: And then but when he was or they were like
9:21
Speaker 3: trying to teach him them in preschool when he was four,
9:25
Speaker 3: you know, your name isn't just David, like you have
9:27
Speaker 3: a whole name, it's David Hagen.
9:29
Speaker 2: And he kept going family.
9:31
Speaker 3: Cider and they'd be like, right, David Hagen, and he'd
9:34
Speaker 3: say family Cider. So he would introduce himself as David
9:38
Speaker 3: Hagen family Cider, which was adorable because that was the
9:41
Speaker 3: only time he really heard his last name. By the
9:44
Speaker 3: time he hit kindergarten.
9:46
Speaker 2: He goes to a K twelve school.
9:48
Speaker 3: He was walking up to upperclassmen and teachers with his
9:51
Speaker 3: little hand out saying, Hi, my name is David of
9:53
Speaker 3: Hagen Family Cider. Like total innate salesman. He is all
9:58
Speaker 3: about it. So, like I said, he just turned eleven
10:01
Speaker 3: and he's.
10:03
Speaker 2: Probably one of my biggest helpers here.
10:04
Speaker 3: He'll come and you know, restock corps for us, or
10:08
Speaker 3: you know, grab labels for somebody who's labeling. He likes
10:12
Speaker 3: to push the pallettejack around. So he really wants to
10:14
Speaker 3: work here. He really wants to earn money and he
10:16
Speaker 3: likes being here. So we'll get him to do go
10:19
Speaker 3: for work for the cider makers while they're bottling or whatever.
10:24
Speaker 3: My other two I have an eight year old daughter.
10:26
Speaker 3: She's not as interested in that kind of work. I'll
10:29
Speaker 3: put I'll have our short papers, and then my four
10:32
Speaker 3: year old he just loves to sit on the pallettes
10:35
Speaker 3: while we're moving them and then watch his iPad. So
10:38
Speaker 3: he's not quite there yet, but yeah, I love that.
10:43
Speaker 1: I mean it does sound like they are definitely going
10:45
Speaker 1: to I mean, especially your oldest is going to start
10:47
Speaker 1: taking over before maybe even eighteen, who knows.
10:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a really good salesman. He has no problems
10:53
Speaker 3: striking up conversations with strangers. So we'll see if he
10:57
Speaker 3: can increase ourselves.
10:59
Speaker 1: There we go. Well, let's go all the way back
11:03
Speaker 1: in time. What is your earliest memory of alcohol?
11:06
Speaker 3: Oh?
11:06
Speaker 2: Me, personally? Okay, I have a couple.
11:11
Speaker 3: I mean, wine was featured prominently, you know, at dinner
11:14
Speaker 3: tables on Friday nights, you know that kind of thing.
11:17
Speaker 2: But my father likes scotch, a single moult scotch, and
11:25
Speaker 2: he's a unique person.
11:27
Speaker 3: He never yelled at me if I wanted a drink
11:30
Speaker 3: or like if I wanted to try wine or something
11:31
Speaker 3: on the table. So you know, he would have a
11:33
Speaker 3: glass of scotch and I would walk over and like
11:36
Speaker 3: pick it up and stare at him like you're gonna
11:39
Speaker 3: say no to me, And he never would do that.
11:42
Speaker 2: So he would look at me and he'd say okay.
11:44
Speaker 4: Go ahead, and I would like slowly lift that little
11:47
Speaker 4: rocks glass up to my mouth like stop me please,
11:51
Speaker 4: and he's like no, no, go ahead, go And you
11:53
Speaker 4: know I'd get to the point where I would smell it.
11:55
Speaker 3: I'm like, eh, it's too spicy, and like put it down.
11:58
Speaker 3: So that's like one of my earliest memories.
12:00
Speaker 2: Of alcohol and oh I had, but I had.
12:06
Speaker 3: I had my braces put on when I was like
12:09
Speaker 3: twelve or something, thirteen and we went it was the
12:12
Speaker 3: same day, like we had to go to a cousin's
12:14
Speaker 3: like bot mitzvah or something.
12:16
Speaker 2: So we were there all day.
12:17
Speaker 3: My mouth was like killing me from having braces put on,
12:20
Speaker 3: and I was complaining non stop. And so my dad
12:26
Speaker 3: was like, do you see those little glasses over this
12:28
Speaker 3: little plastic cups?
12:29
Speaker 2: Go get one.
12:29
Speaker 3: I was like, okay. So I brought it back and
12:31
Speaker 3: he goes, now drink it. And I was like what,
12:34
Speaker 3: He's like, just drink it. And I did and it
12:36
Speaker 3: was shops.
12:38
Speaker 1: Oh I, why did you make me do this?
12:41
Speaker 3: He's like, now you're not thinking about your teeth. I
12:43
Speaker 3: was like, okay, thank you very much. That was may
12:46
Speaker 3: be smart, I don't know, but so I have these.
12:49
Speaker 3: You know, it was always a part of you know,
12:51
Speaker 3: our world.
12:52
Speaker 2: It was never taboo.
12:53
Speaker 3: It was never like I need to sneak it or
12:56
Speaker 3: you know, sneak his vodka and refill his bottle with water.
13:00
Speaker 3: Whatever it was. It was always available, and it made
13:03
Speaker 3: it not a mystery for me and made it, not like,
13:08
Speaker 3: oh I have to I'm so excited to just drink
13:10
Speaker 3: until I black out. So I think that really worked
13:13
Speaker 3: in my life to make it an accessible, normal part
13:17
Speaker 3: of life that is done in moderation and you know whatever.
13:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think. I mean I don't have kids, but
13:23
Speaker 1: I feel like that that is more the way to
13:26
Speaker 1: go about it is because when you're not hiding anything
13:29
Speaker 1: from them, and when you're not hiding stuff from people,
13:32
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be like, oh, what is this? I
13:33
Speaker 1: have to try it, Like you said, I right, drinking
13:36
Speaker 1: this until I don't you know, I'm not conscious anymore.
13:39
Speaker 3: Right, Like I have those memories of childhood and like
13:42
Speaker 3: it was just like a thing and my other friends
13:44
Speaker 3: would be like deal this and try and I'm like why,
13:48
Speaker 3: Like if I asked my dad, he would probably give
13:50
Speaker 3: it to me, Like why do I have to sneak around?
13:52
Speaker 3: So it never was a thing for me to like
13:56
Speaker 3: sneak around and do that because I didn't have to.
13:59
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I'm I think. I mean I have friends
14:02
Speaker 1: now that we go hang in to breweries with their kids,
14:04
Speaker 1: we hang out at taprooms with their kids, like and
14:06
Speaker 1: they think that's just like the place that they get
14:09
Speaker 1: to go hang out and it's like, well yeah, but
14:10
Speaker 1: then we also get to drink our Adulle beverages, so
14:13
Speaker 1: it works up.
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, And my kids are around it all the time
14:16
Speaker 3: and from a young age, and they just it's not
14:19
Speaker 3: like drinking is reality. Like I don't want to make
14:21
Speaker 3: it sound like it's no big deal, but it's definitely
14:27
Speaker 3: like not a scary or mysterious or a I got
14:31
Speaker 3: to try this as soon as I can kind of thing.
14:34
Speaker 3: My kids, we sort of invented this non alcoholic version
14:39
Speaker 3: of our cider, playing around with some stuff for the
14:42
Speaker 3: kids and for some wholesale accounts, and now my kids
14:46
Speaker 3: are like obsessed.
14:47
Speaker 2: It really does. It's in a seven to.
14:48
Speaker 3: Fifty militer champagne bottle with a corking cage. It looks
14:51
Speaker 3: just like regular cider, but it's not alcoholic. And so
14:55
Speaker 3: my kids like beg for it all the time now,
14:57
Speaker 3: and they'll have it when their friends are over and
15:00
Speaker 3: they pour it in wine glasses and like, oh, I'm
15:02
Speaker 3: drinking my side and they just love that. So it's
15:06
Speaker 3: like a feeling of being a grown up without having
15:09
Speaker 3: to sneak around. Right.
15:13
Speaker 1: Well, So, I mean, so you talked about how your
15:16
Speaker 1: husband's brain is kind of all over the place and
15:17
Speaker 1: you guys are it's always workings, it doesn't shut off.
15:21
Speaker 1: So I did read that you guys started making your
15:23
Speaker 1: own sider on Halloween and twenty thirteen, after making half
15:28
Speaker 1: sour pickles, mozzarella and other things. What ended up? Like
15:33
Speaker 1: how did y'all get on the sider train? Because I know,
15:36
Speaker 1: especially back in twenty thirteen, I mean even now, I
15:39
Speaker 1: don't think it's as popular as I think it should be,
15:41
Speaker 1: but especially back in twenty thirteen, it was definitely one
15:45
Speaker 1: of those things where the good sideer is nothing against
15:48
Speaker 1: any your orchard or anybody else out or whatever. But
15:51
Speaker 1: the stuff that you get over in Europe, since it's
15:54
Speaker 1: not the American palette, is not that sweet sugary stuff
15:57
Speaker 1: that you were talking about earlier, And so like, how
16:01
Speaker 1: did y'all kind of come across it, because I know,
16:03
Speaker 1: again it wasn't something that was on a lot of
16:04
Speaker 1: people's radar.
16:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's a couple layers to what you're
16:08
Speaker 3: talking about. As first is sort of this cider revolution.
16:11
Speaker 2: Cider was the.
16:12
Speaker 3: American drink, like I mean, it's been a drink in
16:15
Speaker 3: every country, but like Americans drink tons of cider pre prohibition.
16:19
Speaker 3: It's what we did, it's how we moved west. It
16:23
Speaker 3: was part of the Westford expansion. By planting apple trees
16:27
Speaker 3: in undeveloped territories out west, we were able to filter
16:33
Speaker 3: water that was unsafe to drink and create something that
16:36
Speaker 3: we could drink.
16:37
Speaker 2: Right, So you plant.
16:38
Speaker 3: Apples, the water goes up through the tree and through
16:41
Speaker 3: the apple. You take the apple, you press it. Now
16:44
Speaker 3: you have something you can drink that's safe. Well, it
16:46
Speaker 3: doesn't last very long because things will start to ferment naturally,
16:49
Speaker 3: so it'll lightly ferment and that keeps it longer. And
16:53
Speaker 3: there was a thing called ciderkin, which is a really
16:55
Speaker 3: really low ABV version of cider that they used to
16:59
Speaker 3: give to kids because again it was safe to drink.
17:01
Speaker 3: You're not, you know, dipping your cup into a stream
17:04
Speaker 3: that a bunch of oxen.
17:05
Speaker 2: Are pooping in or whatever. So you have a safe
17:08
Speaker 2: source of something to drink.
17:10
Speaker 3: So Americans were huge cider people pre prohibition.
17:14
Speaker 2: Germany, Spain, France, England.
17:17
Speaker 3: They all have cider traditions and anywhere really I guess
17:21
Speaker 3: where apples grow, but they all have you know, thousand
17:24
Speaker 3: I don't know how many year old cider traditions that
17:28
Speaker 3: were uninterrupted, so they all make cider in a certain
17:32
Speaker 3: way that has been happening for generations. In America, we did,
17:36
Speaker 3: and then prohibition happened and it sort of broke up
17:40
Speaker 3: our tradition of cider, and we've been rediscovering that really,
17:45
Speaker 3: I would say, really intently, and this is my opinion.
17:47
Speaker 2: I'm not stating it.
17:48
Speaker 3: For historical fact, but really since the nineties. So so
17:53
Speaker 3: that's when like woodchuck and Angry Orchard and things like
17:56
Speaker 3: that started to come on the market and people started
17:59
Speaker 3: put attention towards cider. There are very well known folks
18:04
Speaker 3: in the industry that had orchards and started making their
18:07
Speaker 3: own sort of craft cider at that time. And if
18:09
Speaker 3: you think, probably lines up pretty well with the craft
18:11
Speaker 3: beer expansion and growth and things that were happening, But
18:14
Speaker 3: we were always much smaller as an industry, so there's
18:18
Speaker 3: a sort of rediscovery of apples and cider.
18:21
Speaker 2: At that time. For us personally, we had.
18:25
Speaker 3: Just gotten married and we had a couple that we
18:29
Speaker 3: were friends with who were also you know, sort of newlyweds.
18:33
Speaker 3: I think they've been married for a couple of years
18:35
Speaker 3: and they this is my version of the story.
18:37
Speaker 2: I have to say my.
18:38
Speaker 3: Husband has his own, but this is my version of
18:40
Speaker 3: the story.
18:41
Speaker 2: And might I say the accurate one.
18:45
Speaker 3: They just got into cider because they went paleo, so
18:47
Speaker 3: they were like, oh, we're not drinking beer anymore. We're
18:50
Speaker 3: only drinking cider. And we used to hang out with
18:52
Speaker 3: them a lot, and in particular go.
18:54
Speaker 2: To see movies at Red Rock.
18:56
Speaker 3: So if you've ever been to Denver, probably even not
18:59
Speaker 3: if you're a big concert person, you know, Red Rocks
19:01
Speaker 3: is a huge venue and it's amazing.
19:04
Speaker 1: I have still not been there, but it's definitely on
19:06
Speaker 1: my list of venues anydiccy, Yes.
19:08
Speaker 2: You have to. It's amazing.
19:10
Speaker 3: And in the summer they have these amazing movies at
19:12
Speaker 3: Red Rocks. So you go and you this is the
19:17
Speaker 3: this is the Denver people.
19:18
Speaker 2: This is what we do.
19:19
Speaker 3: So we go into the tailgate at at our vehicle, eat, drink,
19:23
Speaker 3: do all this stuff, and as it starts to get
19:25
Speaker 3: sunned down, you go into Red Rocks and then there's
19:29
Speaker 3: like some music and then they show a movie and
19:32
Speaker 3: it's amazing and it's like all classic movies and interesting
19:34
Speaker 3: stuff and anyway. So we used to do this like
19:37
Speaker 3: very often with this other couple, and so they started
19:40
Speaker 3: bringing cider with them to these like tailgates and they're like, Oh,
19:44
Speaker 3: you have to try it. This one's local, or we
19:46
Speaker 3: just found this when you have to try this cider.
19:48
Speaker 3: So we started drinking it a lot with these people
19:51
Speaker 3: and enjoying it. And when we went to liquor stores,
19:53
Speaker 3: we would be like, Oh, what sider do they have?
19:56
Speaker 3: And again, just kind of the way my husband's brain
19:58
Speaker 3: works is like, Okay, we tried that time, let's try
20:01
Speaker 3: the next one. Okay, we tried that one. What's what's
20:04
Speaker 3: the next tier in this industry? You know? And we
20:08
Speaker 3: would try everything that was locally available to us, which
20:11
Speaker 3: wasn't a ton at the time. So this is twenty thirteen,
20:16
Speaker 3: and one day he kind of looks at me and
20:19
Speaker 3: he's like, Hey, I think I could bake this. And
20:22
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, Like that's like not a thought
20:26
Speaker 3: that would have occurred to me naturally, but that's what
20:28
Speaker 3: occurred to him. And so I was like, all right,
20:31
Speaker 3: then let's try. And that's when we put up our
20:34
Speaker 3: first batch of cider and.
20:36
Speaker 2: It was really really bad.
20:39
Speaker 3: So I was like, cool, you tried it, we were
20:43
Speaker 3: done right, and he's like, no, I want to make
20:45
Speaker 3: this better. And so that's where that sort of synth is.
20:47
Speaker 3: This of this whole thing happened. But it wasn't initially
20:52
Speaker 3: for a love of apples or we were obsessed with cider.
20:54
Speaker 3: It was just it had been introduced for a world
20:56
Speaker 3: and it was different. We really came from a love
20:59
Speaker 3: of sparkle and wine, champagne and sparkling like California sparkling
21:05
Speaker 3: wines and things like that.
21:06
Speaker 2: That's what we drink. We are members of a sparkling
21:09
Speaker 2: wine club.
21:10
Speaker 3: We really enjoy bubbles in general, but sparkling wine specifically.
21:14
Speaker 2: That's always what we would reach for.
21:17
Speaker 3: So when we knew we found out that it was
21:20
Speaker 3: more than a maybe a canned product, which is what's
21:23
Speaker 3: often served to you in ads or at a restaurant
21:26
Speaker 3: or whatever, or kegged product, that it could be something
21:31
Speaker 3: top shelf, we got really excited about it. So, like
21:34
Speaker 3: I said, our first batches, we're not that great about
21:39
Speaker 3: I want to say, a year in or so, my
21:43
Speaker 3: husband realized that the output would never be better than
21:45
Speaker 3: the input. So if we were buying pasteurized juice from
21:49
Speaker 3: a grocery store. Our sider would be as good as
21:52
Speaker 3: pasteurized juice from a grocery store. So grinder and press
21:57
Speaker 3: showed up in my townhouse garage, and we started buying
22:01
Speaker 3: apples at a farmer's market and making relationships with farmers
22:04
Speaker 3: locally who grew apples, and then we would press our
22:08
Speaker 3: own fruit. And that's when our sider really took an
22:10
Speaker 3: incredible step up in quality, like just as hobbyists, and
22:14
Speaker 3: we were getting inside it to barbecues.
22:16
Speaker 2: And people wanted you to show up with your own hoops,
22:18
Speaker 2: you know.
22:20
Speaker 3: So it just really changed everything at that point for us,
22:23
Speaker 3: and we really enjoyed what we were making. That was
22:26
Speaker 3: always the goal was just to make something that we
22:28
Speaker 3: enjoyed drinking.
22:30
Speaker 1: So once you had a press and grinder come to
22:32
Speaker 1: your house, at that point, obviously the level of hobbyists
22:36
Speaker 1: goes through the roof. And at what point were you like, Okay,
22:40
Speaker 1: let's just make a business out of this, because, like
22:42
Speaker 1: you said, you're starting to get invited to barbecues, You're
22:46
Speaker 1: more friends wanted to try your cider. At this point
22:49
Speaker 1: you were probably like, well, I mean, if these people
22:52
Speaker 1: like it, maybe we can have more people like it.
22:55
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. We never ever thought that. We never wanted
22:58
Speaker 3: to do it. We never thought let's make a business.
23:01
Speaker 3: We were very happy with it as like an amateur hobby,
23:06
Speaker 3: like let's do this in our garage. My husband's a
23:08
Speaker 3: financial advisor. He owns his own business with his father.
23:12
Speaker 3: They manage people's retirement funds and manage money. My background
23:17
Speaker 3: is in marketing. I was the chief marketing officer for
23:20
Speaker 3: a large nonprofit here in Denver. We had a newborn
23:24
Speaker 3: and we were just enjoying doing something like this and
23:30
Speaker 3: drinking it. Then, you know, in read the research of
23:34
Speaker 3: what we were doing, we found out about a few
23:37
Speaker 3: amateur cider competitions and some of my husband's friends encouraged
23:42
Speaker 3: him to enter them, and I said, you know, that's
23:45
Speaker 3: probably a good idea.
23:46
Speaker 2: Let's see how it stacks up. You know what, what
23:48
Speaker 2: do people think about it?
23:49
Speaker 3: They're blind competition, so they're just being entered in and tasted.
23:53
Speaker 3: We did not expect much. We just wanted the feedback
23:57
Speaker 3: and we won. We won all the competitions we entered.
24:01
Speaker 3: One of them was Franklin County Cider Days, which is
24:04
Speaker 3: it used to be a really lovely large competition and
24:08
Speaker 3: cider like festival in Franklin County, Massachusetts. In the fall,
24:13
Speaker 3: it kind of COVID kind of shrank it and closed
24:16
Speaker 3: it down. I think they're finally coming back last.
24:19
Speaker 2: Year and this year.
24:20
Speaker 3: But it was kind of one of the most preeminent
24:24
Speaker 3: amateur cider competitions in the country. And my husband won
24:27
Speaker 3: or we won best Cider so in the competition, so
24:32
Speaker 3: that was really special. And then we entered glink Cap,
24:35
Speaker 3: which is the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition,
24:38
Speaker 3: which is the largest sider competition in the United States
24:42
Speaker 3: actually I think at this point in the world, but
24:46
Speaker 3: it's very it holds a lot of weight in the industry.
24:49
Speaker 3: So we submitted to that and won a best in class.
24:52
Speaker 3: So we're like, okay, we have something. It's more than
24:55
Speaker 3: just what your wife and your mom like. It's like
24:57
Speaker 3: actually a thing that's But we never wanted to start
25:02
Speaker 3: this business. We just thought we would keep making what
25:05
Speaker 3: we liked drinking. But like I said, my husband is
25:08
Speaker 3: an advisor and two of his largest clients approached us
25:12
Speaker 3: and said, we think what you're doing is really special
25:14
Speaker 3: and we think you should start a business, to which
25:17
Speaker 3: we said, no.
25:17
Speaker 2: No, we're not going to do that. We have a
25:20
Speaker 2: small child, we'd like to have more. This is crazy.
25:24
Speaker 3: And they said, we really think you should think about
25:26
Speaker 3: it and let us know, and we did, and we said, like,
25:30
Speaker 3: this is nuts.
25:31
Speaker 2: We have too much going on already. Why are we
25:33
Speaker 2: going to start a business.
25:34
Speaker 3: But this is kind of the dream, like when you
25:37
Speaker 3: retire you sell your business and you buy a vineyard
25:41
Speaker 3: and you make wine. You know, like that's kind of
25:43
Speaker 3: a cool thing. So we were like, well, let's let's
25:49
Speaker 3: try it. Let's just see what we can do. And
25:51
Speaker 3: so we took them up on the offer, and it
25:54
Speaker 3: was about it was twenty seventeen, we want a best
25:57
Speaker 3: in classic link cap and signed the paperwork to send
26:01
Speaker 3: to the federal government to get our license as a
26:03
Speaker 3: sidary like within the same week, and started the process
26:07
Speaker 3: of finding a location and moving on this.
26:11
Speaker 1: Wow, what was so? How was it finding a place
26:15
Speaker 1: to actually to make this a because obviously you have
26:18
Speaker 1: to find a place that either already has the right
26:22
Speaker 1: bones in everything that you need to do everything, or
26:25
Speaker 1: you have to obviously re furnish everything. How did the
26:28
Speaker 1: whole process of actually finding a place work?
26:31
Speaker 2: It was awful?
26:32
Speaker 3: Specifically because twenty sixteen twenty seventeen. In in Denver is
26:39
Speaker 3: a real boom of pot and marijuana businesses, and so
26:45
Speaker 3: we had to be zoned as a mixed use industrial
26:50
Speaker 3: like that kind of a zoning, which is the same zoning.
26:52
Speaker 2: That they have.
26:53
Speaker 3: So everywhere we went to find a spot, we were
26:56
Speaker 3: like outbid by pot. Like they'd come in offer double
27:00
Speaker 3: and take the space, and we're like crap, like we
27:04
Speaker 3: can't afford that, like what the hell? And we started
27:09
Speaker 3: to look outside of Denver proper because of that, and
27:11
Speaker 3: it was difficult to navigate permitting and stuff in Denver.
27:16
Speaker 3: So we found Aurora, which is like the neighboring city
27:20
Speaker 3: to Denver, Like literally I could see Denver's city line
27:24
Speaker 3: from our building where a stone throw away. But we
27:28
Speaker 3: are just over the line in a different in a
27:30
Speaker 3: different city, so permitting was a little easier. The city
27:35
Speaker 3: of our war was very interested in bringing our business.
27:38
Speaker 2: To the city.
27:38
Speaker 3: They sat us down with all the relevant people in
27:42
Speaker 3: one room to help us out. We found a space.
27:47
Speaker 3: It's an industrial park. It's an industrial condo, so it's
27:51
Speaker 3: not in the middle of everything where you're going to
27:53
Speaker 3: go out to dinner and then come over to us
27:54
Speaker 3: and have a drink, but it was the right price
27:57
Speaker 3: and it was actually bare bone, so it's just a
28:00
Speaker 3: concrete box. Basically, we could we build things out. We
28:03
Speaker 3: put in a trap drain, we you know, we did
28:05
Speaker 3: the things we needed to do fairly easily. We didn't
28:07
Speaker 3: have to take anyone else's construction down and so it
28:13
Speaker 3: was a long, long process and an expensive process, but
28:17
Speaker 3: we were able to find a good spot that has
28:20
Speaker 3: served our needs.
28:22
Speaker 2: We had hoped to.
28:23
Speaker 3: Launch in the fall of twenty seventeen, but you know,
28:27
Speaker 3: construction delays and all of that pushed us to launch
28:30
Speaker 3: February first, twenty eighteen, which was really fun timing because
28:35
Speaker 3: I gave birth to our daughter on February seventh, twenty eighteen.
28:41
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting opening weekend for me.
28:45
Speaker 2: So it was you know a lot of delays.
28:47
Speaker 3: And that's what I tell everybody when they're asking about
28:50
Speaker 3: construction and opening a business, is like, whatever they tell you,
28:54
Speaker 3: however long it's going to take, like double it, triple it,
28:56
Speaker 3: because it's going to take longer.
29:00
Speaker 2: To Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
29:03
Speaker 3: And so we're not in the middle of you know,
29:07
Speaker 3: downtown Denver where everyone's walking around.
29:10
Speaker 2: We are definitely a destination. But it's great.
29:13
Speaker 3: It's been a wonderful little spot for us, and we
29:15
Speaker 3: have our regulars and people who love that we're in
29:17
Speaker 3: their neighborhood and we love being that for people.
29:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have heard that Aurora is really becoming more
29:25
Speaker 1: of a bigger city, maybe because Denver is so big
29:29
Speaker 1: now that people are moving outside of it, or like
29:31
Speaker 1: you said, it was too hard to get into Denver.
29:34
Speaker 1: But again, this has been in the past two or
29:36
Speaker 1: three years that I've really kind of heard this about Aurora,
29:38
Speaker 1: which I think is fantastic because there's so much stuff
29:41
Speaker 1: in that area and it's just so beautiful. I've been there,
29:44
Speaker 1: I think a couple of times, but not in a while.
29:46
Speaker 1: I need to go back up there for sure.
29:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think COVID really added to that too.
29:52
Speaker 3: People you know, you weren't going out, and then when
29:54
Speaker 3: you did go out, you know, there were sort of
29:57
Speaker 3: these neighborhoods that were created ter or it's town centers
30:01
Speaker 3: or city centers. So if you live in Aurora, you're
30:04
Speaker 3: like going to a space that's close by your house.
30:07
Speaker 3: In Aurora, there's like downtown Eravada, and like that's really
30:11
Speaker 3: become a big spot.
30:12
Speaker 2: And like Aurora happens to be a very very large.
30:15
Speaker 3: City, Like we're really really big, and so there are
30:18
Speaker 3: multiple kind of centers within that. We are five minutes
30:22
Speaker 3: away from the Stanley Marketplace, which is a little i
30:28
Speaker 3: don't know, mixed use building and they have like restaurants
30:30
Speaker 3: and shops and all of that, you know where it's
30:32
Speaker 3: like a market and you can pick up food from
30:35
Speaker 3: any one of the different places.
30:36
Speaker 2: It's a really cute little spot. And there's a.
30:38
Speaker 3: James Beard Award winning restaurant in that and that that
30:42
Speaker 3: little thing, and they're really lovely people.
30:45
Speaker 2: It's called a net. They're really lovely.
30:47
Speaker 3: The chef is a lovely woman and the whole team
30:50
Speaker 3: are incredible and we work with them. But like I
30:53
Speaker 3: look at them here in Aurora, and we're here in Aurora.
30:56
Speaker 3: There's an incredible beer community here in Aurora as well,
30:59
Speaker 3: and the City of Aurora has done a lot for
31:03
Speaker 3: the people and.
31:03
Speaker 2: The businesses within this community.
31:07
Speaker 3: The library used to run this passport program to all
31:11
Speaker 3: the breweries and us. There's also a metory in town too,
31:14
Speaker 3: so the Medory US and the all the breweries. They
31:16
Speaker 3: would do this passport program where you get your stamps
31:20
Speaker 3: and everything, and I just I was like, this is
31:21
Speaker 3: so brilliant because you're getting people in the library to
31:24
Speaker 3: pick up the passport to redeem the passport, Like that's
31:28
Speaker 3: so cool, and then they're helping all of these businesses too.
31:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:32
Speaker 1: I just looked it up. The population is like four
31:34
Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen thousand, which I did not expect. I thought,
31:38
Speaker 1: you know, maybe half that, but like it's huge. Yeah.
31:41
Speaker 1: I mean I am just on the other side. I
31:44
Speaker 1: grew up in Arlington, Texas, and right now we are
31:46
Speaker 1: just over four hundred thousand ourselves. So it's absolutely crazy
31:49
Speaker 1: to see like the size of these cities grow like this.
31:52
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and the like literal land mass of Aurora.
31:55
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm not looking it up right now,
31:58
Speaker 3: but like it's we are at the northern edge of
32:01
Speaker 3: Aurora and the southern edge of Aura is probably like
32:03
Speaker 3: thirty to forty five minutes away, Like it's a really
32:06
Speaker 3: far drive. Like we had people too, coming from the
32:09
Speaker 3: ops of the southernmost part of Aurora if you were
32:11
Speaker 3: on side the opening day, because they were super psyched
32:15
Speaker 3: that something like this was going to be in their town.
32:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's one hundred and fifty four square miles,
32:21
Speaker 1: which is the third largest in Colorado, just behind Denver
32:24
Speaker 1: and Colorado Springs. So yes, Aura is much bigger than
32:28
Speaker 1: people imagine.
32:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
32:31
Speaker 1: Oh it's also i'm looking here. According to Wikipedia, which
32:34
Speaker 1: of course has to feature it's the fiftieth most popular
32:37
Speaker 1: populous city in America.
32:39
Speaker 2: Oh amazing, look at this, all these cool facts about Aurora.
32:42
Speaker 1: We're all learning so much today.
32:44
Speaker 2: I know, I love that.
32:46
Speaker 1: Well, so I saw that you, I mean you kind
32:49
Speaker 1: of touched on earlier about how obviously so many people
32:52
Speaker 1: are used to cider in cans, but y'all do it
32:54
Speaker 1: in bottles because your love for wine in general. But
32:59
Speaker 1: then also, just like you said, it makes it look
33:01
Speaker 1: classier and a little better, and it kind of really
33:04
Speaker 1: draws people's eyes to it because I imagine they come in
33:06
Speaker 1: thinking there's just gonna be cans everywhere, but then they
33:08
Speaker 1: see these beautiful bottles. Where do where do y'all kind
33:12
Speaker 1: of get the bottles from? And then where does the
33:14
Speaker 1: artwork kind of come from?
33:17
Speaker 3: We try and source our bottles from France as much
33:19
Speaker 3: as possible. The quality is very very good. We have
33:22
Speaker 3: sourced from other places over the course of our time
33:27
Speaker 3: making cider, you know, with supply supply chain limitations and
33:31
Speaker 3: all of that, and honestly, the best quality we've gotten
33:34
Speaker 3: our bottles from France. Interestingly, I mean, glass isn't as
33:38
Speaker 3: smooth as you would think it is, if that makes sense.
33:41
Speaker 3: And inside there's like some rough spots and when you
33:43
Speaker 3: have a sparkling product, those are all nucleation points that
33:46
Speaker 3: create bubbles. So it's actually a real issue when we're
33:52
Speaker 3: disgorging when we have those secondary fermentation in bottle batches
33:56
Speaker 3: and we're trying to get the yeast out of the
33:57
Speaker 3: neck at the end to make a clearer if it
34:01
Speaker 3: gets stuck on the roughness of the neck, it makes
34:04
Speaker 3: it harder to do that.
34:05
Speaker 2: So we try and source a lot of our bottles
34:08
Speaker 2: from France. And then.
34:11
Speaker 3: The art is a very wonderful designer that we worked
34:15
Speaker 3: with early on, I mean really from the beginning of
34:17
Speaker 3: our company. We met him at Cider Stuff. He's a
34:20
Speaker 3: great graphic designer. His name is Eric Lewandowski. You should
34:24
Speaker 3: check him out. He's got a company called Heirloom Apple,
34:28
Speaker 3: so he does all of these apple illustrations himself.
34:31
Speaker 2: He's an incredible photographer as well.
34:33
Speaker 3: And he helped us when we were like like staring
34:39
Speaker 3: at all this stuff going, I don't know what to
34:41
Speaker 3: do or how to make this work cohesively, and he
34:45
Speaker 3: brought it all together. He designed our logo, he designed
34:48
Speaker 3: our labels. But we make forty plus different single varietals
34:53
Speaker 3: of cider every single year, so obviously with all of
34:57
Speaker 3: those labels, it doesn't make sense to paybody to make
35:00
Speaker 3: each one. So he created a template for me, and
35:03
Speaker 3: I make all the labels for every batch. So he developed,
35:06
Speaker 3: he designed it and developed the outside like the frame
35:09
Speaker 3: of it, and then I make it for each batch.
35:12
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Now I always curious with who how are
35:15
Speaker 1: people doing their artwork and stuff?
35:17
Speaker 3: I mean the challenges. So I'm a marketing person. I
35:20
Speaker 3: come from a marketing background and I do some graphic design,
35:24
Speaker 3: which is kind of how I'm able to do the labels.
35:27
Speaker 3: But I joke the shoemaker's kids have no shoes, Like,
35:30
Speaker 3: It's very hard for me to do my own marketing
35:32
Speaker 3: and design because I'm too involved, I'm too close to it.
35:36
Speaker 3: So having somebody on the outside looking in is very helpful.
35:40
Speaker 1: But I love that our.
35:43
Speaker 3: Promo bottles and I'm sorry sorry. Our promo bottles and
35:46
Speaker 3: ice and ice cider bottles and our brandy bottles. We
35:49
Speaker 3: custom designed those ourselves with his help, so they're really beautiful.
35:55
Speaker 3: We're excited to launch the Brandy the O to V bottles.
35:59
Speaker 3: I'm staring at one right now. It's this beautiful floral design,
36:02
Speaker 3: apple tree design that we created, and the smaller like
36:05
Speaker 3: brandy bottles are also like a custom design that we made.
36:08
Speaker 3: So that was a really fun and unique process for us.
36:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I can't wait for these to come out.
36:13
Speaker 1: I'm definitely have to go up and try myself.
36:16
Speaker 2: Come check it out.
36:17
Speaker 1: I will well. So I have a segment of the show.
36:19
Speaker 1: I call it the five Counts, just five random questions.
36:22
Speaker 2: Awesome.
36:23
Speaker 1: If you were on America's Got Talent, what would your
36:25
Speaker 1: talent be?
36:27
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a tough one. I you know what, Actually
36:29
Speaker 3: it's not a tough one. So I have an undergraduate
36:31
Speaker 3: degree in theater and dance, So I would go ahead
36:35
Speaker 3: and say I probably do a monologue or something like that, duff,
36:39
Speaker 3: something out from from ages ago.
36:41
Speaker 1: But yeah, there we go. If you were a progresser
36:45
Speaker 1: or MMA fighter, what would your name be?
36:49
Speaker 3: That's a good question, probably something to do with cider
36:52
Speaker 3: and apples.
36:54
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
36:55
Speaker 3: What would my Okay, I'm gonna ask your listeners, leave
36:58
Speaker 3: a comment, tell me what my name should be.
37:00
Speaker 1: There we go. I love that number three. Who was
37:03
Speaker 1: last person you fangrow that on?
37:07
Speaker 2: Oh? Last person? Okay, yeah, I can tell you exactly.
37:10
Speaker 2: And it's so obscure.
37:13
Speaker 3: So we my husband Dan and I did a trip
37:16
Speaker 3: to France in October. We are actually sourcing some apples
37:20
Speaker 3: from France. We have a friend who grows apples in
37:23
Speaker 3: Normandy and we went to visit his chateau and orchard
37:27
Speaker 3: in October for the first time, which was really just beautiful.
37:30
Speaker 3: It's a seventeenth seventeen hundred's building, Like it's gorgeous, really
37:37
Speaker 3: really cool. If you're ever traveling to France, you should
37:39
Speaker 3: stop by Chateau La Ramatier. But anyway, so we were
37:43
Speaker 3: there and we were obviously going to tour around and
37:46
Speaker 3: chat with other Colvido's producers and cider producers in the area,
37:50
Speaker 3: and by sheer will and my own stubbornness, I managed
37:55
Speaker 3: to get us a conversation with Druine, which is one
38:01
Speaker 3: of the producers his son, and I'm totally blanking on
38:03
Speaker 3: his first name, Dreuine, I want to say. We chatted
38:09
Speaker 3: with him, and then we went to DuPont, which is
38:13
Speaker 3: another famous cider and collvidos producer, and had about three
38:17
Speaker 3: hours with Etien DuPont, who is the patriarch of the family,
38:22
Speaker 3: and got to just chat with him about how we
38:24
Speaker 3: make brandy and how he makes cider and just it
38:27
Speaker 3: was like the most incredible opportunity and we were just
38:30
Speaker 3: hanging out with them.
38:32
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, I love little stories like that where you
38:34
Speaker 1: you know, obviously don't expect it to happen, and then
38:36
Speaker 1: it's happening. You're like the time just passes by.
38:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, and like we're like, this
38:42
Speaker 3: is your like you do this all the time, Like
38:46
Speaker 3: why are you even like why would you even want
38:48
Speaker 3: to talk to us, Like you probably like walk around
38:50
Speaker 3: and be like, hey, this is what I do.
38:51
Speaker 2: Like cool, But he was so nice and he was
38:53
Speaker 2: like he.
38:54
Speaker 3: Asked us questions, et DuPont, and he asked us questions
38:58
Speaker 3: and he we talked talked about this and that, and
39:01
Speaker 3: like it was just a lovely opportunity and he's just
39:04
Speaker 3: a lovely person and I'm so happy we got that experience.
39:08
Speaker 1: I love that number four. Who are what inspires you?
39:14
Speaker 2: Oh? Very good question.
39:18
Speaker 3: Depends on the moment in the day I would say
39:21
Speaker 3: what my answer would be, but I think that a
39:23
Speaker 3: pretty safe, across the board answer would be my husband.
39:28
Speaker 3: He is incredibly focused and driven and knows exactly what
39:33
Speaker 3: he wants and exactly how things should be and how
39:37
Speaker 3: they should get there. And and you know, I kind
39:40
Speaker 3: of I come from a very artsy he obviously, I
39:43
Speaker 3: told you my background in theater and dance, kind of artsy,
39:46
Speaker 3: crazy background, and just he's so incredibly inspiring with his
39:52
Speaker 3: focus and drive to succeed and to make something exceptional
39:58
Speaker 3: that I like. I I didn't start making cider. This
40:01
Speaker 3: wasn't my thing, like when we were doing it in
40:04
Speaker 3: the living room, I say we, but it was him
40:06
Speaker 3: like he was experimenting, he was learning about this and that,
40:10
Speaker 3: and I was just along for the ride.
40:12
Speaker 2: I was I was having babies, I was.
40:14
Speaker 3: Working another job, Like I was like, this is cool,
40:17
Speaker 3: you know, but he's so inspiring and he makes everyone
40:21
Speaker 3: be so excited about apples that I just jumped on
40:26
Speaker 3: that train.
40:27
Speaker 2: And now I run this business. Now I make the cider.
40:31
Speaker 3: And so it was so infectious that here I am,
40:36
Speaker 3: and I I just this is maybe this would be
40:41
Speaker 3: the debut of this news, but I just passed my
40:43
Speaker 3: certified Pamalier exam.
40:46
Speaker 2: Thank you.
40:46
Speaker 3: I'm officially a certified Pamalier now, which is exciting.
40:50
Speaker 2: And like if you had told me fifteen years ago,
40:53
Speaker 2: twenty years ago that I would be.
40:55
Speaker 3: Making alcohol out of apples, I would be making exceptional
40:59
Speaker 3: beverages like this, I thought I would be a certified Pamalier.
41:03
Speaker 2: Like I wouldn't have believed you.
41:04
Speaker 3: But it's his inspiration and his drive and his obsession
41:09
Speaker 3: with excellence that really has gotten me to this place.
41:12
Speaker 1: So for those that don't know, explain to us what
41:14
Speaker 1: that is.
41:16
Speaker 3: It is a new certification that is administered by the
41:21
Speaker 3: American Sider Association. So you have Somalier for wine, you
41:26
Speaker 3: have Cicerone for beer, and Pamalier is the sider equivalent.
41:30
Speaker 2: So there is a first level that is very it
41:35
Speaker 2: is open to anyone. Anyone can I can take.
41:37
Speaker 3: That first level you It's an online test to become
41:41
Speaker 3: a certified sider professional, which is a great thing to
41:44
Speaker 3: do if you love cider, if you serve cider like
41:48
Speaker 3: any anywhere you fall in that world. It's a great
41:51
Speaker 3: thing to do. Then the next level of that is
41:54
Speaker 3: the certified Pamalier. So this is a much more intensive
41:58
Speaker 3: written test and sense free exam similar to the Somalier process,
42:05
Speaker 3: but a little bit different obviously. Yeah, it's an amazing
42:09
Speaker 3: program that the American Sider Association developed.
42:13
Speaker 1: That's huge. I figured that's what it was, but I
42:16
Speaker 1: was just making sure.
42:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
42:19
Speaker 1: And I mean I've heard the same thing happening with
42:21
Speaker 1: the water as well. People are like, you can be
42:24
Speaker 1: a smaller of water. I forget exactly what that it
42:27
Speaker 1: was called, but it's a thing and obviously, like we
42:30
Speaker 1: talked about, with the growing popularity of cider, then it
42:33
Speaker 1: just makes sense.
42:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
42:35
Speaker 3: Absolutely, a it's a really cool thing to be able
42:40
Speaker 3: to be a part of. And I don't know how
42:42
Speaker 3: many of us there are in the country, they have numbers.
42:45
Speaker 3: I think it's less than two hundred people that have
42:49
Speaker 3: this certification at this point.
42:50
Speaker 2: It's been around for a few years now.
42:52
Speaker 3: But it's a really cool thing and it's a really
42:55
Speaker 3: wonderful process of learning. You learn about orcharding, you learn
42:59
Speaker 3: about cider making, you learn about serving, you learn about pairing.
43:03
Speaker 3: So like, whereas maybe my focus is more on the
43:06
Speaker 3: cider making, I have to learn. I still have to
43:07
Speaker 3: learn about orcharding, and I still have to learn about,
43:09
Speaker 3: you know, storing keg temperatures and that kind of thing.
43:13
Speaker 1: But you're part of a LAK class. There's only like
43:15
Speaker 1: you said, lesson to an interview.
43:17
Speaker 3: I think, so I don't quote me on that one,
43:18
Speaker 3: but I believe that there's not that many of us.
43:21
Speaker 2: So so.
43:25
Speaker 1: Let's say, oh, and number five, what would you tell
43:27
Speaker 1: your seventeen year old self?
43:29
Speaker 3: Oh, okay, this is getting deep. What would I tell
43:35
Speaker 3: my seventeen year old self study hard? That theater degree
43:42
Speaker 3: is probably not as useful as you thought it was
43:44
Speaker 3: going to be. And you know, actually, in relation to
43:50
Speaker 3: what we were talking about, I probably would tell myself
43:52
Speaker 3: to get a job at a liquor store or with
43:57
Speaker 3: a distributor or with a winery to pursue see those
44:00
Speaker 3: kinds of uh learning learning areas. Because when we started
44:05
Speaker 3: this business, we like, I hate hates this. My most
44:10
Speaker 3: experienced bartending was like a TGI Fridays in college, So like,
44:13
Speaker 3: I didn't have that understanding about how fine beverages are
44:18
Speaker 3: sold or how people perceived them. I didn't have a
44:21
Speaker 3: lot of understanding about, you know, how cocktails work or
44:26
Speaker 3: what to drink. You know, it was like the Captain
44:29
Speaker 3: mortgage or whatever in college, or you know, crazy like
44:34
Speaker 3: this or that in a handle, And so I didn't
44:37
Speaker 3: have the experience.
44:38
Speaker 2: With fine beverages, and so that top shelf.
44:41
Speaker 3: And I probably would tell my younger self to go
44:44
Speaker 3: out and do those things and learn about those things
44:47
Speaker 3: because they'll come in handy later in your life.
44:51
Speaker 1: Well, that's something you can teach your kids now exactly. Now,
44:55
Speaker 1: I forgot about ask this earlier, but I always like
44:58
Speaker 1: to ask married couples when you know, obviously you're running
45:01
Speaker 1: a business together, you're obviously raising kids together, you're still
45:05
Speaker 1: obviously a very happy married couple. What is do you
45:09
Speaker 1: how have kind of like a safe word when it's
45:11
Speaker 1: like not time to talk about business and it's time
45:14
Speaker 1: to just be a family or just be a married couple.
45:17
Speaker 1: How are y'all still kind of working through that? How
45:19
Speaker 1: are y'all kind of grasping all that.
45:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good idea.
45:26
Speaker 3: I should didn't I should enact that in our in
45:28
Speaker 3: our relationship, because that does not exist and we talk
45:32
Speaker 3: about business from the moment we wake up to the
45:34
Speaker 3: moment we would have had. Sometimes it's so intertwined in
45:39
Speaker 3: our life that we probably need to take a.
45:43
Speaker 2: Break from it a little bit. Uh.
45:44
Speaker 3: There are many conversations as we're falling asleep that's like, wait,
45:47
Speaker 3: don't forget to do this, and it's like, ah, send
45:49
Speaker 3: me a text message, I'm half asleep.
45:53
Speaker 2: So uh we we do.
45:55
Speaker 3: We do need to take some time away from the
45:57
Speaker 3: cider conversation. And if any of your listeners out there are.
46:03
Speaker 2: Interested, I am.
46:04
Speaker 3: I would happily accept a vacation that is not SIDER related,
46:08
Speaker 3: because all all we do is when we travel, it's
46:12
Speaker 3: usually for a cider conference or a SIDER competition or
46:15
Speaker 3: some like. Even when we went to France, it was
46:17
Speaker 3: all about SIDER, which it was an amazing experience. Don't
46:19
Speaker 3: get me wrong. I wouldn't take it back. But like
46:21
Speaker 3: everything sort of revolves right now runs our business insiders.
46:24
Speaker 3: So I would love to sit on a beach and
46:27
Speaker 3: not think about apples for a minute. I want to
46:31
Speaker 3: hear something that I said to you earlier. There are
46:35
Speaker 3: there are under four hundred pamliers in the world globally,
46:39
Speaker 3: so I just wanted to make sure I got that correct.
46:41
Speaker 1: That is still an elite class like that is I mean, yeah,
46:44
Speaker 1: that's that's huge. So yeah, again, congratulations on that. That's
46:47
Speaker 1: something that not many people have done.
46:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
46:52
Speaker 1: Well, if people wanted to find out more about y'all,
46:53
Speaker 1: follow you guys online, obviously, buy your sider come to
46:57
Speaker 1: the sidary, support y'all in any way. How can they do?
46:59
Speaker 2: So? Yeah, the best ways to follow us on Instagram.
47:04
Speaker 3: So we're haking family cider h A y K I
47:07
Speaker 3: N Family Cider at on Instagram and on our website
47:10
Speaker 3: which is just hacinfamilysider dot com. And come by our
47:14
Speaker 3: tay Scene room if you're ever in Denver, stop by
47:16
Speaker 3: we are We are licensed as a winery. And that
47:19
Speaker 3: was actually something I wanted to bring up earlier, was
47:22
Speaker 3: that all sideries are licenses wineries because our process is similar.
47:26
Speaker 2: It is wine. We're not brewing anything.
47:29
Speaker 3: We never use heats, so you're you know, I could
47:32
Speaker 3: process grapes and make wine tomorrow, but today I'm.
47:35
Speaker 2: Processing apples and making cider. So we are all licensedes wineries.
47:38
Speaker 3: And the reason I bring that upright here is because
47:41
Speaker 3: we can ship online our sder to about forty states,
47:45
Speaker 3: so wine has a pretty good shipping situation, whereas I know,
47:49
Speaker 3: beer is not as good. But we can ship our
47:53
Speaker 3: side or do about forty seats. So if you want
47:54
Speaker 3: to try anything, you can check out our web store,
47:57
Speaker 3: which is on our website. You can follow us on
48:00
Speaker 3: the website or on Instagram. I do have We do
48:03
Speaker 3: have like Twitter and all that stuff, but really the
48:04
Speaker 3: one that we update the most is our Instagram.
48:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's easier, and I know, you know, back
48:10
Speaker 1: in the day before somebody owned it and change the name,
48:13
Speaker 1: you could just post it on both places, but not anymore. Well,
48:19
Speaker 1: I've loved this conversation and I can't wait to try
48:21
Speaker 1: y'all out for sure. And obviously, like I said, I
48:24
Speaker 1: haven't been in Aurora in a very long time, so I'm.
48:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, please do you come by.
48:30
Speaker 1: I love that. Thank you so much to tell you
48:43
Speaker 1: for being on the show again. Definitely make sure to
48:44
Speaker 1: get yourself some Hagen Family sider. Go visit them. Obviously,
48:48
Speaker 1: they're doing phenomenal things when it comes to cider, and
48:50
Speaker 1: they're doing different things as well, so definitely make sure
48:52
Speaker 1: to go follow them on social media see what they're doing.
48:54
Speaker 1: See what they're up to where you can go find them,
48:57
Speaker 1: and obviously make sure to go follow us on social media.
48:59
Speaker 1: It is bruises Pod. That is b R E W
49:01
Speaker 1: S E R S p O D on the Instagram,
49:04
Speaker 1: the threads and the Twitter. If you want to send
49:06
Speaker 1: us an email, it is Bruisespod at gmail dot com.
49:09
Speaker 1: If you're gonna follow me directly, it is Roady John.
49:11
Speaker 1: That is r O d I E j O N.
49:13
Speaker 1: Roddy John is the name on the Twitter and untapped
49:15
Speaker 1: o case you want to find out what I'm drinking,
49:17
Speaker 1: maybe we're gonna have a beer together. If you're gonn
49:18
Speaker 1: follow me only threads or the Instagram, it is of
49:20
Speaker 1: Fisher already John. So until next time, make sure to
49:23
Speaker 1: enjoy life, drink local cheers,