(jazz music) >>Well, I'm here today at Sage Bird Ciderworks in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with two of my favorite folks, Zach and Amber Lee Carlson, and they own and operate this amazing cidery.

Thanks so much for having us here.

>>Thanks for being here.

>>Thanks for having us.

>>Ah, I I was really excited to come here, 'cause I've been coming with my students for a while, and you have grown, you have done some amazing things, and I wanna hear all about it.

>>Yeah, so we opened in August of 2020.

Obviously weird time to open, but.. >>Yeah.

>>Yeah, here we are.

We've we've definitely grown, like you've said, and kind of been excited to to watch the community.

>>Yeah.

>>Really kind of accept us, and start to learn what we're about, and learn about kind of the cider that we're looking to make.

>>Yeah, so how is your cider different from others?

>>Most of our cider is dry.

>>Yeah.

>>So I think a lot of people's idea and understanding of cider's kind of a sweeter, apple-flavored alcoholic beverage.

And there's there's room for that, and a lot of people really enjoy that.

>>Yeah.

>>But, cider can be so much more, and there's, you know, the the idea of a drier wine is something that cider can very much fit in.

So, we have very little residual sugar in most of what we're doing.

>>Yeah.

>>And you're gonna get kind of that complexity, some of that astringency, and the different acid levels that you might find in different grape varieties.

>>Cool.

So while we talk about your cidery, let's taste some of your wonderful ciders.

What do you have here poured for us?

>>So what we have here is our Peaches For Me.

>>Okay.

>>This is cider that was aged in apple brandy barrels.

>>Okay.

>>From Laird's apples, Laird's Applejack, and then infused with peaches.

So it's again, not super sweet, we don't do much that's super sweet, unless that's an intentional choice.

But this has that vanilla, and that barrel, that oak coming through, and then kind of a subtle peach.

Peach really the the majority of a peach flavor is acid and sugar.

>>Right.

>>And when you take that sugar away, you're left with kind of this aromatic perfumy peach that I think really compliments the barrel profile in the cider.

>>Awesome.

So shall we try it?

>>Yeah, let's do it.

>>Okay, let's do it.

(Tassie laughing) Ah, nice and cold.

I do love a nice, cold cider.

>>Oh yeah.

>>Mm, and I smell that peach.

And peach is probably my favorite fruit.

I love peaches.

>>Yeah.

>>Mm.

Oh wow.

>>It's good, yeah.

That oak is.. >>Yeah.

>>The vanilla and the peach just like play really nicely together.

Kind of that peaches and cream idea.

>>Yes.

>>But very natural still.

It's not that it's not forced, that flavor is not forced.

>>Yeah, the apple still comes through.

>>Yep.

>>It's still the shining fruit.

>>And it will always be in our cider.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

>>That's definitely something that we we value, is, you know, if you're gonna use apples, use apples.

(Tassie laughing) Show the apples, you know?

Let the apples shine.

>>Yeah.

>>And bring in adjuncts and other flavors, but.. >>Right.

>>If the apple's not there, you know?

>>Yeah.

>>What are you doing?

>>Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's not apple cider.

>>Right.

>>Wow.

So, let's try another cider.

>>Yeah, let's do it.

>>While we talk a little bit about the cider process, because it's a little different than wine.

>>Sure.

>>Yeah.

So, yeah.

>>So, we'll break into our Hewe's Crab.

(Tassie oohing) So Hewe's Crab is a single varietal cider.

And, you know, folks are familiar with that in wine, with a chardonnay is.. >>Right.

>>A type of grape.

>>Right.

>>And so we can do that in cider too, where Hughes is a crab apple, that is kind of famous in Virginia, and it's a cider that is or an apple that's particularly suited to being a single varietal, where it's got a nice balance of sugar, tannin, and astringency, and acid.

(Tassie oohing) >>Nice, yeah.

>>So this is, yeah, a really valued apple, in kind of Virginia cider history.

It's also a gold medal winner for us.

>>That is amazing.

This is so good, and wonderfully dry.

I love that.

Love that.

Now, how long is the process for making cider?

I know, you know, wine, it can take years.

>>Right.

Yeah.

>>How about cider?

>>So, you know, we are wine, really.

>>Right, yes.

>>Cider is wine, it's fermented fruit.

We're a farm winery.

And, you know, we're not grape wine, but we're our processes are similar.

>>Okay.

>>So we're harvest-based, and we get everything from Winchester, so about an hour north of us.

And usually our primary fermentation lasts about three weeks.

We ferment pretty cold, and slowly if we can.

So that's just the process of, you know, we add a specific yeast culture, we kind of shepherd that fermentation from start to finish.

>>Right.

>>As the yeast consumes all of the available sugar that's there, and leaves us with a dry cider.

>>Yeah.

>>At that point, you have alcohol, technically.

>>Right.

>>But it's not ready to drink.

And so, we we usually age for a minimum of three months, but we'll go much longer if the cider kind of demands that.

So some of the varieties that have some more astringency, some higher tannin, definitely benefit from some more age, just so that they can start to round out, and really come together.

Everything that we package in the bottle, we do pasteurize.

And so that in one sense kind of stops some elements of aging at that point, but, it also will kind of stop it in a place where we want it to be stopped.

And so we feel like this has reached where it's supposed to be, when you pasteurize that it stops it there.

>>Well this is outstanding.

>>Thank you.

>>And congratulations on the gold medal, certainly matches the color.

>>Yeah.

>>It is so beautiful.

>>Yeah the the hue is awesome.

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