Quick update here. We have officially hit the pavement selling and hit the tanks brewing (technically we are fermenting, which is different than the brewing process, but I think brewing sounds better). We have a bunch of accounts who have agreed to take us on, including a few locally here in Waterville, such as Mainely Brews, The Point After, and tentatively 18 Below Raw Bar and You Know Who's Pub. In Portland we will be in Nosh and Brian Boru's with certainty, and a bunch of other tentative yes's, and up at Sugarloaf we will be in The Bag, and possibly The Rack. We'll keep you posted on all the locations when we get them, most likely somewhere on our website.
In cider news, we are putting the finishing touches on our first full scale batch. It is a lot longer process than I had anticipated. I planned on throwing the cider in the tanks, grabbing dinner, and catching a 730 movie. Six hours later we were eating leftover food from Sue in the mill trying to get everything right. The hardest part about moving the cider from tank to tank is how much cleaning is involved. Every time a tank is cleared we have to clean it with cleaning solution followed by sanitizing solution. Being new at it, we are really slow and tentative because we don't want to make a $5000 mistake, which would be really easy to do.
Quick side story about cleaning solution. Never ever ever touch highly concentrated cleaning solution....We needed to get a gallon out of a full barrel and thought we should siphon it. Really dumb idea. I stuck around a second too long and it touched my lips and tongue. It felt like something was burning through my mouth. I rinsed it out for a while and I'm alive, but lesson learned. Don't siphon chemicals with your mouth.
Pretty soon we'll be doing some launch parties and other events at various restaurants/bars. We'll let everyone know when and where if you want to come by and drink some cider.
See you next year. Have a fun new years eve, don't drive, and keep tabs on your pants at all times.
The Depot in Gardiner REALLY needs this cider!! Tell Steve that the Freemans want to try a new cider...and we are responsible for the Randolph IGA being the #1 seller of HardCore Cider in the Northeast - until its untimely demise a couple of months ago.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to trying your cider!