Starting a Cider Revolution

The Union; November 8, 2005

Two years ago, Fox Barrel Cider Co. was just an intriguing idea, tossed around every so often among close friends at a successful dot-com in Sonoma County.

Now, the Colfax brewing business is rapidly expanding, with several stores and restaurants around Northern California carrying its medal-winning pear and apple hard ciders. And, with a lease signed on a new 4,000-square foot facility, the future looks only brighter.

Bruce and Carrie Nissen could hardly contain their excitement about their successes on a recent late October afternoon while sitting on metal folding chairs in the current cramped company headquarters near the Colfax railroad tracks. Bottles of cider littered the table and Bruce's cell phone was constantly buzzing.

Carrie said she can't wait for a bigger office, while Bruce eagerly talked about a tasitng room for passing tourists.

The couple, along with cider-maker Sean Deorsey of Auburn, have been drenched in the brewing business for just a year and a half, and their hard work is just now coming to fruition.

But for them, it's been an exciting adventure in unforeseen challenges. But their goal is noble - they want to bring hard cider back to the American people.

Beginnings

For Sean, whom Bruce describes as a "cider junkie", brewing has been a passion since his Santa Clara college years. "It started in college when he was a soft 21," said Bruce, explaining how his friend's interest started with him buying apple juice and packages of Fleishmans yeast. It only grew after both Bruce and Sean went through a two-week cidermaking course in Seattle after quitting their jobs in April 2004. Their teacher, a renowned English cidermaker, taught them much in that short time and the two emerged, "armed with just enough knowledge to be dangerous," says Bruce.

Little did they know that part of their challenge would be the fact that most people in the country seem to know even less about the industry than they. The beer folks would give them advice from a beer-brewing perspective, the wine connoisseurs, the wine perspective.

But hard cider - and the laws that regulate it - falls somewhere in between. For example, cider is by definition an apple-based alcohol. This means that even their pear cider is a minimum 51 percent apple juice, Bruce said. If it didn't the licensing rules would be different, and more costly.

The Process

Apples are purchased pre-crushed and in bulk from an El Dorado County apple farmer. Staying local is important to them, Bruce says. "We realize that we need the local support so we need to support the locals," he said.

Crushing apples themselves is laborious - something they learned the hard way, said Bruce. He was showing off a giant crusher they'd purchased from a farm in the Midwest back when they had the "Yankee spirit" about making the cider, but less understanding about how labor-intensive it could be.

It took six person days to fill a tank," he said. Brewing machinery for cider is also unique, as is the variety in ways to make it. The owners pride themselves in a brew that is most similar to that made in England. It's not so sweet, Bruce says, and easier to drink.

Fox Barrel's owners also say they have no room to take risks. This is why they use an optional pasteurization method. Not all cider brewers use it, but Bruce said that even one recall cold cost them a business. "We've only got one chance to make a good impression," he said.

The cider image

Besides machinery troubles and licensing woes, marketing the stuff has been their biggest challenge. But Bruce lights up immediately when the conversation turns to this topic - understanding image is obviously a passion.

In Great Britain, cider enjoys a popularity unparalleled possibly than any other country - for every eight beers sold at a pub, one pint of cider is also sold, Carrie explained. In the U.S. the number is more like one in a thousand, she said. In our country's early years, however, cider was consumed practically more than water because the fermenting process made it safer to drink. Somewhere along the way, however, the popularity dropped off.

The hardest group to convince to give hard cider a try now is middle-aged men, Bruce said. Militar, however, are the easiest. "Our largest market is the military," Carrie said. They return from service overseas where they've had cider and they get excited when they see us a brew fests, she explained.

The couple sees this as the beginnings of a cider revolution, and they are committed to reminding Americans about the role it has played in the country's history - and get them to enjoy it again. "We want to return cider to its roots," Bruce said. "We are not just a flash in the pan, we want (our cider) to stick around."

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