The main chat with Gitche Gumee begins at 12:00 minutes.
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Cider pairs well with food, especially Ethiopian dishes that have spicy overtones.
In this chat, Phillip Kelm and I were both attending CiderCon2018 in Baltimore thus the opportunity to dine at Ebenezer’s Ethiopian Restaurant and chat cider.
This restaurant was chosen because it offered a Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) option. I wanted to be able to try Phillip’s bottle of Entropy while dining.
Phillip begins with a pour of the “wild ferment” Entrophy.
We delve into his early beginnings in fermentation science… He started fermenting when he was 16 saying, “I couldn’t buy beer, but could buy a beer kit.” .. something that Phillip learned in Mother Earth News.
He became a mechanical engineer and first worked in the nuclear industry before moving onto brewing.
For most of his career he has been setting up brewing systems around the world via his business Gitche Gumee Brewing Services, a worldwide brewery installation & engineering business.
He also manages the Palau Brewing Company, home of Red Rooster Beers. Currently he is working on a cidery in India and is a partner at the South Korean cidery, The Hand and Apple.
Our dinner was primarily focused around his cidery based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula called Gitche Gumee Ciderworks, where he makes what he called “feral ciders”.
Apples used at Gitche Gumee
- Foragers bring the apples to the cidery and Phillip in turns produces cider.
- He pays .20/pound of apples. They are collecting apples by the ton.
Says Phillip, “There is no [apple] pedigree – they are wild chance seedlings.”
Cidermaking technique used for the Entropy
- no sulfites
- no water
- no yeast
- no sugar
- Using French oak barrels.
- The cider is left to do its own thing in the right environment.
Additional cider making notes
- Select only the best fruit
- Only the best skin
- No maceration
- Rack over the lees
- By February the cider is out of stainless after it has been racked off the lees at least 2 times already
- Leave the yeast behind to starve.
Managing Wild Fermentation
- Make sure that the fruit is “solid and ripe”
- Apples are matured for at least a few days or a week
Contact Gitche Gumee Ciderworks
Website: http://www.gitchegumeeciderworks.com/
- Find a location map of where to buy Gitche Gumee’s ciders
Address:
- 350 N Lincoln Drive
- Hancock, MI 49930
Mentions in this chat
- Threadbare Cider and Mead
- Good Intent Cider
- Totally Cider Tours: Normandy – September 23 – 29, 2018 contact ria@ciderchat. com to reserve your space on this upcoming trip.
Ask for the following ciders – By supporting these cidermakers, you in turn help Cider Chat
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- Big Apple Hard Cider – NYC : listen to Danielle von Scheiner on episode 35
- Oliver’s Cider and Perry – Herefordshire/UK ; listen to Tom Oliver on episode 29
- Santa Cruz Cider Company – California : listen to Nicole Todd on episode 60
- The Cider Project aka EthicCider– California
- Albermale CiderWorks : listen to Chuck Shelton on episode 56
- Cider Summit : listen to Alan Shapiro founder of this cider fest on episode 75.
- Ramborn Cider Co. Luxembourg s
- Big Fish Cider Co. Virginia
- Tanuki Cider Co. Santa Cruz California episode 103
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