May 9, 2018
Matt DeLong grew up making cider and what he once
called “Apple Wine”. Western Michigan has what is known as the wine
trail and there are lots of fruit wines, so it is no surprise that
Matt first considered a career in the wine industry.
Things started to change around 2009 - 2010 when he
noticed a whole lot of ciders in his area of west Michigan popping
up.
He credits the support of his wife Valerie for
helping him hone his vision and open Ridge Cider Company in 2014.
The cidery is based in the town of Grant, Michigan in a building
that was once used to process onions.
Time Line of change for Ridge CiderCo - to
Ride Cider LLC
- Matt teamed up with Bruce Rasch in 2014, one of the
largest apple growers in the same region
- Matt began selling cider commercially in 2015.
- Not discussed in this chat is that Ridge Cider Co.
sold its majority share to RC Investors, in April of 2017. RC is an
investment firm owned by Dick Devos, husband of Betty Devos - the
current U.S. Education Secretary in the Trump Administration.
In this chat we discuss 3 Ridge Ciders
-
- Porch Sittin - notes of vanilla and
cinnamon - this is the flagship
- Raspberry -
- Hopped
Now in Cans
- Porch Sittin
- Berries
- Hopped
Matt uses an accordion press - or squeeze box that he
bought used from a cider house in Maryland, back in 2014.
What would Matt have done
differently
- More definitive plans
- And know who will be your targeted customers
Contact info Ridge Cider
Website: http://www.ridgecider.com/about/
email: ridgecider@gmail.com
Telephone: (231) 674-2040
Address: smack in the middle of Grant,
Michigan
Ridge Cider social media:
Mentions in this Chat
Cider Chat Live episode 1 :Boston Judging Best
in Show Competition
https://anchor.fm/ciderchat/episodes/BOSTON--Judging-Best-In-Show-Cider-e1e4hf.
- Winners of the 23rd Annual Boston Hombrew
Competion - A New World Cider won Best in Show for Ciders.
This cider moved onto the Best in Show for the entire competition
and was awarded 3rd place. First and Second place went to
beers.
- Listen to episode 128 next week and hear Tom Bell telling us
how he made his award winning cider that captured Best in
Show.
Upcoming Competions
Upcoming Festivals
Michigan Cider Week - Cider Chat will be at the
Gillette Bride Cider Fest on May 19th - 1-5pm
June 9, 2018 The Pressed Fest
begins at 2pm - 6pm in Longmont, Colorado
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Ask for the following
ciders - By supporting these cidermakers, you in turn help
Cider Chat
- Kurant Cider - Pennsylvania :
listen to Joe
Getz on episode 14
- 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.
- Big Fish Cider Co.
Virginia
- Tanuki Cider Co. Santa Cruz
California
episode 103
- Ross on Wye Cider and Perry, UK
-
Process and Analytical NMR Services - John Edwards provides analytics of cider - stay tuned for
his Chemical Fingerprints workshop coming up on Cider
Chat
- Ironbark
Ciderworks, Claremont,
California
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