How to Do Social Media

This is the life cycle of technology: 1) this is amazing!; 2) man, this really makes my life easier; 3) I can't remember a time before this tech; 4) it's something I have to do; 5) this is nothing but a burden but I can't quit now. Social media was sill somewhere around a 2 before Donald Trump discovered Twitter, and now it's a 4.3. And because my streams are dominated by breweries and cideries, I see a ton of what now largely amount to ads on social media.

But amid that torrent a few companies stand out. My very favorite is Rack and Cloth, a tiny little farm-cidery in Mosier, just east of Hood River. It is a two-person operation, and I'm pretty sure Kristina Nance mans the Instagram account (Silas Bleakley, Kristina's other half, is the principal cider-maker). I wrote about Rack and Cloth here if you want the backstory (it's a good one).

Social media is informal and gives companies the opportunity to do a few things they can't do in other mediums. They can speak with the voice of a human. They can exhibit individual, idiosyncratic personalities. They can connect directly and intimately with followers and build more meaningful connections. They can tell little pieces of their stories in that informal way friends do--which when done well is enormously compelling. Finally, they can communicate important information in an engaging way.

It's not easy, though. As someone who half-asses his own social media about half the time, I know how easy it is to miss the opportunity to really communicate. As a public service announcement, I'd like to direct your attention to Rack and Cloth's work, which is among the best I've seen (click to enlarge them).

The cidery's mascot is a sheep called Pomme Pomme, and it's a real creature. (Dunno if this is her.) This message reminds us that Rack and Cloth is a working farm and connects us to the real, sometimes snowy, activity that happens there.

The little retail outlet in Mosier is a charming building where you can find a pint of house cider and a meal made with farm-grown ingredients. Hanging giant Christmas lights and calling them out with caps is the kind of whimsy you feel when you visit. Everything about this is spot on for the vibe of the place.

Cider-making is mostly not a dynamic process, but there's always a vessel to clean! Kristina's use of the first person creates that intimate connection one loves to see. (And which is really hard to pull off with authenticity.)

This last one was the inspiration for the post; it does everything right--and is delightful writing to boot. Let's go down the list: speaks with the voice of a real human--check. Exhibits a idiosyncratic personality--check (times two, with the #killermike hashtag). Tells a piece of the company's story--check. And communicates important information--check. Telling people "we're closed" is a great opportunity to irritate them. This turns that bad news into something charming and kind.

If there's a lesson here for breweries/cideries who want to maximize their social media's impact, it's finding someone who really knows and loves the company. If you cycle through people who just post basic info, impersonally, like an ad, you're going to reap the meager rewards of such an approach. I suppose it's better than nothing, but look at how much more you can accomplish with the right message and messenger.

Wonderful Cider Event on Thursday

If you have even a passing interest in this cider phenomenon that has been on a slow boil for the past few years, I strongly encourage you to come down to Reverend Nat's this Thursday for what is going to be a spectacular evening. The headline event is the book launch for Cider Made Simple, but in fact, it's going to be a full-immersion cider experience, tickling your brain as well as your senses.

I'll begin by talking about the book and giving an overview of cider's terrain, including European archetypes as well as modern American expressions. I will be aided in this endeavor by four of the best cider-makers in America who will be in-house with their ciders as examples of this terrain:

• Kevin Zielinski of EZ Orchards, who will have a traditional French-style cidre for us to try.
• Abram Goldman-Armstrong of Cider Riot!, who will have an English-style cider.
• Silas Bleakley of Rack and Cloth, who will be bringing an example of what I call a "modernist" American-style cider in Cider Made Simple.
• And of course, the host, Nat West, who will have more than one example of what I call "experimental" ciders in the book.

During the program, these four gents will describe their ciders and discuss American cider-making. It should be an incredibly enlightening evening, and having this kind of expertise on hand, along with this range of ciders, is extremely rare. Whether or not you want to buy a copy of the book, do yourself a favor and come on by for some great cider and cider discussion.

Cider Sunday: Gorge Cyder House, Rack and Cloth

It is that time of year again: the annual Portland Nursery apple tasting (this weekend and next), trips to local pumpkin patches for the October jack-o'-lantern, and treks down the Gorge for freshly-harvested apples and pears.  If you're doing that latter activity--and you should, it's fantastic this time of year--make time to stop into one or three of the local cideries that have cropped up there in the past few years.  They're so new that most people aren't even aware they exist.  Not only do they exist, but they're set up with nice little tasting rooms that make a perfect pit stop. 


Gorge Cyder House
oVino Market, 1209 13th Street (in the Heights) 
Hood River

To the extent anyone knows about the Gorge Cyder House, they're probably confusing it with the Gorge White House--a different cidery.  The entire operation exists in a space the size of a pantry in the back corner of a little wine deli in the upper part of Hood River.  And yet despite this modest set-up, cider-maker Stefan Guemperlein is managing to produce some of the best American ciders I've tasted. 

Guemperlein grew up in Bavaria, where his father made cider non-commercially.  He mentions this mainly as an afterthought; at the time, it didn't capture his imagination.  Instead, a trip to Northern Italy sparked his first love--wine.  He started as a self-taught winemaker, and a few years after opening oVino, the wine deli, decided to expand to cider.

Guemperlein doesn't own his own orchards, and so buys local apples, and "99% are table apples."  He favors Jonagold and also uses Newtown Pippin, Braeburn, and some heirloom varieties when he can get them.  It's the process that makes his ciders special: he uses natural fermentation and lets his ciders develop over the course of a year.  Following the rhythm of the year, he presses in the fall and begins fermentation, which takes a month.  After racking the cider, it slowly develop over the spring and summer. 

"Both slow esters and fruit emerge," Gumperlein says, but it's fermentation that creates the most flavor.  The apples themselves are aromatic, giving some forest floor, but they are simple and appley.  Natural fermentation gives the ciders a richer, earthier aroma and add peach and cherry fruit notes.  Gorge Cyder makes three standard ciders, plain apple, hopped, and a cyser (honey cider).  Of the three, Lost Lake Honey is the real stand-out.  It has a lot of black pepper up front and then turns distinctly almondy.  It's full-bodied and strong (7%), but finishes crisply. 

Great ciders, and a hidden gem in Hood River.


Rack and Cloth
1104 First Ave.
Mosier, OR

Source

No one will blame you if you can't remember where Mosier is.  A little pocket of activity about five miles east of Hood River, Mosier's the kind of place you skip unless you have a reason to go there.  There is a stretch of downtown, though, and along it you'll find a pretty little building that looks like it might have been a coffee shop once.  That's the Rack and Cloth Mercantile, and it was a coffee shop until Silas Bleakley and Kristina Nance turned it into a focal point for the fruits of their farm.

"We're trying to do closed-loop farming," Bleakley explained.  At the Mercantile, you get more than just cider.  Silas and Kristina have an expansive farm, and the food they serve is made from their farm.  As we were chatting, Kristina sliced up fresh veggies and cheese.  The menu follows the seasons.  "We don't make the sauce for the pizza until the tomatoes are ripe," he said. 

This is the approach Bleakley takes into his cider-making.  "It goes beyond cider--it's farming."  Visitors who stopped in for a pint this summer recognized the downside to this approach; last year's stocks were running low so there was a limited amount available each day.  Once the sixth barrel had blown, they were out of cider.  (This year production will triple.)  Bleakley has a background in winemaking, and it's evident in the sophisticated ciders he produces.  The main cider is an elegant, sophisticated cider called Stony Pig.  It reminds me a lot of a pinot gris.  It's acidic and dry and marked by bright fruit flavors of peach and apricot.  There's a vein of minerality that adds a quenching quality.

The nearby farm had a few trees left over, but Bleakley planted two acres in 2008 (he now has 2.5).  "You have to know your fruit," he said, before pointing out the cultivars: Johnagold, Winesap, wild crab.  "Cox's Orange Pippin is my favorite, hands down."  He divides the early harvest into halves and ferments on wood and steel, then blending back in and aging on steel.  There is an actual rack-and-cloth press, and it will be located on a new cidery building near the hundred-year-old farmhouse.  The second harvest goes into wood and ages more slowly.  (It's pretty common that orchardist-cider makers to try to get an early vintage out right after the harvest.) 

Bleakley is never going to make a lot of cider (he referred to Rack and Cloth as an "estate cidery"), so the surest way to try the cider--along with Guemperlein's, the best in the valley--is to trek to the little shop in downtown Mosier.  It's well worth the trip.

Cider Saturday: The Gorge Flows With Cider

I have been pointing the nose of my Toyota east and shooting down the Gorge the last couple weeks.  That's the newest hotspot for Oregon cider, although most of the cideries are so new very few people have heard of them.  Over the next few weeks or months, I'll be giving them the full Cider Saturday treatment, but for now, here's a picture essay and a thumbnail description of each cidery.  In the meantime, you can organize a tour for yourself if you wish.  All the cideries mentioned here have regular hours and welcome the public.  Click the links for details.

1.  Gorge Cyder House

Stefan Guemperlein operates the tiniest cidery from the back of his Ovino store in Hood River.  A German who recalls drinking cider in Bavaria in his youth, it was actually his love of Italian wines that brought him to the apple.  Now he makes naturally-fermented cider, slow-aged to rich complexity.



2.  Foxtail

You want cider?  The orchardist Bob Fox and his cider-making partner Justin Cardwell have cider--eight varieties when I visited.  Many include fruits gathered elsewhere on the farm (the best-seller is a peach cider, Fuzzy Haven), but I like the English-style dry, Docklands.  Stop into their really nice taproom just north of Hood River to sample.


3.  Rack and Cloth

I think Mosier is about to go on the cider map--it's about five miles east of Hood River, and it's where you find Rack and Cloth.  They have a cool little tasting-room/restaurant, and you can get not only their cider there, but food made from the produce of their farm.  Right now supplies are in very short supply, so visit early.  Silas has parceled out one five-gallon keg for each day they're open until the new cider is in, and when it's gone, you have to drink beer.  (Horrors!)  By the way the sheep on the far right is PommePomme, the cidery's mascot.



4.  Draper Girls

At the moment, Theresa Draper only makes sweet cider--that is, pre-fermented.  She is edging toward a cidery and tasting room to showcase the nine acres of heirloom fruit she grows, but that's down the line.  But here's the thing: that sweet cider is unpasteurized.  That means if you want to ferment it out yourself, with the Drapers' own Parkdale yeast, all you need is a carboy.  In October, I'm definitely making a trek out to pick up my five gallons.


5.  Hood Valley

Hood Valley is located across the street from Solera Brewing in downtown Parkdale.  Cider maker Brian Perkey has a long history in brewing, and brings his experience to the endeavor of producing a high-quality off-dry draft cider--the equivalent of a good session ale.  Both he and his ciders are enormously effervescent, and chatting with him is as fun as drinking his product.