Potter's Craft Cider: Leading Innovation in Virginia's Cider Scene

Welcome to another episode of The DC Beer Show. Michael Stein, Brandy Holder, Jacob Berg, and Jordan Harvey discuss their beverage preferences for Thanksgiving, dive into their favorite brands and types of beverages, and even their plans to find the perfect table beer. 

The highlight of the episode is, of course, their esteemed guest, Andy Hannas. Andy heads up cider making at Potter's Craft Cider in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mike and Andy delve deep into the history of this pioneering cidery, the changes in the apple and agriculture industry, the influence of seltzers, and get specific about their wide range of flavor offerings.

Brandy, Jacob, Jordan, and Mike will also share what they're currently drinking, and cover some new releases from Denizen's, including a bourbon barrel-aged Russian imperial stout and a Scottish wee heavy with coffee!

Finally, they wrap up the episode with an update on some upcoming events in the DMV. Buckle up for this hoppy ride!

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Creators & Guests

Host

Brandy Holder

This southern girl got a late start in the beer world, but with such a bold and intoxicating personality behind the name, booze was destined to be a part of her endeavors.

Host

Jacob Berg

Jake’s beer education began when his dad brought home a 6-pack of Brooklyn Lager in the mid-90s. It was love at first sip.

Host

Jordan Harvey

As a born and raised Georgian, lover of music, and HBCU advocate, Jordan’s affinity for craft beer kicked off after being exposed to the craft beer scene in Pennsylvania and the legendary beer scene in Europe.

Host

Mike Stein

Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence.

Producer

Richard Fawal

President of DC Beer Media LLC and Publisher of DCBeer.com and The DC Beer Show

What is The DC Beer Show?

The official podcast of DCBeer.com! Everything you need to know about the people, places, and brews that make the DMV America’s best beer scene, including the best local places for eats, brews, trivia, live music, and more! Learn about the latest trends in craft beer – from the beers, to the breweries, to the business – from the editors of DC Beer.

Welcome everybody to the DC beer show. We are at DC Bureau across

social media. Jordan, what are you

drinking this lovely fall evening? Well, it's a

season of me grateful, so I thought I would mix it up a bit. So

for all the hot pits out there, I'm going in the opposite direction.

I'm having a thick one. I'm having a dark roasted malt

flavors with a little bit of dark chocolate, coffee, and fruitcake

Brewed by Maryland's very own Baby Cat Brewery. I

grabbed this, this can of this Russian imperial stout couple weeks

ago at their Halloween party, and I'm still enjoying it. So having

that, get back to the Haze craze probably in December, for a

very exciting release end, but More to come on that later.

Stein, what is in your steinser? Jordan, I

appreciate you flipping the script because I am having

a hot Imperial red tail. Oh,

how the tables have to. Really did the old one

too. We we swung we swung it around,

Hopped with tunic, comet, and Citra hops brewed in collaboration with

Hop Hooligans. So this is a beer out of Ashburn. My good buddy,

Favio Garcia, owner, head brewer of Dynasty, brewed with

the Hop Hooligans, who are a craft brewery

In, Romania, and they were in the US

some time ago. They made this imperial amber ale, which now

mind you, if it were not full of malt. I wouldn't be

on this wonderful hoppy, yes, but

also malty and just neutral yeast, a

hop back imperial amber ale, which will absolutely pair great

when I make my sweet potato,

ramalad rue mix, When I have my brussels

sprouts with caramelized onions, bacon for

my wife, fake my sister-in-law.

You know it. You know I'm gonna make some sweet potato drop biscuits.

I'm gonna make some mashed potatoes. I'm gonna do some mac and cheese. The whole

nine, Special menu for my my beautiful sister-in-law who

is vegan, and I'm gonna pour her some weird sour

beer when when she comes and visits us.

Jake, editor extraordinaire. Jake, what are you drinking?

I have here a beer that perhaps you, Mike, can speak

to. It is the Mount Vernon Porter from

Dynasty, which I believe is a lost lagers collaboration.

It is. It's another Favio beer, though. I wonder if you can beer brewed by

Favio. Is another Favio beer. I hear there's more

Mount Vernon beer on the way. Perhaps something

export strength, maybe even coming out the day that this

podcast is released. So it's a blonde barley

wine that's coming out of Dynasty. It will be on offer at

Dynasty. It will also be on sale at Mount

Vernon. But, yeah, shout out to Portishead.

Also, shout out to Lost Generation. We just got an

email from Jared. Anne was on the email too. Shout out

to Jared and Anne. Amy Tan, the

author of the Joy Luck Club, Reportedly

tried Tiger Spirit in NYC,

like, just this week. That's so cool. Are you kidding?

So cool. Yao from 50 Hertz, state tingly, making it

happen. Really nicely done. Lucky Hour and Co.

From award winning brewers to award winning authors. We love to see

it. Brandy, what's in your glass this evening? Well,

Hi, mister Stein. Hi, Jordan. Hi, Jake. I love y'all.

I can't wait to see you this weekend at the beer share.

I am actively drinking the Keller beer from

Denizen's hike the ALPS series. This lovely little

number a whopping 5.3%, as you

know. You know, the bros would call it crushable.

So, it's delicious.

Their hike their alp collection is inspired by traditional breweries along

the base of the German and Austrian Alps that Jeff enjoyed during his

travels. A, I'm happy that he was able to do that. Good

for him. And, b, I'm thankful that this great adventure inspired him

to create such beer. Jeff also

has inspiration from all kinds of other places,

and they are, releasing

a couple of other beers very, very soon if they haven't already released

them. 1, I know was from last hear

the chapless horseman, which is a bourbon barrel aged Russian imperial

stout. What? What?

The Cull Waiting is a bourbon barrel aged Scottish wee

heavy with coffee. Did they have that 1 last year, guys? I don't I feel

like they had something just like it. If not, Maybe they added the coffee. I

think so. Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. I think they had a nice they have they keep

it weed out. Yeah. I think this is this is this year's iteration of

that beer. On the fan. It's so good. And then, obviously,

the one that I'm drinking, the Keller beer, is the,

Bohemian malted barley and Slovenian hop. At

So very beautiful. Like, it all all perfect to

serve at at Thanksgiving, I think.

Despite the fact that we're recording this episode on

Tuesday, which is National Pickle Day.

It is, if you didn't know. Now you've missed it, and I'm

sorry. It's not pickled gross. I'd love to know

Pickles. I'd love to know what all of you are serving or, you know, at

least highly anticipating drinking on Thanksgiving slash native American

heritage day the day after. So I

recently met the owner of an indigenous brewery in Asheville,

North Carolina, which is my home state called CivicClans, at the Smithsonian

last call events, which I saw Mike and Jake at was great event.

I can't wait to visit Asheville again and check it out. You know, one of

Hellbender's 2 breweries 2 brewer 1 of the 2

brewers are indigenous. So, you know, who just celebrated their

9th anniversary? What are you

both or all 3 wanting to to drink

at Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving in my case?

Well, first, I think I might need to stop by a Stein's house because that

menu lineup sounded, very delicious, very scrum de leachis.

I'll fix your plate. But, but I'm actually headed down south, guys.

We're going down to Georgia for the holidays, so I'm I'm happy

to to be reunited with Monday Night Brewing Company.

I do hope that I can get my hands on some of their mixed firm

stuff. But if not mixed firm, then it'll definitely be back to the

hazy's. So looking forward to just pairing a nice,

CRISP, single hop, hazy IPA, with

my greens, mac and cheese dressing.

Yes. I'm from the South. Yes. I fried chicken on Thanksgiving

because, yes, I need to have some type of fried food that's not

turkey. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that pairing.

What about you, Jake? You doing anything from in anything any New York or

Pennsylvania traditions for Thanksgiving? I'm gonna be

in New York in the city. And so

come maybe 2 or 3 PM, my first move is always

Campari. Just lets the body know, you

know, oh, it's tie it's time to start working. We're we're

gonna do a lot of things, you know, over the next few hours or so.

And so usually starts with Campari and soda.

Jake, you I hate you. I don't wanna interrupt you right now,

at. But you just spoke my language. I mean, not with the not with the

Campari part, but, like, the amaro. I I just

drink a little tiny, like, out and a half of tomorrow

because it's what my heart desires. So you we got to we gotta get

you drinking local tomorrow in, like, small bath. Not at Campari necessarily,

but I respect continue. I'm so sorry to interrupt. Go ahead.

Well, look. Like, if I'm here, I'm not opposed to going down to

Ivy City and picking up a few bottles from

Don Ciccio As you should. Our own very yes. Our

own local, Amarokay, but I'll be in New York. At

so there'll definitely be Campari. And then,

from there, my wife's move now is, and she's vegetarian, but

this is her move all the same, is to put the brussels sprouts down on

a sheet pan. Put the wire rack on top of that, and then cook

the bacon On Top of That so that it all drips down into the

brussels sprouts. Mhmm. I'd

like nice delicate bubbles to cut the fat. So

there's definitely gonna be side effects. Yes. Yeah. And I have

yeah. There's definitely and we'll have more on that in a minute.

I've also managed to squirrel away 1750

of Saison DuPont, which is my official beer of

Thanksgiving. It is harder to come by

for reasons that dcbeer.com will discuss,

down the pike. It has to do with the dissolution

of legends, distribution company, and all of the

brands and imports that got caught up in that.

We we won't bore you on the podcast, but it's got several

1,000 words that normally your editor would edit.

This time, I'm gonna edit the editor from 10 k

down to 3,000 words. Anyways, go on, Jake. Yeah.

And then, with pie. I like to play it

2 ways. 1 is with whiskey of

some sort. My mom is not like a big whiskey

drinker, but she always likes to keep, like, maker's marker early times,

which is I think a pretty Crutti Whiskey, but it's a great Thanksgiving

Whiskey. She keeps it on hand because she adds a splash

of it into whipped cream, which goes on top of a sweet potato

or pumpkin pie. Yep. The flip side of

that is that I've got one last bottle, a

500 milliliter bottle of still beer. It's the

fortified Black Tuesday. Mhmm. So it's Black Tuesday

aged, in a port pipe. That's how they store an

age, port in a pipe Mhmm. And then blended back

with both fresh black Tuesday Anport.

Completely not carbonated. So not a cork and cage,

but a cork like, a whiskey bottle that you can recap and,

put once it's open, it should be good for a couple weeks.

And, yeah, that'll probably be making appearance as well.

Alright. Who's up next? We talk of food. We talk

inside. I mean, for Thanksgiving, I truly want

to enjoy some smoked beers. Like, the Schilling

Fooder a, laggard smoke bok that I just had, I feel

like I'm stuttering so much. I'm so tired right now. The Food or

Lager smoked Bak beer is called Brennan. Is that

Brandon? Oh my god. Did you give me that, Jake? Because oh,

man. I I I handed you Canada. I handed you

yeah. I was I I I cracked that, and I was like, Brennan Brennan's getting

a lot better. Betsy. Heavens to Brennan. Let me just tell you.

I wish I had 20 more of those beers. I would

definitely serve them at Friendsgiving. Anyhoo, especially while

I'm eating cheese or sitting by the fire pit, drunk with my friends

after stuffing our faces with potluck friendsgiving food.

I also hope to have a beautiful table beer, actually,

to serve during dinner. I it's hard to find table

beer, In my opinion, at least no local

brewery really makes any. So I think I'm gonna go have to

Visit Schneider's or Eric at craft beer seller to see if see what they

have going on. So if you all know of a good, table beer that I

can find, Please let me know. Shoot me a message.

I also wanna have some lambic. I think that's that would be really good

with some turkey And some cranberry stuff. I

make collard greens. I'm from North Carolina, and I know that yes.

Hey. So I Let Let him know, Brandy. Let him know that I

Let him know. Look white, but, you know, I

It's not about that. Right? Me some color. You can cook. You can cook. So

But more than anything, I'm gonna serve some,

hot cider, like, probably like a toddy, but a wasail

Wessel, and some beautiful

crisp dry cider. I'm personally a member

of Albemarle Cider Works Located in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've been

a member there for, jeez, 10 years or so. I

love the cider that Seaville is cranking out. Truly, if

if I know that maybe it seems like it's a faraway

place, but Charlottesville's really pretty,

And they make really good cider. They also have Blue Bee Cider,

which is located in Charlottesville as well. But I remember,

when Albemarle first opened, but I also remember when

Potter's Craft Cider first opened.

I feel I feel like they used to be they used to,

sell out of this trailer. Like, it was a very small,

no frills kinda thing. And And I remember going to the Whole

Foods down there, which was barely open at the time, and they

were serving potters, and it was a huge deal. So, You know, I'm

gonna become a member to their to their stuff too, but they have a beautiful

space now and, make fantastic

cider. And I'm pretty sure We're we get to listen to

all the whole thing about the cider at Potter's. Right? We are

about to get into our interview with Andy Hanas, head

Cidermaker of Potter's Craft Cider. Let's tune

in. I am so excited to have Andy Hannes, head

cidermaker at Potter's Craft Cider joining

us. Andy, thank you for joining us on the show. Hey, Michael. Thanks

for having me. It's my pleasure. So I'm really excited to

talk apples and ag,

and ciders and all things, new

with you. But, do I have it correct that Potters is

Potters was born in 2011, and then you started in 2013.

Teen. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah.

Just a glimpse of my 10 year anniversary with the company. Well,

happy decade of making delicious craft

cider in Virginia. I appreciate the compliment.

It has been A wild 10 years. Yeah. You must

have seen a significant amount of change in the decade that

you've been producing really good fruit wine.

Cider is, of course you know, the the main

ingredient is apples. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about what

you've seen in your 10 years in regards to Apple's,

Virginia ag and sort of the changes that you've witnessed

at in your time. Yeah. I kinda

stumbled into the cider job, on accident.

The background in the culinary industry before

moving to Charlottesville. Moved here to work in a

farm, And when farming season ended, just

already kinda knew the owners, Tim and Dan, of Potters,

from buying their site here in Richmond And just kinda started

showing up, knocking on the door, asking if I could pick up some work.

And, at that time, that was the end of 2013.

There was only a handful of cideries in Virginia. We have

Flawby Ridge, of course, was the, the pioneer of the

industry, With Diane Floyd in Floyd County, and then we

have, the Shelton's and our works, just down

the road from us, and then a couple others. So

it was all still pretty new to me and

to Virginia at that point, and Sanger was kind of finding

its footing amongst wine people and especially in the beer

crowd at that time. So I came to it

with, home brew background and having done

a little bit of volunteer work at some commercial

breweries trying to just get my foot in the door and get out of the

kitchen. So Pottery's at that time was

making farmhouse dry, the only product, and

then they just started to roll out Oak Barrel Reserve,

Which was a, apple brandy barrel aged cider.

So everything was still very high alcohol,

Kind of appealing to the wine drinker. And then in the

1st couple years of working there, we started

playing around with Dry hop ciders. And

that was some of my 1st shifts there. We're playing around with hop

trials, and, Well, yeah. So so

2014 was when I got back from my honeymoon in

Brussels and came back and was convinced that

we needed to make land back style at So it's a

it took me about a year to convince the owners that, we should

introduce Protanomyces willingly into the seller.

And then another 2 years before we started to see the those

turn around, but that really was 2014 when

we just started Kind of experimenting and going crazy

with other fruits, pops, spices, things like that.

Basically, just As a way that we could diversify

our portfolio, when varietal driven

ciders, weren't necessarily appealing to

our market, which was beer drinkers primarily. And it

seems you have certainly hit the market well

In that, when you started, there were 2 products, and

now I pulled into the craft beer seller last week,

And I got a great grapefruit hibiscus cider in

glass bottles over 8%, But then they also had cans of

the grape grapefruit hibiscus session cider at 4.5%,

and then I got some other cider in cans. So even

just from a packaging perspective, I remember first coming into

Potter's Craftsider and thinking, this farmhouse dry is great. And, you know, it

was it was around this time, the the upcoming holiday with

turkey. It was a it was a great, you know, table product to pair with

turkey, to pair with ham, for

my my sister-in-law who's been vegan for a while, a great

product to pair with, fruits and veg

and, just, you know, highly aromatic and well

seasoned things. But it's amazing to see, you know, the the

cork and cage bottle shift to the can and still have the

glass bottles and the beautiful presentation, you know, with the hibiscus, this orange

colored, wine. Right? Cider is is wine,

Technically Speaking. And it's Paul. It's

if you ask the TTB, it is. Right. Right. According

to our, governmental, and federal overlords.

But tell us a little bit about the changes made from, you know,

just cork and cage, now into cans, now offering

cider that's 5%. You have this 5.5 ABV,

cranberry orange blossom cider. I have this, a

wonderful petite cider at 4.5 ABV, which is a

wonderful product. I'm loving this petite cider. Tell us about some of

these changes, what what happened, you know, what you did to make them

come about. Yes. Some of that

is just, us discovering

ways that we could make the side air lower alcohol

Without compromising the characteristics of Virginia apples,

but mostly, it's responding to consumer demand.

So like you said, there's a grapefruit hibiscus in a half liter glass

bottle. A half percent is kinda where it lands

naturally post ferment. Same ABV

for farmhouse dry, a little higher on some of our barrel stuff and

lambic style ciders. In

2013, that was

kinda still where a lot of craft beer was, especially the specialty stuff

was large format bottles. So it

was an easy, it was an easy case

or display or stack for us to get into with retailers.

And then there were shifts in the market

towards cans, but also around that time was

the, height of the session IPA in popularity.

So people were looking for lower alcohol things. We

started kinda getting into that with our 1st can, ciders were

at 6.9%, a little bit lower. Mhmm.

And then, Really,

the popularity of seltzers Mhmm. Was, what

convinced us that we could go lower, especially given that

all of our ciders are completely dry, no sugar, and no carbs. Mhmm. So

we're kind of already Getting those stats that people are

looking for when they drink a hard seltzer. Yeah. And then

we had to make the decision. If we wanted it to still be

Cider focus or if we wanted the apples to play

sort of background to whatever other fruit we might add

and make what you would call a cider seltzer, I guess.

And, I think I think we kinda split the

difference there between, like, the grapefruit hibiscus session.

It's certainly more grapefruit and hibiscus forward.

Mhmm. But then we've got the petite cider, which is just,

Yeah. Apple focused Mhmm. And really just kinda

drinks like a lighter version of Farmhouse

Dry. And in that same series, we

also have a citron Amarillo hop session

cider. Mhmm. So, again, finding something for the beer

crowd in in that package format that appeals to them. Yeah. For

folks who want that hop zing,

But, you know, keeping it within Potter's Craft Cider, that's a

wonderful alternative. Yeah. It's really

interesting. You know, I noticed when I was, researching earlier

today the grapefruit hibiscus session cider. You know, in the in

the copy you mentioned, a flavorful alternative to hard

seltzer, at Which absolutely, I don't

like yucking anybody's yum, but I basically never

drink seltzer unless it's, a Hoppy

Sparkler. And we're lucky in DC Metro, we have, Port City

making Hopwell, which is a wonderful beverage. There's, of course, La Gonitas

in Sierra Nevada getting national distro. But I was,

communicating with, Paulette Palacios, and they're the, at manager

at DC Brow, who is certainly

DC's biggest seltzer maker. And Paulette was telling me,

they were saying they really loved the, grapefruit

hibiscus session cider. That was their jam. And it's so great to see

the beer world embracing the CiderWorld. I would argue now more

in 2023, than they really ever have, and

you're just Leading the charge in many

ways, from from Seaville all the way up to DC,

you know, and and and northerly past DC.

But, it's really interesting to see, you know,

you responding to market demands, to what

consumers want, But then also driving,

the creative and experimental train. You know, before we

started the interview, we were talking about the raspberries and Brett, a

cider that we tried at Snallygaster. And I think for

myself and Jake, maybe Brandy and Richard, we were just blown

away at the Expressive Flavor of It. And you

tried it, and we were with, Harry, with your colleague.

And it was like, oh, this is really good. Like, what's, what's going on here?

Well, you know, this took this long to make, and, of course, the raspberries and

brytenomyces. And it was like, oh, by the way, it's 8 or

9%. And I was like, what? No. It's not. You're lying.

So we have to be careful with these ciders. They are they are a wonderful

expression of Virginia agriculture with the apples. But then

there's really something special with the Brettanomyces, cider

that you've created.

Yeah. I think that, is a really fun signer for us.

We the 1st year, we did Brad Siders.

We did raspberry, black raspberry,

peaches, blackberry,

And, feel like there was 1 more that I can't

remember. But just trying to find the the fruit that stood

out the best and complimented that sort of, sharp,

funky character, and, you know, being

that it was inspired by Belgian lamb cakes and goose.

Raspberry is a pretty obvious choice. Anyone who's ever

had a Belgian farm blog can tell you that raspberry

character sticks around post ferment. Yeah. And so that

batch that is, in the market now,

limited amount, that was a blend of actually one, 3

5 year aged Wow. Brett Barils.

So those all started out either, spontaneous

fermentation or inoculated with Brettanomyces.

And, actually, some of the barrels were inoculated with

the flour yeast from our friends at Pendrod in Sperryville

Oh, wow. Which is kind of their house mix culture. Yeah. We had up to

5 years of, barrels there, and then we

blended them all into a Hungarian oak, Ash

2,000 liter cask that we had a

200 pounds of whole raspberries from Winchester,

Virginia, from Clay's Orchard. So

even down to the fruit addition and the yeast, it is,

pretty Virginia agriculture focus. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. So I'm a huge nerd, and I'm with you. But for our listeners who

are like, what is Stein talking about? You're talking about

some batch of cider that originated 5 years ago in

addition to a batch of cider that started fermenting 3 years

ago and then one that's 1 year old and multiple

yeast strains. So some spontaneous, meaning you didn't add what we

call a slurry. There was no pitch of yeast. You didn't add a

liquid yeast or a dry yeast,

But you did have yeast from the Penn Druid Brewing Company, who now

also is a cider producer, and they just made their first

wine, Which is super exciting. So not only did you

blend in the Lambic Belgian tradition, 5, 3, and 1 year

old beers to get or excuse me, ciders together,

you had multiple yeast strains and multiple harvest varieties.

Obviously, if right. The the the 20 the

2000 the the The 2018, 2015

cider was not the same apples. Right? They just

every year, you have apples from different trees, different orchards you're

sourcing. So tell us, you know, this is it's a

kuvai. Right? A great growth, a blend. Tell us

about some of the labor that goes into that and what you know, were you

thinking 5 years ago, this would be great 5 years from now,

or is it the culmination of all of your hard work over the seasons

coming together. Well, no. I should, yeah, add

further to that that 5 years before they went into the cast with the

raspberries where it aged for another year. Mhmm. And then

has now been aging in kegs and package for

Almost another year. So, you know, we're really going back to

almost 7 years ago where some of these sighters started.

But, yeah, those were barrels that, you know,

were not quite right for another blend or

just maybe We thought it was gonna

start on its own and be a little faster, but maybe it lagged behind

the rest. So it didn't make it into a blend 5 years

ago, But we held on to it, or just

some of it. You know, we were in a really, really small space

on a horse farm out in Free Union, Virginia. And sometimes,

you know, it tastes a barrel, and it doesn't taste great, but it would be

too much work to get it out and dump it. So we just left

it, until we could get to it. Mhmm. And

then when we went to pull it out and, You know, had a

little nail through the barrel head to pull a sample and tasted it again a

couple years later. It's like, oh, maybe it's good we didn't dump them. We should

hold on to taste weird. That's a very Belgian thing. I'll I'll

say really quickly, Drei Fontanen, we had the the the 3

fountains, you know, Goose and Lambic Brewery, and they talk about

having barrels that are so weird they'll never make it to

market. Like, it's just house beer

for, you know, their 20 employees. Anyways, please continue.

Yeah. I think it's, just Reading some of the

stuff out there in, like, the the sour beer brewing world, like the,

American Wild Ale book or any of the suffering about Belgian beer

making or, even when the first time we

visited Millstone Cider in Maryland when they were still open Yeah. At

And just tasting some of these barrels and being kind

of, like, is this okay? And just

to hear their attitude towards it, which is, like, yeah. It just needs time.

It's like it's supposed to taste like this right now.

So just learning to to be patient with some stuff.

And, you know, one of our first, lamb baked batches

we made with Blackberries, whole blackberries.

And, you know, a blackberry is solid in the

center, with, like, a really tannic core.

And so we thought we could just treat it like raspberries, which

obviously are much sweeter and hollow. The

raspberries were ready to serve right away, and

the blackberry had to age for another year. It was just it was

shrinking. So it just it's really been lessons

learned along the way. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's

amazing. What a journey you have

been on, learning very

valuable lessons as you go, as you produce cider.

What's next for Andy Hannes, what's next for Potter's

Craft Cider? Are we gonna see more cans? I love how many cans we're

seeing in DC in addition to the classic farmhouse

dry, grapefruit hibiscus.

Yeah. And and I'll say before I ask you about the future, at It's wonderful

to see probably 2013, probably not long after

you first came on, I started noticing Farmhouse Dry. More and more

coming to DC. But now 10 years later, it seems like the

price of a bottle just from the consumer perspective has come down.

I I don't know if that's, you know, if my Aniak data

is accurate, if that's just the the fog of memory, but it it feels

like farm it feels like the pricing for the cider is,

you know, more reasonably priced now, and I don't know if that's because you're

making more Or what? But tell us about the future, what's coming down the

pike, and, you know, I know you you are if it's the

classic split of, like, front of house, back of house. You are in the seller.

You are back of house, but you're also seeing what's happening out there in the

market. Tell us a little bit about what we're seeing and and what the future

holds. Sure. Yeah. So, we talked about

putters kind of Shifting a lot of production from large format

bottles over to cans to keep up with the market.

We It was, you mentioned Farmmaster Island still

in that corking cage 7 50 mil bottle. We love the presentation

of something like that. Woodcut label,

printed core, the gold cage. It's, you know, pretty classic

cider or craft beer aesthetic. Yeah. We

just, at the end of 2019,

opened our 1st brick and mortar tasting room. And

so That was our 1st time having a permanent

retail establishment where we could take things

like farmhouse dry raspberry bread,

Or single variety at old Snyder's like our Hughes Crab

or Harrison that, before, we Couldn't

really sell it out into the world that great because people don't know what it

is when they see it on the store or on the store shelf,

And we can't just depend on someone be, to

be standing there at every Whole Foods, Kroger, wine, and

beer shop To tell people what dry cider is and

walk them through apple varietals. They don't have the name recognition that

grapes do. So, we've really used

this retail space that we have as the opportunity to

expand our Apple focused ciders because we now

have a captive audience. Mhmm. People come there to see

us, And so we have these now to show them,

which is great. Just just a,

wider of Virginia agriculture that we can show to

people. So we've got, I think

9 or 10 single varietal ciders available now,

Including 2 new ones in our series,

which is our method champenoise. Mhmm.

So refermented in the bottle, riddled in discharge.

One is a Alpmarle Pippin single varietal,

fermented in American white oak clover. Wow.

That one is, super citrusy, bright

acid. It's really beautiful. And the

other one is a 1 sap chip and wok. From it to that same

photo And a little more, like, floral and,

like, red fruit berry, pear kinda driven

profile. So those are trickling out

into the market mostly at our TC room.

And this is for in the wider world

cider outside of Charlottesville. We are

working on a new cider that we hope to get out by the end of

the year. It'll be called imperial dry. Mhmm. So

it'll be kind of the halfway point between our

petite cider, which is a 4 a half percent,

apples only cider at Farmhouse Drive, which

is 8 a half percent.

Representation of our favorite, cider apples in Virginia. This imperial

dry will be at 8% canned cider in 6 bags,

And, we're hoping to get out statewide, so keep an eye

out for that one. And then, Yeah.

We've got, at the end of the year, our collab with

Jinsen Chan from Highside in Fairfax. We do a

Gives A Style cider with them, Inspired by the flavors

of, produce markets of Taiwan to

to Agosa cider with, pink guava, sour

plum, and sea salt. Wow. So that that's called

Beautiful Island. Mhmm. That'll be out end of the year or

early January. We'll be having a release party together in

Hindsight, hopefully. That's super exciting. So if we don't

get to see you in Charlottesville, we'll see you in

Fairfax. Yeah. And that's, also a great spot to find our

site or is, at Highspot. Nice. That's great. At

We're so looking forward to these new, specialty

ciders and then, of course, you know, wider wider

distribution. Andy, thank you so much for joining us. We

really appreciate having you on the pod, and,

we look forward to seeing more of your at in DC proper and the

DC metro region. Yeah. Thanks for having me, and thanks for all the support.

Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Potters, and thank you, Mike. Alright.

Couple events worth discussing on the 1st and the 2nd

December. December 1st. Jordan. You got something going

on? Well, you know, something has been brewing. You

know, we we decided to To partner up with

yeah. You know? Someone has to be. No. I'm I'm

I'm happy and honored to have partnered up with Third Hill

Brewing Company out of Silver Spring, Maryland. Our 1st collab

together, we have put together a beautiful,

beautifully well crafted hazy IPA, hopped on Strata and

Mosaic. So we'll be dropping the homecoming volume one.

This will be the first of many. This probably our perennial,

IPA. We'll drop it a little earlier in the fall for future years, but,

just the the nature of 2023, we wanted to do

something before we we got up out of here. But, yeah, happy to be

partnered up with Third Hill, on behalf of the Harvey Wilder Scholarship

Foundation, where we we raise funds and we empower,

graduate high school graduating seniors and incoming, freshman students that are attending

historically black colleges and universities. So,

Just beyond excited to to support local students.

We're definitely looking for a lot of DC, Maryland, and Virginia graduates to

apply. So If you have any any graduating seniors out there,

that are interested in h p c HBCUs or learning about HBCUs, Or if you

just like to support our foundation and what we do, would love to have you

guys stop by. 8216 Georgia Avenue,

the home of Third Hill, Brewing in Silver Spring.

Just so you guys can get grab some cans, taste

the Lovely taste of homecoming at an HBCU, and,

and come out and support. We have some tickets go on sale right now for

commemorative glassware in merch ideas and whatnot. So definitely,

all support is appreciated. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

But don't do everything on Friday. Still saves

your endurance, especially for the beautiful ladies out there because,

Saturday is what's what's happening Saturday, Marlene? It is our December women's

culture club outing. We are going to be

at, Lost Boys Cider. It's a whole cider theme,

I guess. It is It is cider season, so pick some apples,

eat the pie, drink the juice, fermented or not. But

on on December 2nd, Come and join the

Women's Brew Culture Club. We're out in Virginia, y'all. We're doing Virginia

this month. So make sure you join us from 2 to 4 that

day, And, it's gonna be it's gonna be lovely. I'm so excited to go

out to Virginia for for an event. But right after

Thanksgiving, if looking for something to do, not after literal

Thanksgiving because we're all gonna be sleeping and waking up a couple hours later and

then eating some more and drinking some more. But On the 25th,

which is Saturday, please go and visit all

of your local breweries And say hi to them.

They are coming back from their holiday as well,

and support them. Especially go visit Streetcar 80

2, the death owned brewery in Hyattsville, Maryland.

They are going to have a maker's market, a small

business Saturday Market, and tons of

awesome vendors, deaf and hearing. And I'm

actually gonna be there as well, so, at Make sure you come and check out

support. And if you don't get to Heinzville, go support your other breweries.

And I truly wish everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving.

And, and if you don't have any family to enjoy it

with, drink with yourself. Just just

Have some good beer. And and if you choose not to to drink with yourself

or if you have the whole family coming to town, We have some

lovely perks for our Patreon members. You definitely get some, some discounts

at a lot of our local breweries, so you can definitely slot to,

breweries in Virginia, in DC, and in Maryland, and we're always partnering

up with, with local breweries to to just make sure that, you know,

we put the community first and that they continue to put the community first. So

we just wanna let you guys know that, bring the family in, show the

family around. We have awesome beer trails on the DC beer page.

So check out everything that we have because, again, you know,

DC beer is not just DC beer. It's the DMV

Beer hub, and we're happy to serve our community and you all, all all

of our wonderful listeners. So, that's my spiel. Happy

Thanksgiving. Don't fry don't burn the turkey If you're on turkey

duty, stay safe. Well said, everybody.

We'll see some of you at our beer share on Sunday. Thanks for

listening at DC Beer across the socials, dcbeer.com.

Be well, everybody. Shop small.