Alpenfire's April Updates

https://mailchi.mp/355bca7a55b5/alpenfires-april-updates

Four weekends have flown by since we attempted the grand reopening of our tasting room, The very weekend that Covid-19 changed all of our realities. At this point we still have no idea what will happen to our tiny, family cidery but the outpouring of support we have received in the past couple of weeks has been so incredibly touching! Thank you so much for ordering our ciders online, stopping by to pick up bottles on Saturdays, joining our cider club, including our ciders in your take out menus, or just sending well wishes. You are the best and we appreciate each and every one of you!

This week we have been checking our fermentation tanks in the cider house and there are some wonderful things happening out there. We have single varietals of Ashmeads Kernal, Yarlington Mill, Cortland & Dabinett maturing right now. We have several simple blends of just two or three ciders that we think complement each other perfectly. The 2019 Airlie Red continues to astound with its bright color and flavor. We were lucky that most of our ciders were fully fermented before we were forced to cut back our crew and we had Colin and Robb here to help get them all racked for the second time and safely into storage tanks for aging. At this point it is just us here but hopefully we will be able to bring the crew back on soon for orchard work and bottling.

Speaking of the orchard, last year we pruned most of the orchard heavily so this year we can get away with less. The espaliered pears are beginning to blossom out with their bridal wreaths of white flowers, something we look forward to every year. These cold nights (last night we had frost!) have kept the apple trees from leafing out and given us a reprieve and time to get the garden started.

Hopefully soon we will all be able to join together in a toast to say "it's safe now, everyone come out" It's time to enjoy one another again. Until then, we would like to continue encouraging everyone to keep supporting the small restaurants and other businesses who have adjusted their operating model to make a go at it during this crazy time. We have a list of locations who are offering to-go service, check it out on our website (https://www.alpenfirecider.com/blog/2020/3/24/our-friends-in-the-industry).

Shop for Cider (https://www.alpenfirecider.com/store)

With the down time we are working on a fun little project that will help people understand how our cider is made in a visual way. This is a taste of what we have coming.

** Our Certified Organic Scion Wood is for Sale!

We will be pruning and harvesting it in the next couple weeks. Interested? Contact us for pricing and shipping details. info@alpenfirecider.com (mailto:info@alpenfirecider.com?subject=Scion%20Wood) RECENT PRESS https://www.theciderexchange.com/interviews/nancy-bishop-interview An interview with Nancy Bishop THE CIDER EXCHANGE

http://thebrewermagazine.com/cider-corner-future-production-strategies-pandemic/

CIDER CORNER BREWER MAGAZINE