044: Sebastian Lousada | Flag Hill Farm Cider, VT

Flag Hill Farm makers of what they call Vermont Organic Hard Cider, is fully off the grid, certified organic, are makers of both cider and Pomme-de-vie AND I bet you haven't heard of it! So join me in this intimate conversation with the cidermaker, Sebastian Lousada as we discuss his journey to cider and the products he makes today! Sebastian originally hails from the UK, but he has been making cider before 1984. Back then they planted 50 standard trees the first year, just wanting to have apples. As they were living on top of Flag Hill a high mountain location, they decided to plant 100 more trees in 1989. Being certified organic encouraged he and his wife Sabra Ewing to begin selling cider. In 1990, they became bonded as a winery. Sebastian mentions that back then people had no idea what cider was or that it even had alcohol in it. Thus they decided to spell their product as Cyder, with a "Y" to differentiate it from other products. Flag Hill's ciders are available in VT, MA and throughout New England. "On a good year we make 4000 gallons of cider. Because we only want to use apples that we have grown." Flag Hill Farm's Cider • Sapsucker - named a Belgian Beer Style 9% • Vermont Still Cyder 8.5% • Vermont Sparkling Cider 9.5% Pomme-de-Vie, Flag Hill Farm's was inspired by the French apple brandy Calvados. Contact Flag Hill Farm P.O. Box 31, Vershire VT 05079 Telephone: 802-685-7724 email: [email protected] website: http://www.flaghillfarm.com/ Mentions in this chat Annie Proulx author of Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider, 3rd Edition Lew Nichols co authored the above book with Annie Proulx. Julian Temperley Sebastian visited in the UK Ruby Wines is Flag Hill's distributor If you like this chat and please join in and support Cider Chat's quest to continue to keep the chat thriving, go to Cider Chat's Patreon Page. It is easy, secure and makes a bushel of difference for keeping this podcast rolling out future shows like this one with Sebastian! Follow Cider Chat on twitter @ciderchat