127: Western Michigan's Ridge Cider

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: [email protected]

Telephone: (231) 674-2040

Address: smack in the middle of Grant, Michigan

Ridge Cider social media:

• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ridgecider/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ridgeciderco/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ridgeciderco

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

• May 16, 2018 - International Cider & Perry, Hereford UK
• May 16-19, 2018 Great Lakes International Cider and Perry competition

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

1. Kurant Cider - Pennsylvania : listen to Joe Getz on episode 14
2. Big Apple Hard Cider - NYC : listen to Danielle von Scheiner on episode 35
3. Oliver’s Cider and Perry - Herefordshire/UK ; listen to Tom Oliver on episode 29
4. Santa Cruz Cider Company - California : listen to Nicole Todd on episode 60
5. The Cider Project aka EthicCider- California
6. Albermale CiderWorks : listen to Chuck Shelton on episode 56
7. Cider Summit : listen to Alan Shapiro founder of this cider fest on episode 75.
8. Ramborn Cider Co. Luxembourg.
9. Big Fish Cider Co. Virginia
10. Tanuki Cider Co. Santa Cruz California episode 103
11. Ross on Wye Cider and Perry, UK
12. Process and Analytical NMR Services - John Edwards provides analytics of cider - stay tuned for his Chemical Fingerprints workshop coming up on Cider Chat
13. Ironbark Ciderworks, Claremont, California

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