Two Guys & Beer
Schilling Cider's Local Legend
Ever wondered what happens when a cider house decides to shake up the craft beverage scene? Join us as we explore Schilling Hard Cider's Local Legend from Auburn, Washington, a semi-sweet cider that balances fresh-pressed apples with a not-too-sweet taste. Get ready for a playful discussion that includes everything from Sasquatch-themed can art to personal cider recommendations from the Pacific Northwest. It's more than just a drink—it’s a whole new flavorful adventure perfect for any occasion, even mowing the lawn!
But that's not all—our excitement doesn't end there. We’re thrilled to share some big news about signing a record contract, and we shift our focus to Schilling Cider's innovative hard lemonades like Imperial Pink Lemonade, Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and Guava Lemonade. We also dive into the world of yerba mate with Vita Mate, a low-calorie beverage designed to keep you energized without the coffee crash. Learn about the origins of yerba mate, its health benefits, and hear our personal tea stories and preferences.
Finally, explore the incredible expansion and innovation at Schilling Cider, co-founded by Colin Schilling and Mark Corney in 2015. Discover how they ramped up their Auburn plant to the fastest canning line in the Pacific Northwest and opened the world’s largest cider taproom with 50 taps. We reminisce about our visits to the Pacific Northwest, celebrate the community-driven spirit of craft breweries, and emphasize the importance of quality ingredients.
Ever wondered what happens when a cider house decides to shake up the craft beverage scene? Join us as we explore Schilling Hard Cider's Local Legend from Auburn, Washington, a semi-sweet cider that balances fresh-pressed apples with a not-too-sweet taste. Get ready for a playful discussion that includes everything from Sasquatch-themed can art to personal cider recommendations from the Pacific Northwest. It's more than just a drink—it’s a whole new flavorful adventure perfect for any occasion, even mowing the lawn!
But that's not all—our excitement doesn't end there. We’re thrilled to share some big news about signing a record contract, and we shift our focus to Schilling Cider's innovative hard lemonades like Imperial Pink Lemonade, Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and Guava Lemonade. We also dive into the world of yerba mate with Vita Mate, a low-calorie beverage designed to keep you energized without the coffee crash. Learn about the origins of yerba mate, its health benefits, and hear our personal tea stories and preferences.
Finally, explore the incredible expansion and innovation at Schilling Cider, co-founded by Colin Schilling and Mark Corney in 2015. Discover how they ramped up their Auburn plant to the fastest canning line in the Pacific Northwest and opened the world’s largest cider taproom with 50 taps. We reminisce about our visits to the Pacific Northwest, celebrate the community-driven spirit of craft breweries, and emphasize the importance of quality ingredients.
All right and welcome in once again Andy Beckstrom, sean Field, here in the Two Guys and Beer podcast studio. And we're going to go a little bit off the board today, normally podcasting about beer. Today, here we go. We're going to go a little bit off the board today, normally podcasting about beer. Today we're going to go cider. So it's quite similar Canned, got some alcohol to it, a lot of the same type of similar type of deals and you see cider houses here and there. There's actually one just up the road from here where I live, and so a chance to kind of try something a little bit different, be able to get a little off the board.
Speaker 2:That's what we're all about here. We'll try anything with alcohol in it, yep.
Speaker 1:How about that? Absolutely so. Today we're doing a shilling hard cider. This is going to be out of Auburn and well, seattle and Portland, essentially.
Speaker 2:Out of Washington.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We know a few people out in Washington, so if you guys are listening, this one's for you, melissa and Jake.
Speaker 1:Yep, there we go.
Speaker 2:And if you can recommend a brewery so we can try a beer from out there, not a cider, let us know, Shoot us a text message Comment on our social media. Come on, jake, we know you got it in.
Speaker 1:You Come on, get it out there. Come on, talk to us. Talk to us people. Yeah, so Schilling Hard Cider. We're doing a local legend. It's a classic, semi-sweet, full pounder, 5.2% alcohol, abv. Let's see here Schilling Cider LLC out of Auburn, washington, but they have cider houses in Seattle and Portland. So definitely Pacific Northwest, but they got a couple of different locations to be able to go with up there.
Speaker 1:So before we pop the top here, let's hear nothing. Artificial, fresh pressed apples I think that's how the English way is supposed to be pronounced. Salutations, semi-sweet seekers. This isn't a hoax. The rumors are true. The local legend has been cited. This isn't a hoax. The rumors are true. The local legend has been cited. Tasting is believing.
Speaker 1:After years of safeguarding and fine-tuning secret family recipes, I am ready to reveal my latest creation. No longer elusive, the perfect harmony of dry and sweet is in your hands. A cider that is refreshing as a cool mountain creek and doesn't miss a beat. There may be other ciders in the wild, but this local legend is worthy of its name. Just like a Sasquatch, this cider is always waiting to be discovered. You're a believer. Come find me in the woods. Pairs perfectly with your favorite tunes and a shot of whiskey. I did not bring the whiskey, I apologize. I kind of failed on that one, but that's quite the description that they have. Usually just a couple of words, but this yeah, it's got a whole big old paragraph of a description on the back here for shilling hard cider. So let's pop the top of the episode.
Speaker 2:That is quite the description and, for the record, I don't want to find anything in the woods, especially a Sasquatch. I don't believe they're there, so once I take a drink of this, I don't think I'll believe. I might believe this is a good hard apple cider.
Speaker 1:Right, but you're not buying into the Sasquatch thing, you're not going squatching.
Speaker 2:I'm not going squatching.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:But it's a cool thing. I think the art on the can is cool. I think the guy on the front with the boom box is cool. In fact that's what drew me to it to pick it out. But you know who would go squatching would be. My wife probably thinks these things are hilarious, like I've been trying to get her one of those metal cutouts of a sasquatch that kind of had a fad all over the place and put one in our driveway, kind of like that big darkened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're wood cutouts or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she thinks those things are hilarious. So that's another reason I figured I better pick this out, and so she'll go a-squatchin'. I won't go a-squatchin'. I'll just go a cider drinkin'.
Speaker 1:There we go, there we go. We'll let them wander off into the woods and we'll just sit back. This is pretty good First taste. It's a kind of the, the old, semi-sweet, but it's. It's got some flavor to it and it's. It's light and crisp, it's easy to drink and usually a lot of ciders that I've had have kind of not a bitter bite to it, but you got it's a sipper, but this one you could drink a little bit more yeah, this one's kind of a drier tasting cider.
Speaker 2:I think. Uh, when we talk ciders or think ciders, uh, if you have a hard apple cider or an angry orchard, they seem to be too sugary or too syrupy or they're a little too something. This basically tastes almost like you're drinking a crisp apple juice with alcohol in it or something Absolutely so. They definitely hit that nail on the head right on that. Nothing artificial, you can definitely tell.
Speaker 1:this is definitely like a pressed apple, not too sugary not too sweet and I don't really even taste the alcohol to it at all, which is maybe dangerous. It's not bitter, although I don't know how much apple juice I could drink before I get kind of a little bit full.
Speaker 2:One way to find out, though. Right. Well, we got four cans here, so there we go, see what happens. But it is a little drier, I would say for cider. I think it's good tasting for sure. Yeah, I think it's a local legend for Washington.
Speaker 1:I think this is a so far at least tastes kind of a good lawn mowing type of brew. I think you could probably get a couple, three, four of them. I think that the taste is nice and fresh and crisp and refreshing. I think it would just be the, the cider nature, you know. I mean kind of the I don't know if gut rot's the right way to put it but you get too much. You get too much like acid to it, like that would be the only thing that would maybe stop me from continuing to drink a whole pile of them. You know, when I'm mowing the lawn because it's nice and refreshing, and if you're hot day, you know sweating on the riding lawnmower admiring your work, this would be a good one to be able to have for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree. I think you're spot on about the gut rot. Perhaps you know. If you drink just apple juice, in general it's full of vitamin C and so if you drink a couple glasses of that within hours you're in the can like letting her fly. So this may not be the one you want to drink on a lawnmower. I would say one and a half to maybe two cans while you're mowing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's excellent though. It's fantastic, very refreshing.
Speaker 2:Super good for a cider.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I like that it's not so overpowering with sugar and sweetness or thickness like an angry orchard.
Speaker 1:This is super crisp, absolutely so. This is from a shilling hard cider. The company, at least, is based in auburn, but uh, their cider houses they got two of them, seattle, and then portland is a newer one that they just opened recently. We'll talk a little bit more about some of what they got going on there, but they got multiple different products that they they released. They have just the shilling hard ciders, which kind of what they say. All of our beverages are handcrafted in the Pacific Northwest. They use 100% fresh pressed apples, locally sourced ingredients and hand-selected yeast strains to create a cider experience that's truly unique. So they definitely do a lot of work to be able to get that going and really be able to have that feeling come out through that.
Speaker 2:So locally sourced, fresh pressed apples. What apple was made here in Minnesota that everybody loves?
Speaker 1:Honeycrisp. Honey is crisp. Got two trees out here.
Speaker 2:What kind of beer are we having with that?
Speaker 1:Why don't we have?
Speaker 2:a Honeycrisp apple beer, that'd be a pretty sweet beer.
Speaker 1:What? If that could be, and I sweet like two ways there, but I don't know how to make cider. I'll have to talk to somebody that makes cider. Maybe I can squash a couple of these. I don't know how many apples you need to be able to do cider.
Speaker 2:Can we turn that more into like an apple beer maybe? Why not Honey crisp apple beer?
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll have to talk to Brandon about that one. Brandon will hook us up.
Speaker 2:That could be our idea for our own two guys and beer recipe.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, brilliant Thanks.
Speaker 2:See Shilling. Look what you're doing for our podcast here. Absolutely, you're making us come up with these great ideas for our own recipe.
Speaker 1:The best ideas come when you have the knowledge juice going. Shilling Ciders are bold, innovative and flavor-forward, using fresh-pressed apples, locally sourced, wholesome ingredients, as we mentioned, they'll give you a beverage experience that'll have you wanting to taste their entire lineup. Nothing artificial, no preservatives, the perfect balance for any occasion. So that's kind of what they have for the Schilling Hard Cider. So that's the basics of what they do. That's the main thing, I believe, and that's where it kind of started, as they also have three other products that they do. They have Excelsior Imperial Ciders, boldly going where no cider has gone before.
Speaker 1:The original Imperial Cider is an out-of-this-world experience that is crisp, flavorful and not too sweet. Locally made in the Pacific Northwest. This astronomical apple cider has the power to launch you into orbit. Now, I won't lie, I don't know what the difference between the regular cider and the imperial cider is, but it appears to be that the imperial's. Let's see here the imperial apple pie is 8.4%, the mango supernova, which I love me some mango 9.1. So I think it's just a little, a little hotter, if you will, a little warmer when it comes to that elky holly. Yeah, the the regular shilling ciders that they have 5.2, 6.6 is about the highest that it goes and it kind of stays right around that level. So I think it's just, you know, just brewed a little bit different, a little bit. You know a little more to it. Sure, they also do a shilling hard lemonade, which is another thing that they do. Welcome to the zest coast. Okay, perfect that one.
Speaker 2:So I'm actually interested in trying their hard lemonade. If their hard lemonade is crisp and refreshing like this, I'd be interested in it. You know the mike's hard lemonade we've all had that. It's good for like half a bottle and you're like, this tastes like high fructose corn syrup and syrupy and it tastes like shit after half of a bottle.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest but if you have all of the natural products and fresh right to taste something like this.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely clean, maybe a little drier, just like this man. I'm interested in trying some of that man, I wonder. I wonder how we can get a hold of some of that hey shilling that ship some out to us Exactly.
Speaker 1:Big Zesty's Lemonade is made for all you sunset seekers, get-out-of-towners and relaxed rendezvousers. They like to turn a phrase, that's for sure. So squeeze the day and let the good tides roll, and live your zest life.
Speaker 2:Squeeze the day. It's like that one song Right Seize the day, squeeze the day. There you go, a squeeze the day, there you go.
Speaker 1:Does that make any sense? It's great. It's great remix.
Speaker 1:I like yeah, I'll be signing my record contract next week for everybody else so let's see here they got a handful of different uh, uh, the, uh, the lemonades. They have the imperial pink lemonade. It's all real lemon, so it does say real lemon. So, as you mentioned, that's kind of what they're looking at the Imperial Pink Lemonade, an 8.4. Imperial Blue Raspberry Lemonade, another 8.4. Then they have the Guava Lemonade at about a 6.9. So those are the lemonade, the hard lemonade ones that they make. So the other thing that they make is vita mate what the?
Speaker 1:hell, is that exactly that? That was my question. I'm like I don't understand. What is this? What's going on? So when I look through their website so if you go to, uh, their basic website, uh, shillingsidercom, you can get through like a bunch of the stuff that I'm talking about here and kind of you know, work through. I drew from a couple other websites as well be able to get some information. But, uh, they have a segment here where they talk about that.
Speaker 1:What is, or why Vita and their their thought is, after too many afternoons spent fighting the fog of a post coffee crash I think we've all had that where we try to, you know, hammer a cup of coffee or something like that and it's like all right. Well, now I'm going to have two, three, four more, because it works for about a half hour and then, all of a sudden, I'm like starting to droop again a little bit. They decided it was time for a beverage that would simply deliver the drive we dreamed about, with the accompanying slump, the consistent caffeination that ordered a more balanced and vibrant day. The result is Vita Mate, a low-calorie yerba mate beverage that will have you rethinking your caffeine drinking.
Speaker 2:Was there alcohol in it?
Speaker 1:So, marrying the traditional South American super beverage with Pacific Northwest's love for artisanal quality, it brings real fruit juices into this situation here. Let's see here. Try to find some of the information. Excuse me, I'm working on it, hold on.
Speaker 1:I think it's just regular drinking. It's just like they got blackberry lemonade, peach guava, mint lemonade. I don't think that it's an alcoholic bit at all. I think it's just a regular deal, alcohol-free. This is just something you can just have like at work in an afternoon or something like that. Let's see if I can get into this one here.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds good too. Oh, absolutely, you know, it's something to be able to have. So when you go on here, it also says all right, what is yerba mate? Because that's obviously what this is based on and that's what the idea is. So it is a South American drink brewed from dried leaves and twigs of the holy genus pant or holly genus pant Sorry, there was two L's in there, so not holy, it's holly Holly genus plant with botanical name Ilex paraguarninius.
Speaker 2:This is why you're reading that stuff Super, not me, just rolls off the tongue you know, common spelling.
Speaker 1:You know that's what it is. Yerba mate grows as a shrub or small tree. A small tree, a small that can reach up to 15 meters high. This evergreen tree is a species of holly that produces small, greenish, white, four-petal flowers and red berry, so it's a plant that you can brew almost like a tea if you will. It's similar they say that it's similar to a green tea, said to be best brewed in hot but not boiling water, which I don't know enough about tea to be able to understand, like where you get into that I know nothing about tea, I'm not a tea drinker.
Speaker 2:I really don't like tea.
Speaker 1:It just it's never done anything for me I used to drink. I used to like cold ice, like sun tea. You know it was like the lipton sun tea. We'd you have to get in these like these metal or metal glass tea. You know it was like the Lipton sun tea. You have to get in these like metal glass jars, and you know we'd put the tea bags in there and put it in the window Like 50 tea bags and a bunch of ice.
Speaker 1:Yep, and then toss it into the fridge, you know after that or whatever. You used to drink that stuff quite a bit, so I never really was really the sweet tea this is the regular stuff, or whatever Sweet tea. Tea this is the regular stuff, or whatever sweet tea is too sweet for me, I guess, just probably just because I grew up on the other stuff. It's probably more so what it was, but that was always good stuff. I think tea tastes like dirt.
Speaker 2:It kind of does you ever have a hand?
Speaker 1:it really kind of does yeah, I don't throw a lot of dirt in my mouth very often, you know, try to kind of avoid that those hot, sweaty days, you just pick up some dirt and throw it in your mouth. The only time is when I bite it in baseball or softball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just going to say when you're sliding into third, catch some of that Sliding into third. I'm not getting that far. Get that agri-lime in your mouth Tastes like it. To me that's just tea. I apologize to all you tea-givers, I just can't get into tea, not your jam. Not my jam.
Speaker 1:So well then, you're probably not going to want to go to Brazil, paraguay or Argentina.
Speaker 2:Not for tea.
Speaker 1:Because yerba mate is known as the national drink of those countries, so keep that in mind when you're traveling to South America. All right, perfect. It is known in some of those areas as the drink of the gods and thought to possess the host of health benefits, most of which helping prolong life. Okay, so you're going to live forever, apparently Brewed. It's similar to green tea, hot, not boiling water. It's the same paragraph that he had up there, but what they have is so they've taken this and they've married it with the different flavors, the real fruit flavors, so maybe you don't get that dirt tea type of taste. They're just using that brew and then putting it with mint, lemonade, mango, lime, pineapple, ginger, peach, guava and blackberry lemonade.
Speaker 2:Okay, I would try that. That sounds good yeah.
Speaker 1:It might be kind of an interesting kind of pair with some of that so kind of an interesting deal, so with some of that so kind of an interesting, interesting deal.
Speaker 2:So that's what Schilling makes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so those are their lines of yeah, those are their four, four different products that they make the other regular Schilling ciders, the Imperial, the uh hard lemonade and then the Vida Mate, the non-alcoholic afternoon. I know it's just a fun phrase to say. It sounds like a song Vida.
Speaker 2:Mate Vida, mate Living.
Speaker 1:La Vida Loca.
Speaker 2:We're living La Vida, mate Remix.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of what that is, which is kind of a cool thing, but some of the background with what they got going on. So I was trying to find I had an article where it talked about when they first kind of started, but they've expanded quite large over the course of years. They co-founded Schilling Cider it was Colin Schilling, the CEO, and then CFO, mark Corney, k-o-r-n-e-i Corney. 2015 is when they did that. That's when they started things and they've kind of worked their way up over the course of time. But this was in 2020, there was an article in the Auburn Reporter where they were talking about their extensive, year-long, multi-million dollar project that was being worked on there in Auburn. They have transformed their five-year-old plant which was 2015 to 2020, you know the short-term deal from a cidery and secondary packaging operations into the fastest canning line dedicated to alcohol in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2:All right, I want to know how much they're canning then. It makes it the fastest.
Speaker 1:It does Our cans. I have the answer for you. Don't usually always have the answers here for you.
Speaker 2:Did they compare to other breweries?
Speaker 1:1,200 cans a minute.
Speaker 2:That seems like a lot of cans per minute.
Speaker 1:Which is faster than all of the breweries in Seattle combined. So you want to talk comparison? Perfect Gives you kind of an idea to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Way to go.
Speaker 1:Shelly, absolutely Heck, yeah, so they've definitely upped their game, if you will.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see some video on that. I'd like to see 1,200 cans of alcohol being canned in a minute.
Speaker 1:It's going to look an awful lot like the beginning of Laverne and Shirley. Yes, they're sending the glove down the line yes. I don't think it probably does. It probably doesn't.
Speaker 2:Well, we can pretend.
Speaker 1:Maybe it does, but yeah, they finished their kind of remodel and expansion. This was back in January of 2020. And so they have a new tasting room that they opened up, a brand new second floor tasting room. A chance to be able to gawk at the new machinery as they sip and sample, making it one of the coolest places in the Puget Sound region is the way it was described here by the Auburn Reporter.
Speaker 2:What was that Sip and what?
Speaker 1:Sip and sample. Sip and sample. I like that Sip and sample.
Speaker 2:That could be a line of beer, a sip and sample A sip and sample.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they talk about I'll get to that here in a little bit where they talk about how to be able to just you know the way they have it set up. You'll come in and be able to pick your own type of tastings. They said that they did have a chance to open previously, like about a year before that, but just with the way things, if you remember, back to 2020, I don't know if anybody remembers there was this little illness that was like moving around the country and things kind of like slowed down for a little bit.
Speaker 2:I don't think I ever heard of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it didn't really affect a whole lot, but apparently the service industry got hit pretty good. But yeah, so they got slowed down with some of the production, some of the work, just a little bit. But they're able to continue building that and that's what they've built it into. And it's described by one of the other places. Eater is a site in Portland, oregon, that did a listing, where they have a bunch of pictures inside the world's largest cider, taproot. So they have more ciders on tap than anywhere in the world. At least that's what they boast. Whether it's true or not, I don't know if anybody has come to be able to challenge that.
Speaker 2:How many different ciders can you have, though? What would you make to make a different cider than fruit Right? That's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't really necessarily know the answer to that, but apparently they have 50 taps.
Speaker 2:Well, next time I'm out there in the Seattle area, I'll be stopping by.
Speaker 1:And I'm interested to find out if it is 50 different taps or if they have just 10 different kinds on five different locations throughout the gigantic massive tap room. You know what I mean. I'm not necessarily challenging them. I've just seen that there was a bar here locally that boasts that they have, like they've got, 24 taps and you go in there and it's like all right, well you actually have six, yeah, and you just have it mirrored on both sides, like you don't have that many.
Speaker 1:You just have that many tap handles. You don't have that many different beers, right? So calm down, put your pants back on.
Speaker 2:If it was 50 individual ciders, that would be something to see. That would be impressive I would be interested to try all sorts of different flavors. For sure, it seems like when you get to the cider line of alcoholic beverages there doesn't seem to be like a massive variety, you know, because there's only so many flavors of cider you can make. So it'd be be real interesting and curious to see what type of different ciders they make and concoctions and what different ingredients they use, if they legit have 50 different ciders on tap yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, the different flavors I know that the one that's up here just north of where I'm located, they do have, probably about 10 different kinds. Yeah, there's a bunch of different little flavors. You get the base of just the apple, but you can throw about any type of flavoring in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is true actually. So they very easily could have 50 different ciders. You know, the one up here is Sapsucker Farms, of course, and they had the lemongrass um, like a cajun one, all sorts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a bunch of different drawing a blank right now.
Speaker 2:I've been there like twice, but yeah yeah, it's a cool little building.
Speaker 1:I like that place. So, strawberry, I have to have them on the podcast at some point time too. Maybe we'll do a live in person one there. We'll truck all of our equipment up there, not too too far.
Speaker 2:No six miles.
Speaker 1:Get rid of it.
Speaker 1:Let's see here it sounds like since the plant opened in 2015, processing of the raw apples into juice was all completed in Yakima in eastern Washington, and then the juices were trucked to Auburn and piped into enormous tanks where the time and expertise to turn them into the many juice blends, into hard ciders so there was kind of production here and then actually making of the stuff in another location Until late last year.
Speaker 1:However, the Auburn plant now tanked its finished ciders at a local cannery, which filled and seamed the cans before returning them to Schilling for placement into boxes and case trays for distribution. So the multi-million dollar investment allows them to have its own canning and seaming equipment brought as part of the operation in from the cold and removed from the plant's most significant bottleneck, which is just the delay in being able to get that. So now they can create so much more with that. They're either via regional scale and their canning lines will do about 80 cans a minute, maybe up to even 300 cans a minute, but, as I mentioned before, theirs will do 1200 cans a minute, which is unreal.
Speaker 2:I would love to see a video of that.
Speaker 1:Schilling is quoted as saying we also have some pretty tricky technology that's specific to our product. For instance, we have a big pasteurization tunnel, which is a nice way to create shelf stability without chemicals, which is a big thing. You want it to be able to stay good for a while, especially if it's not refrigerated, right. We also have some cool secondary packaging to create those 6 to 12-pack boxes that everybody likes, as opposed to the old rings. We do have the 12-pack boxes that everybody likes, as opposed to the old rings. We do have the four-pack rings here, but you can get larger packs of it, which is good. They can do that all there at high speed. We have one of the newer high-tech machines that do that type of operation. So a lot of stuff that they had going on. Again, this is back in 2020, when they expanded a massive expansion to be able to get that.
Speaker 1:Again, this is back in 2020, when they expanded a massive expansion to be able to get that. They said that customers who remember the former tasting room are in for a little bit of a pleasant jolt, not only being able to sip and sample and be able to see all of the equipment Schilling says our old tasting room was seats in a warehouse and a pool table. We got off of Craigslist. People liked it, but it's going to be a nicer vibe with the new thing. So it's a chance to be able to get in there and, you know, try something, something a little bit different to be able to sit at the bar. There'll be taps, there'll be swag for sale and from the windows you can look down onto the production floor.
Speaker 2:I always think that that's kind of a cool thing to be able to do.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of breweries that do that. You don't always get to see them doing the thing, because usually they do brew days on either closed days or when there's not a bunch of people there.
Speaker 2:Morning hours prior to opening.
Speaker 1:Because people got to be working and things like that. So you don't always get to be able to see a lot of that, but it is kind of a fun thing. I think it'd be kind of interesting to have a brewery have, like, maybe it's scheduled like, hey, if you want to come and watch here, problem is it. Just it just takes a lot of. It's kind of boring. You're just adding stuff into a boiling pot and then you just walk away and you let the system do the thing. So but I think people might enjoy. You know like I'll sit and have a couple of ciders while I watch somebody do that. Yeah, I don't know how often I would, but you know why not.
Speaker 1:You know if it's an option, yeah, I would for sure too. So they kind of describe the new setup. They'll have like a little party area that they can be uh private or you can have it still be kind of open to everything else, but you'll be able to cut out a lot of the noise. So when the lines are running the double insulated windows you don't have a bunch of that noise coming in. So it's going to filter out a lot of that. You'll know what's going on, but it's not going to be real bad. So kind of a little bit of a different, uh a vibe which goes that.
Speaker 2:So well, and that's perfect, because you know, when my cd drops this friday my album they'll be blaring that in the tap house where everybody's watching the line. Go just listen to my amazing there you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got an ep coming out. Oh, or something, I sure do. Lp.
Speaker 2:LP, ep, vinyl, cassette, 8-track. I've got everything coming up there. We go, love it. Everybody wants to hear this. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:I might need a couple of these to get through it.
Speaker 2:You might need a case.
Speaker 1:There we go. Well, it's a good thing that they now make the larger cases the 12 and the 24-packs there. For me, those are all coming together, so they have the two different locations. The one in Portland is the one that they bill as the largest selection of hard ciders on draft. This eater eater inside is what it's called, and they have a whole selection of pictures that show what appears to be a very beautiful tap room.
Speaker 1:They've done a lot of work with this and it looks absolutely incredible. You know it looks brand. You know I mean this is brand new, but this was also in 2017, 2020, you know when they did that but looks like an amazing place to be able to go and check out. They opened their first location in Seattle and then followed up with the new tap room now in Portland that now has the 50 taps. It has a bunch of house ciders, but they also have a bunch of guest ciders, so other places can bring their cider in to be able to have that on tap. So it's not necessarily all of them are made by them. They have some other people that they can collab with, which, again, is one of the things that I think is great about, like the brewing community, whether it be brewing, ciders brewing, beer whatever it is, work together and everybody moves up.
Speaker 2:Right and then put out quality products that people love to enjoy and just sit there and enjoy the flavors not necessarily go to the brewery to get smashed and be stupid and stuff. You go there because you love the flavor, you love the taste, you love the camaraderie, the community, just getting out talking to people, just having a good drink.
Speaker 1:If you're kind of new to the podcast which I would hope we got a lot of new people that are coming to it but if you're new to the brewing community generally speaking, go out and check out a tap room. If all you drink is Coors Light, bush Light, that's totally fine. I'm not going to judge that. Whatever your selection is, go ahead and do that. Yeah, sean's kind of a judgy little bee over there, but whatever works for you, it is what it is. I sometimes myself. This last Saturday had a couple of bushlights, a couple of bushlights.
Speaker 2:I am now judging you.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of bushlights, but it depends kind of on the situation sometimes too, I'm not going to have.
Speaker 1:If I'm having a good time, we're having a party, we're doing something, celebrating something, I'm not going to have like 14 ipas, it's just not going to work. I'm going to be just so full and just at that point time. But that works as kind of a refreshing. You know something to be able to work on. But it's kind of a nice blend. But I highly recommend anybody.
Speaker 1:If you haven't, go to a tap room, just find one. They're at least in Minnesota and Colorado has a whole pile of them. I think Wisconsin has a bunch of them. I don't feel like there's a shortage anymore of breweries. For a long time even Florida only had a handful of them. Now they're just all over the place down there along the coast.
Speaker 1:You can find breweries about anywhere. I would just highly recommend just go in and check it out. Do a flight. Almost every brewery does like little flights where you can get, you know, like five, six, little, like four ounce taster things, taste a bunch of different things. Step out of the comfort zone. You're going to not like some stuff. I'll be flat out. I will say that, that you will not like some stuff. But that's fine. Find what you might like there. And if you don't find something, that's fine. Another tap room is going to probably have something else too.
Speaker 1:There's also times where I've gone to try a new brewery. Didn't really like anything there, but I came back in like six months and I loved half the stuff there. Try it again Because, as we've talked on different episodes, they'll roll out new beers all the time, constantly. They're tinkering with different things. They're trying different stuff. Well, this didn't seem to sell real good. People didn't really like that flavor. We'll move on, we'll bring something else that's got a little different flavor to it. So you can find just about anything, just about anywhere. Find your buddy that does like that stuff and they'll be happy to bring you there.
Speaker 1:People get kind of a hard knock a little bit on craft beer. He's like, oh, you're going to have the beer and the man bun and be all pretentious and stuff like that. And generally speaking, most people are just like oh, come on, let's go, let's go try some stuff. You know like, this is what I have, this is what I kind of like, but let's try all the different things. It's great to be able to just get out there and try the different varieties that are.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to remember what brewery it was about. I think it might have been Castle Danger. Up in Two Harbors, minnesota, great brewery, a lot of really good beer, but Cream Ale is their most popular one. That's on a lot of taps throughout Minnesota. You can get it at any liquor store, very widely available, at least up here in the upper Midwest. I don't know how much they distribute beyond that, but it's widely available here. And I had talked to somebody at one point and they're like oh yeah, I don't like Castle Danger and I'm like oh, which one did you have Like? Why had the Castle Danger?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I need to explain this to you, right, which variety of Castle Danger Exactly? It's kind of like saying, oh, I had a potato, like, okay, did you have a baked potato? Did you have French fries? Did you have tater tots? Did you have waffle fries? Exactly, sweet potato fries there's so many different things. Yes, it's potato. But there's so many different ways you can be able to do it. You know what I mean. It's oh, I had chicken. Okay, so let's Perfect.
Speaker 2:Did you have raw?
Speaker 1:chicken, exactly, yeah, sushi chicken. So it's for those that don't know, and I'm kind of preaching to the choir for the people that are aware of this, but they're, you know it's, if you're under the impression that you know, like you see, castle Danger Cream Ale, and that's Castle Danger, and that's what it is, mostly because of the large companies like Budweiser Bush, light, things like that. That's their one thing, that's what they do. But there's a whole world. If you go even to lining kugels, there's a hundred different beers that they make and it's all different flavors and all different styles too, like it's not all ipas, it's not all stouts. Some of them are lean, heavy in in some directions. The local beer club is is heavy on kind of the uh, bavarian, german style beers, you know. So they'll have kind of maybe a theme within it.
Speaker 1:But you can find just about any type of taste at multiple different breweries, and there's even certain places that aren't even breweries for themselves. But you can I think that you were talking about one. I think there's a union 88, I think is what it's called that you can go and they have just a million taps there and you can just basically pay by the ounce to be able to get stuff like that, so you could try a million different things. You're like, okay, well, I like this kind of feeling of a taste or something like that, and talk to the people that are working there. They'll be happy to explain, kind of, what it is that you're getting.
Speaker 2:And the people that work at breweries and tap houses. They're super friendly and they're knowledgeable about what you're drinking. You can ask them any question about anything about the beer and they'll tell you about it, unlike a normal bar, you know. That's why you go in there to. What you were saying is you grab a flight and you can try all the different things of beer that they offer so you can decide on what you like, what you want to drink, and not only that, while you're there, the people that frequent breweries they're friendly, they're outgoing, they're not there to cause drama or problems. You go to a local bar and there's fights all the time. It's annoying, it's loud, it's not fun. You know you go to a brewery. It's friendly, there's no fight. I've never seen a fight at a brewery, personally, of all kinds.
Speaker 1:There's kids there.
Speaker 2:There's kids, there's families. Man, you want to play a game of Farkle? There's a Farkle board right over there. Some dice, you start farkling, right there.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You get a farkle right in front of everybody. That's right.
Speaker 2:And nobody cares. People might even join in.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah, there's nothing better than a group farkle.
Speaker 2:We all like to farkle.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's such a great scene, it's a great community, a lot of places you can bring your dogs with. You see a lot of dogs at breweries, especially if they have patios Not of places you can bring your dogs with, you know. So you see a lot of dogs at breweries, especially, I mean, if they have patios. Not a lot inside, just for the obvious reasons, but it's just a fun laid back atmosphere. You know what I mean. Like you said, people are just in there to I'm gonna try some different stuff, I'm gonna have some fun, I'm just gonna be relaxed. It's a very chill, kind of cool vibe. A lot of fun and even some breweries.
Speaker 2:I don't know if shilling does that with their ciders they probably do. You go to a brewery, you want some fresh beer canned. They'll can it for you right there. Like I'll take some of this, some of this, and you watch them, can it right in front of you and you take it home. I mean, what's better than that?
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know as fresh as you could possibly get.
Speaker 1:We were talking a little bit about the guest ciders before and you had mentioned about, you know, like some of the freshness quality standards they have. For a guest cider to be featured, it has to be made by an independently owned cidery that does not use artificial colors, flavors or preservatives and has to be made out of 100% fresh pressed juice.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So even though they bring in outside places to be able to feature their stuff, they still keep their same quality standards that they would for their own stuff. For that, that sounds awesome. That way, they keep their same quality with that, which is absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2:That makes me want to go there even more and check it out. You don't know that you're getting that type of quality and fresh ingredients and not full of additives and artificial stuff. Like I want real raw ingredients, fresh ingredients, Like let's go. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a. It's quite fantastic. So there's another article that I also pulled some information from here. It's the cider scene cider scenecom. It's a blog 2017.
Speaker 1:They talked to the uh, the owner, colin Schilling, and uh, you know, kind of like we had on a previous episode where we were able to get the owner to be able to meet with us and chat for a little bit. And here it says, when he said he's willing to meet at 9am on Saturday, you just say yes and show up, because he's going to be busy all day long. If you give him an hour, you're going to take what you can get at that point. So they got a chance to be able to go to the newest cider house. At the time this is in 2017, again in Portland that they were just making, and you can see the tap lines here on the main picture. It's just tap handle after tap handle all over the place, so quite the extensive kind of thing there, even though he's the CEO of the company.
Speaker 1:He showed up. You know, just kind of some shilling attire, but like jacket and ball cap and shorts, just relaxed atmosphere. Again, they're going to be professional. They're going to be professional, they're going to do the job and they're going to do it the way they know how but at the same time very laid back, real down to earth type of people. So they met at the Schilling Tasting Room in Auburn instead of at one of their other locations. And then it's their other location in the Fremont district of Seattle and talked about the space that they have and they say. They said it's a 35,000 square foot manufacturing facility, so lots of space to be able to get things going and you really get the the magnitude of what's going on with what they have there.
Speaker 1:But they had this, this article. They had a five specific questions and I won't go through all the questions here but some of the ones that I want to kind of highlight. That I thought was kind of funny. Best cider hangover cure, he says more cider, which is classic answer. On that one he did say, though like he kind of laughed a little bit but said I actually really like a cider mimosa and we have our cold brew as well. So they have kind of a coffee cider blend with that as well. So kind of some fun stuff with that.
Speaker 1:They said that at the time their Portland location was keeping them pretty busy because they're trying to get that up and running. That was at the time. It's up and running now and huge, fantastic space that they have there. But they've also worked with uh street bean coffee about doing some non-alcoholic canned cold brew coffee to be able to get out. And of course we mentioned the uh, the, the vita mate stuff that they have. So they do have some good non-alcoholic options out there as well. And uh, you mentioned it before uh, you're an advocate for people opening cider bars what's your single best piece of advice you have for them? And he says sell good cider and give customers what they want.
Speaker 2:That is the best piece Almost nailed. That exactly right off the head Just perfect.
Speaker 1:So it's, yeah, it's, it's. It's one of those things that everybody wants to get together. One of the other questions why is the camaraderie amongst cider makers so strong? And I think the way that this is put, the way that he words this, I think could be applied to even the beer industry and things like that, the brewing industry as a whole. The quote was all boats rise, which means that every cider maker, and probably every brewer, wants to see the other ones succeed, because if each of us does well, it builds the industry, sure does. It pushes everything up, and if the water keeps rising, you're going to keep going up with it.
Speaker 2:And I'll keep drinking it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So definitely some good information, some good interesting thing that we pulled off of there and we were able to get some information here on uh shilling hard cider a lot of fun. You know a lot of cool stuff and uh, it's just a lot of a really cool type of things that they got going on there and uh, the, the portland and um seattle area, so a little pacific northwest. So, yeah, we'll have to go out and visit uh melissa and jake and have them take us around and try some different locations. For sure that would that would be great. Check out the local legend in his own backyard.
Speaker 2:Perfect. So we're talking a little bit about cider and apples. I'm just curious what's your favorite apple? I do like apples. I do eat them for lunch at work. I do buy one. What do you like to eat If you're eating a fruit and you got a nice crisp apple in your refrigerator?
Speaker 1:I do. I do like the honey crisp and maybe that's just kind of a Minnesota bit. You know, I don't know necessarily what it is, but you know I harvest a lot off your trees. We get a handful off there, to be perfectly honest, half the time forget about it and then by the time we're going to pick, know it's definitely. It's kind of funny, like when you have your own apple trees and you pull them off of there, you really notice I don't know if production value is the way to put it, but the level of production value that you get with an apple that goes to like a store. They clean it, they kind of give it a little waxy sheen to it to make it really pop.
Speaker 1:You grab it from out here. It looks like it's like dingy, you know. You try to rub it off a little bit and it still just looks exactly the same. You know what I mean. So it's clearly the advertising or the sales tactics that work is to make it look really pretty and make it look shiny, and it works because everybody buys them. So it is a little bit different, different. But yeah, we don't get a ton off of here. We do get a decent amount but, like I said, half the time we forget that it's there and you know when we do pick it, what you know it's you pick them. And what am I going to do with these now for the next three weeks?
Speaker 1:right, yeah, before they go back quickly, or you can them, or something you know exactly make something out of them but the ones that they do pull are they are very good and you know, I do like a honey crisp. Um, I don't know, gala apple, I, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I I like most, most apples, but I only ever get a couple different kinds yeah, we have three or four apple trees on our property too, and I have not a clue what type apples they are. I don't know if they're red, delicious or washington apple or what, but they're definitely not my favorite. We we kind of are in the same boat. We think, oh, maybe we should spray our trees, but we never do and they fall to the ground and I mow them up and it smells great when I'm mowing them up.
Speaker 2:But we have a lot of deer that come in the yard and eat them up. But one apple tree I'd really like to plant is the Granny Smith. The Granny Smith are my favorite. I like the sour tart apple. Yeah, no, so we were talking about that. This year you might, might actually do that. We have a spot on our property where we're thinking of planting like three honey crisp, three granny smith and three something else next thing, you know, you're gonna have your own little cidery there you go you're darn right.
Speaker 1:Why not you bet two barrels a year?
Speaker 2:here we go there we are.
Speaker 1:Love it. There you go, you're darn right.
Speaker 2:Why not you bet Two barrels a year? Here we go, there we are.
Speaker 1:Love it. So yeah, I don't know I'll let you think back or not think back, but I'll have to try to pay a little better attention next time I get apples. Generally it's just a honeycrisp, it's pretty much about it. Sure, all side of that, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Granny smith, pretty solid one though yeah, I like, I like the sour tart, tart, tart apple. Yeah, yeah it's kind of my favorite, since this is out in washington. You ever been out to washington?
Speaker 1:I have not. No, I, as far as going out west, I've been to, uh, arizona and I drove down that direction. I've been to colorado like once for about 12 hours, so I don't really think that counts, but that's about it going on going West. So otherwise they haven't really been too many places that direction, more Florida or East A lot of history out East.
Speaker 2:I've been to Washington once, ironically enough, visiting Jake and Melissa. Hi guys, one of the places we went though I kind of wanted to talk about was really cool out there in seattle was the underground. I don't know a ton about it, so if I'm wrong, you guys can comment and tell me how stupid I am on our social media, but if I remember correctly, the underground basically is the old seattle. So at one point in time in history seattle burnt to the ground, or burnt real heavily. Well, they built the seattle that you know it is today on top of the old one. Oh wow.
Speaker 2:So when you go under the streets and stuff, when you're taking a tour of it, you can see the actual structures of the old buildings, of the new buildings that are built on top of the old structures weird. So you can see crumbling buildings underground and, uh, all that sort of thing. You know, when you're going through there they talk about how Seattle had the first plumbing system. Somehow the sound when the sea level rises in the sound back before they had plumbing that would take people's sewage back up to them in their houses.
Speaker 2:Good good good, back up to them in their houses, good, good. So Seattle was the first essentially city in the country with more modernized plumbing, and John Crapper, of course, made the first toilet. That's right, John Crapper which was the first ones, were in Seattle with their modern plumbing and stuff. So I just wanted to share that. It was real cool going out there when you're tooling underground. You're literally under the city, under roads, under the buildings, and you see the old buildings and stuff.
Speaker 1:You're like look like wow, that's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that'd be unreal and, of course, the market out there. I forget exactly what it's called, I just remember they're signing the mark. You know where they throw fish and catch fish and stuff. It's something market were tooling through there and watching people catch fish and I don't remember if Melissa or Jake or one of the workers like, oh, look at this fish, you know. So I'm looking at these cases full of ice. You know they put fresh fish on the ice. You know, pike place, pike place. Yes, thank you Google?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Now my Facebook feed is going to be full of fish ads now It'll be for a couple of weeks, so I'm like studying these fish. In this case, I don't know why I was so intently looking at them, but I was like and I was not in a brewery or cidery.
Speaker 2:We didn't frequent any of those, but I was super intently looking at these cases with these big fresh fish, small fresh fish on this ice, and I don't remember, like, like I said, if it was the worker there most of the time. Oh, look at this one, you know. So I'm like looking at it and I'm like, oh, wow, you know, that's weird looking. I'm getting closer and closer and next thing, you know, it moves and I freaked the f out. I'm like God, jump up, you know, and everybody's laughing. Ha ha ha. Well, here it's purposely a fake fish in there and they get people to look at it In the inside, where the worker is. They like, just pull on it a little bit and it moves. So that's kind of a story I had about that man. It freaked the heck out of me.
Speaker 2:Everybody's laughing making fun of me and I'm like all right, you're right, yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go. Super cool place, the sound, beautiful place, beautiful city at night. We went up on the hills and we kind of looked over the city. Gorgeous city, space needle, real cool. We went to some like music museums I forget what it's called, but they had like things from kurt cobain, you know, nirvana all, alice in Chains, jimi Hendrix because he's buried out there. Real neat place. You know a lot of fun things to do in Seattle.
Speaker 2:So, now we can add cider along to that.
Speaker 1:There we go. Yeah, always up for trying something different. Yeah, 100%. So, jake and Melissa, we're coming to crash your place.
Speaker 2:Here we come.
Speaker 1:And we're coming to crash your place.
Speaker 2:Here we come. And just saying Shilling said he got to bring us here.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's kind of our story there on Shilling. Got anything else for us today there Kind of talked a little history of Seattle as well, but anything else you got today.
Speaker 2:No, I don't have anything else, I just enjoy this beer Shilling, shilling, hard cider, local legend, real good beer, real crisp, real refreshing dry, not sweet not overpowering in the gut, not full of sugar, great stuff. If you can get it, get yourself some of this stuff, try it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Highly recommend it for a cider for sure.
Speaker 1:And that's going to be our episode for today. I just want to thank Schilling, hard Cider and the information we were able to draw out on that, and until next time, everybody cheers.