Richard Yi joins me from Brooklyn Cider House to talk about Cider, the growing Craft Cider industry and how you can make your own cider at home.

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Topics in This Week’s Episode (54:23)

This week I welcome Richard Yi. Richard is a second generation Cider maker working for his family’s business Brooklyn Cider House. He specializes in creating ciders with international influence from American heirloom and other rare apples and fruits.

Richard starts by telling us the story of Brooklyn Cider House and how he started the business with his father.

We discuss the history of cider, which was once literally on every table in America in the 1700’s and 1800’s, and how cider fell from grace when prohibition hit.

We talk about some of the major types of cider as well as the wide diversity of cider styles now bring made.

Richard highlights his work in wild, barrel aged and sour ciders which is a bit of a specialty area. We discuss how he has been able to apply many sour beer techniques to ciders.

Craft cider is one of the few alcoholic beverage categories still growing. Richard provides his thoughts on the rise of Craft Cider in the US and why it is growing in popularity.

He shares some of the challenges cider makers have in educating consumers about craft cider and the wide variety of cider styles available.

I ask about heirloom apples, which have different characteristics including more tannins and acidity than typical “eating” varieties. We talk about heirloom apples and some of the challenges getting them grown in quantity.

Richard provides a brief overview of how an average brewer can use existing equipment to make cider at home. He recommends using baking apples that are freshly squeezed instead of working with juice.

We talk about some of the interesting ciders he has been working on.

Richard provides his location, how you can buy Brooklyn Ciders and also his closing thought.

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