Cider tour 2021
On this page you can find more detailed info about the 2021 Cider Tour which I, František Algoldor Apfelbeck organize. The main goal is to promote and sell cider and related products which I make with help of cider presentations and tastings alias "Cider Flows". I will be happy to do also "other" fermentation activities like kombucha, kefir, natto and other workshops but as a side activity. My main hope is to find long term vending points like restaurants, bars, bio-shops, cavist (off licenses/shops specialized on high quality alcohol) and of course sell also in the meanwhile at the events. I need help from the people in the hacker movement to find places for my presentation and workshop activity in their communities and promote them a bit, plus get me in touch with the local slow&bio movement and vendors in general. For each place where I come to do the events I need at least one person to coordinate with in advance, more better. In general I would like to have the basic info like location for the event, dates and times set one month in advance if possible so I can also coordinate with the local businesses where I plan to promote.
Presentation
In this cider slide presentation, which will take around 45 minutes we will overview the basic info about cider, it's making and dégustation. I'll introduce you to the history, talking a bit about the oldest cider making sources from Roman times and early Middle ages. After I will talk especially about the history of cider making in France up to the modern times but we will touch other regions a bit too. We will move on to the overview of what is so special about cider apples, I'll give you some basics on orchards and their management. Next step will be the harvest and transformation of the apples, manual harvest versus automatic one, different types of presses, cuvage and so on. From here on I will explain the importance of "défécation" or "clarification haute","chapeau brun", importance of soutirage/racking, filtration well conduction of fermentation in general. From the point of view of production last but not least we will talk about bottling and prise de mousse naturelle, dégorement etc. We will conclude the presentation part by basics of dégustation as a preludium to the cider tasting or cider flows if you like.
Cider Tasting alias Cider Flows
The format of the dégustation is guided tasting which will take around two hours give or take. We will taste variety of ciders starting with the drier ones moving from the extra-bruts to bruts, demi-secs, douce, finishing with the "specials" and cidre related products. I like to have highest quality ciders available from different regions of the world and made by different styles. So there will be some ciders from Spain, Germany, maybe Czech Republic, majority from France and more. I'll have ciders made from hand picked apples, no chemicals added during the production, no filtration and prise de mousse naturelle but there will be also samples which are bit more "standard". The basic idea is that you can taste wide variety of samples of a good quality realizing what a wide spectrum of cider products exists. By the end of the tasting I'll offer my ciders for sale so we can both profit from the event fully. Of course I'll be very happy if you could recommend me further to the local bars, restaurants and shops which you think may be interested in selling my products, that is one of the main goals of this event. We need to decide in advance if the funding of the event will be based on "donations no one turned away for lack of funds" or suggested donation or some other option. There should not be more then 20 people, if more I need to know well in advance because of the selection of samples but up to 20 is my preference so we can keep it nice and cozy. I hope to exchange contacts so we can stay in touch.
Workshops
This trip is being done both under my "personal" entity as a cider promotion&sale activity but it is also Food Hacking Base (fhb) event. We had nearly stopped our community activities since 2020 and as a food&drink&bio loving group of hackers we miss it. Also I've been limited in dedicating my time to fermentations other than cider recently so it is my way not to forget all what I've learned and share it, which I love. In advance before I visit your community, we should decide if you want to do some fermentation event and if so how many and which. I can offer workshops/ateliers on kefir making, kombucha, water kefir/tibicos and related probiotic drinks, further we can do tempeh, fermented vegetables like kimchies, marinated&fermented shrimps, tea eggs, tofu, nattō well there is quite a selection. There are manuals ready for most already, rest will be prepared in advance (in English) and I'll bring fhb equipment to make it happen but of course coordination with set up of your place is very important. I would suggest to keep these fermentation events quite informal, donation based no one turned away for lack of funds, up to fifteen people it is just fine, not more than twenty but booking should be done in advance so people come.
My stay
In each place I plan to stay for few to several days so I can optimize this trip. It would be excellent if someone could host me for this period of time so I've a base of operations, I can change hosts if it has to be, I'm very mobile and minimalist, who knows me is well aware of this. I hope to have a car which would allow me to stay inside when needed but lets see if I can afford to buy it. Paying regularly prices for for short time accommodation is not economically viable for me at the moment. Of course I plan to "bribe", sorry I wanted to say reward the kind heartiness of my hosts with some of my products ...
