As the saying goes, you can take the chef out of the kitchen and put him in a cidery — but you can’t take the kitchen out of the chef when he’s crafting cider.
At least that’s the case for Andy Hannas, the cidermaker at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Potter’s Craft Cider. He worked in restaurants in Richmond, Virginia, for a decade before he discovered his passion for fermentation and began working in cider. “I got really into fermenting food,” he remembers. “Sausages, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi….”
That led to homebrewing beer. Among Hannas’ experiments in the kettle was a Pho-flavored Hefeweizen, “Hephoveizen,” that included Sriracha in one out of every five bottles — just for fun.
Eventually homebrewing beer would lead him to cidermaking, yet his approach to flavor would stay the same. “I have a multi-pronged approach to making cider, especially when thinking all the way through to food pairings,” Hannas says. “I ask myself, ‘what flavors do I want to showcase?’ ‘What will I want to pair that cider with?’ ‘Do I want the apple variety or combination to be stand alone, perhaps be varietal driven?’
“When I’m thinking about varietals, my approach is more like a winemaker,” he continues. “When I’m manipulating apple combinations, for example, I try to take on the mindset of a craft brewer.”
Hannas walks us through some of Potter’s Cider styles with food pairings for each.
Farmhouse Dry
“This cider drew me to the company and the Potter’s brand,” Hannas says. It’s crafted with a blend of Pippin, with a Sauvignon Blanc fermentation protocol to drive the fruity character of apple, and Virginia Winesap apples, with an aroma-enhancing fermentation protocol and special yeast to drive most of that. Farmhouse Dry, Potter’s flagship cider, is an effervescent ‘table cider’ that works in lots of different pairings.
“When you have acidity and bubbles [like in this cider], go with intramuscular fat on a grill,” Hannas suggests. “Say, a heavily marbled pork or duck with a big fat skin layer. That, with the intense fruit aroma of the cider and carbonation, you almost don’t need a sauce.”
Flemish Sour
This one is a cider inspired by Hannas’ passion for Belgian beer. He ferments it with a yeast and bacteria blend called Roselare, the house culture from Rodenbach, ages it in a wine cask for a year, and finishes it with sour cherry purée. Pair it with cheese and charcuterie, he suggests.
“Pairing fermented foods with fermented drinks is always fun,” Hannas says. “There’s lots of ‘funky’ fermentation character in mixed-culture sour beverages, so go with yeast, bacteria, or lactic-fermented sausage or a funky cheese with a bloomy rind. Or maybe a foie gras or country pâté with fresh red currants that will echo that acidic fruit pop of the cider. The liver-y mineral richness brings another layer.”
Add some walnuts too, he says. “The cider aging process creates subtle nuttiness, which can be accentuated with walnuts. Now, in my mind, I’m back in Belgium drinking ester-y drinks and eating weird cheeses.”
Passionfruit Mosaic Cider
This cider is Potter’s summer seasonal. Its one-off nature and tropical fruit additions fall into the ‘craft beer approach to making cider’ side of what Hannas does. “Coming up on summer, I don’t have a huge selection of apples to work from,” he says. “Fermenting on passion fruit juice helps us make the most out of what we’ve got left from prior year’s harvest. And, it adds acidity and huge amounts of aroma. Dry hopping accentuates the character of passion fruit.”
Hannas pairs this 5.5% canned crusher with ceviche. “Richer scallops or tuna contrast against acidity or tropical fruit,” he says. “Add some fruit and herbs in the marinade, like grapefruit, cucumber, and red onion for more cider flavor balance and nice texture. Then Thai basil and cilantro to amplify the dry-hopped feature of the cider, bringing in those greens.”
Hannas’ chef-minded approach to making cider yields not just a unique lineup of ciders on tap at Potter’s Craft, but also an inspired food menu crafted with pairings in mind. Find more of Potter’s Craft Ciders and the full tasting room menu at potterscraftcider.com/ciders.
