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Consistency in craft

by Jake Smith Coeur Voice Writer
| April 19, 2018 12:44 PM

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North Idaho Cider’s Cranberry Apple being poured.

A cider maker’s integrity is measured by consistency.

“That to me is the craft,” said Keith Allen, one of the co-partners and owners of North Idaho Cider.

In 2014, Allen and two partners, Matt Peterson and Jeff Selle, established North Idaho Cider, an award-winning Hayden operation that creates eight types of hard cider from fresh-pressed apples sourced in the Northwest.

Allen said their battle for consistency begins with natural ingredients. They prefer no added sugars, sulfites or preservatives.

Apple harvests can be unpredictable, to a degree, based on variances in taste, composition and quality from different yields, he said.

“That to us is where the craft and the commitment to consistency comes in,” Allen said. “Having that unknown variable, (but) still being able to deliver, after all of the processes, pretty much the exact same flavor profile for each batch, even though they can start totally different in the beginning just due to the sugar content that’s in them when the apple juice comes to us.”

Allen said he controls that uncertainty partially through the fermentation process, creating a completely dry profile. The dryer the profile is, the less sugar there is in the product and the higher the alcohol content will be.

“First fermentation will take normally three, maybe as much as four, weeks. Secondary fermentation you might get five days, maybe seven or eight. And then it’s totally dry,” Allen said.

Each batch is a balancing act, adjusting a sliding scale of nuances in taste that must be stringently controlled through variations in process.

Once Allen and his partners achieve their preferred dry base, it’s carbonated and natural ingredients are added back in to create flavor profiles.

He said those profiles are both experimental and traditional.

“Wildfire” is a hard cider with smoked paprika, jalapeño and habanero peppers. “Logger” has an earthy taste, aged in oak and pine. There’s a holiday hard cider steeped in chai spices.

Others have hops to add citrus. Still more provide a subtle sweetness with natural fruits like cherries being added in after fermentation.

These variations give North Idaho Cider an edge when competing for tap space, which Allen said is a challenge for those who make craft cider. He said there are limited taps available for ciders, and distributing to bar owners can all too often be a matter of luck.

North Idaho Cider distributes bottles in grocers, drafts in bars and opens a tasting room on Fridays and Saturdays near the Coeur d’Alene Airport.

Before having that tasting room and its connected fermentation facility, the basis of the company was in homebrewing. To this day, it’s still a side-job for the partners who each work full-time in separate careers.

Allen said he initially made hard cider for fellow gym members who followed a paleo diet, which called to remove gluten. That meant no beer.

Over time, their various flavor profiles evolved and production scaled in suit. However, it has all been strictly overseen and managed by one force - the partners’ tastes and palates.

Allen said their connection to the proper ingredients and their natural taste is admittedly a selfish endeavor, but the bottles and glasses of North Idaho Cider being served in establishments across the region manifests a deeper connection between craft and community.

“You’re not really making it for them,” Allen said. “You’re just counting on being able to share it.”