EP-092 Ryan Burk of Angry Orchard Cider

Today’s guest is someone I’ve been waiting to interview for a couple of years now. Since I first started the podcast, he was high on my list — but for one reason after another, it always seemed like e should wait — we just didn’t know what we were waiting for exactly. Ryan Burk is the cidermaker for Angry Orchard cider, specifically running their new innovation cider house in Walden, NY. He was the former cidermaker at Virtue Cider in Fennville, Michigan. And before that he was a home brewer in Chicago. I met him just as he was transitioning from brewer to cider maker, pouring some of Virtue’s earliest batches. You may have seen GBH, and me in particular, take a keen interest in cider over the past couple years. We’ve written about E.Z. Orchards in Salem, Oregon, Rack and Cloth in Mosier, Oregon, and Virtue among others, and visited many more. And Ryan is the reason for that. He held the door open for me. And in many ways, he still does. Thanks to Ryan, I was able to translate the many things I love about the most exquisite beers in the word, like Saison Dupont and Hill Farmstead in to an equally beautiful and delicious world of cider making. From there, I’ve ventured into natural and low-interventionist wine making as well. And it all started with Ryan. He’s become one of my best friends in the world. In fact, today, while you’re probably listening to this, he’s honored me by asking me to officiate his wedding to Eva Deitch, a name you might be familiar with on GBH as she’s one of the many photographers we’ve collaborated with over the years. And as part of Angry Orchard, he’s also honored our business by asking us to design the labels for his personal collaborations with cidermakers all over the world that will start releasing in the coming months and years. So it’s safe to say that my relationship with Ryan is one of the more profound I’ve had in my life. I’m forever thankful for the impact he’s had on me as a person, as a drinker, and the influence we’ve had on each other professionally. That’s what this whole business of GBH is about for me — and nowhere does it come true more than right here.