This is a part of a continuing series of Q&As with members of the cider community from across the US. Brewer Magazine will share business and personal insights from Cidermakers, Owners, Managers, Sales Directors, QCQA and others each week to help you get to know each other better in the industry and learn more to better develop your own brand.
Thomas Henry, Cidermaker & co-owner, Mount Diablo Cider Company — Lafayette, California
BREWER: How have recent challenges in your position helped make you better? What were those “pain points” and how did you solve or adjust to the issue?
HENRY: Like any small business starting up, we’ve had our fair share of challenges. As a husband-and-wife team, everything tends to mound up with all the associated responsibilities of running a business, producing, marketing, selling and distributing a product all while trying to maintain a healthy balance of priorities between work, play and family. What we’ve found to be true over these past three years is that it’s impossible to separate out any of these aspects from our lives. Mount Diablo Cider is not something we do, but who we are. It’s important to be dynamic and flow with our environment as change outside of our control takes place rather than break under the immense pressure of trying to force things into place. When we started out, we had a product in mind that we built the business around. Huge mistake. Everything was a struggle, no one was happy and — if I’m honest — the product wasn’t all that great. After two seasons, we began to realize the answer was right in front of us the whole time. We weren’t taking our cue from the apple. At the heart of our company is the quality of the fruit we select for our cider. It’s unique, low intensively farmed, allowed to macerate on all its parts and slowly ferments with the wild yeast naturally present during the crush. Nothing is either added or taken away and it’s done until it’s done. There is intervention along the way, but it’s dictated by the conditions present during the apple’s journey into cider. This is our cider’s mission statement, it’s defined, measurable and is the basis of all production decisions made. What we needed was our own mission statement of which to guide us; we are a small, family owned and operated cidery specializing in premium, small batch, heirloom ciders produced in the traditional method. Once we defined who we are and what we do it became much more clear where our priorities are and all decisions are made based on supporting our mission statement.
BREWER: What has been your cidery’s most recent accomplishment and how is it going to improve your business going forward?
HENRY: We just recently won a Good Food Award for our Sparkling Delta Gold methode champenoise. The Good Food Award is a pretty big deal for us as it is a coveted award by all foodies. It’s Dubbed the “Oscars of the food movement” by Newsweek and honors 215 of the best makers of Tasty, Authentic and Responsible Food and Drink. It gives us national recognition among our peers and cider aficionados for putting out a high quality product, but more importantly to us, it helps validate that we’re on the right path and motivates us to continue doing what we do.
BREWER: How did you start in the industry and why do you still want to be a part of it?
HENRY: Our story starts out like so many other craft cider and brewery origin stories. What started out as a hobby turned quickly into a way of life. After discovering homebrewing through helping a buddy during a bottling run while in grad school, I was hooked and brewed regularly for several years thereafter until I met my future wife who happened to be gluten-free at the time. No gluten, no beer, but growing up in Sonoma’s West County (apple country), I knew alcohol could be made from apples, so no problem. At the time I was working as a high school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. My classroom was adjacent to the wood shop and in between classes and preps I managed to build my own grinder and press. All that was needed now was to go back home and shake down the very apple trees that were once my forts and tree houses of my youth. It took a few seasons, two to three bookshelves worth of books, production manuals, field guides and journals as well as picking the brains of every cider and winemaker within a 50-mile radius generous enough to give me the time of day to start to turn out cider worth getting excited about. Around this time I was introduced to a friend of a friend who was starting up a cidery and needed a production manager to grow the business. As luck would have it I eventually assumed that role and in addition took a position in a sparkling wine house specializing in producing sparkling wine for local wineries who lacked the tools and knowledge to produce their own in house. Long days, other people’s product and time away from home took their toll and it wasn’t long before my wife suggested a change. Her advice was simple; pursue my interest in premium cider and make the products that drive me with the people I love most, my family. So that’s what we did, I walked away from big cider, got an 02 wine grower’s licence and turned the garage into a cidery. Mount Diablo Cider company was born and the rest, well….history. So why do I continue to make cider and wish to be part of the industry? Easy, cider’s rad, the people who make it are among the most interesting, genuine and caring people you’ll ever meet and it’s part of who I am. I’m a cider man and we’re a cider family.
BREWER: What are you sippin’ on right now from your cidery that you really enjoy?
HENRY: 2023 Community Crush. Every year neighborhood fruit (apples and pears) go unharvested and unused. Given that most family homes in our neighborhood have one or two pear and/or apple trees, there is literally tons of fruit all around us that just goes to rot. With that in mind, we partnered with the the local Lions club and Notes 4 Hope (a local organization geared at raising money for breast cancer awareness and treatment) to harvest a few tons of neighborhood pears and apples that we’ve turned into a very special and unique cider of which proceeds will benefit both of these amazing and deserving programs. Although Community Crush won’t be available until the Fall, the way it’s tasting, it’s quickly becoming a fan favorite in our tasting room and we’re very excited for the release.
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