Hard cider presents new opportunities for local apple industry | Winchester Star

Glaize and Brother Juice Co. is owned and staffed by David Glaize and Philip Glaize III. It opened 11 months ago on the corporate campus of Glaize Apples, a production and distribution business founded in 1937 and currently run by the Glaize brothers’ father, Philip Glaize Jr.

Winchester Ciderworks is an offshoot of The Homestead Farm at Fruit Hill Orchard, which dates back to the mid-1800s. The orchard’s current operator, Diane Kearns, added a cider-making component to the family’s agricultural and distribution operations in 2012, and opened a tasting room to showcase its own line of ciders in 2018.

Kearns said apple processing became the best way for local growers to make money once technology reached the point where fresh fruit could be shipped to Winchester from around the world. For example, White House Foods at 701 Fairmont Ave. found success by turning local apples into products like applesauce, vinegar and apple juice.

China gradually started squeezing the processing market by exporting low-cost apple juice concentrate. Current estimates indicate that 60% of the world’s supply of concentrate comes from China.

“The American consumer pretty much buys on price, not necessarily on quality,” Kearns said. “We’ve been getting the same prices for our apples as we got 15, 20 years ago.”

Fortunately for local growers and processors, hard cider has skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. Almost every store that sells beer now also carries popular cider brands like Angry Orchard, Redd’s Apple Ale and Bold Rock.

The United States was late to the cider game. The alcoholic beverage has long been popular in Europe, and cider makers on the other side of the Atlantic have had decades to hone their craft.

In 2011, Kearns met Stephen Schuurman, a native of Britain who told her how much he missed English cider. Kearns realized that hard cider could be equally as popular in the U.S., so she and Schuurman partnered to create Winchester Ciderworks.

Schuurman is a professional cider maker with his own unique recipes for an array of hard ciders, including award-winning variants like Malice, VA-Ginga and 522 that can be purchased from retailers in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Glaize Apples President Philip Glaize Jr. said hard cider varies in quality based on the apple varieties used in production. The better ciders cost more to make, but many consumers are reluctant to spend the extra money on top-tier brands, and many cider makers are hesitant to produce a product that may not sell.

Kearns and Schuurman’s tasting room on North Frederick Pike addresses that issue by allowing customers to sample several varieties of cider, making it more convenient and cost-effective for people to taste the differences between ciders of varying prices.

Glaize and Brother Juice Co. doesn’t make its own cider, but instead sells custom juice blends to cider makers.

The Glaizes said buyers always want to make the best beverages possible, but sometimes balk at the cost of premier juice blends.

“The lower the price of the juice, the further away the juice is from the quality the cider maker wants,” David Glaize said. “Eighty percent of cider now is made from that lower-dollar juice.”

As it stands today, Kearns and the Glaizes say there isn’t enough money in the hard cider industry for them to make it their sole focus, so they’ll continue to sell their fresh, homegrown apples to processors and retail outlets.

The business could become much more lucrative, though, if more consumers would be willing to invest in a quality cider, just as they would with a fine wine. Tasting rooms like the one operated by Winchester Ciderworks make it possible for people to sample more expensive ciders, and if enough of them choose to spend extra for a better product, the hard cider industry could be the boon that local growers and processors have been waiting for.

“Given the fact that we haven’t been making money in the processing world for 10 years,” Kearns said, “it could be that I can make as much from 100 acres of cider apples as I could from 2,000 acres for processing.”