Today's episode brings you to Hidden Cave Cidery in Middleton, Wisconsin. We have a talk with Walker Fanning about his innovative ciders and how they came to be. Cheers!

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SPEAKERS

Walker Fanning, Connor Brekke

Connor Brekke  00:03

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Ombibulous, a show where we discuss a variety of topics about alcohol. From beer styles, the brewing process, distillation and spirits and even liquor laws, there's a fascinating world to discover. On today's episode, we pay a visit to hidden cave cidery of Middleton, Wisconsin. Joining me today is hidden cave cideries Walker Fanning. I'm your host, Connor Brekke. Let's all raise a glass to, The Ombibulous.

Connor Brekke  00:36

Hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode. I am in Middleton, Wisconsin, and I am at the Hidden Cave Cidery. Joining me today is Walker Fanning. The head of this amazing facility. Welcome to the show. 

Connor Brekke  00:50

Thank you for inviting me out here. I heard about this place on an NPR show a little while ago and it was like, "oh, I need to get out here really, really soon." ...so... 

Walker Fanning  00:50

Thank you. 

Walker Fanning  01:00

Awesome. 

Connor Brekke  01:01

cider and fall go really well togetherI think. So hidden cave cidery you are located in Middleton, Wisconsin. Let... tell us a little bit about yourself. You're... you make cider here. You make a lot of herbal based ciders. How did you get into the cider industry? 

Walker Fanning  01:18

Yes. So I'm a local Wisconsinite, grew up here, went to school here, and got a degree in agronomy from the UW Madison. And agronomy, for people who don't know, is agriculture for fuel, fiber and feed. But I was always interested in agriculture, more of like specialty crops like fruit crops. And so when I graduated college, I was looking to use my degree and I wanted to do something in fruit crops. And I was looking for a job all summer long, I was having a really hard time because I also wanted something where I could still live in downtown Madison with my friends. And I ended up finding a small apple orchard that had a cidery in the South Madison area, about 30 minutes from where I was hoping to live downtown. 

Walker Fanning  02:17

So they didn't have a job posting up or anything like that. But I decided I would just reach out and ask them if I could volunteer on their farm to learn about the ins and outs of being an orchard assist. And I sent them the email, they invited me out to take a tour of the farm. There were 200 Different apple trees, every single apple tree was a different variety than the last. And they showed me the cidery, I tried dry cider for the first time in my life. I actually turned it away the first time I was offered. He said "do you want to try some ci