WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Adults-only cider

Middlebury, Vermont - June 18, 2010

Green Mountain Beverage's Middlebury plant houses a manufacturing line that's at the top of its game. "We're the largest producer of hard apple cider in the U.S. at this point," explains cider maker Greg Failing.

Failing apprenticed under a French wine maker before starting pressing apples and fermenting the juice in Southern Vermont in 1991. At the time, success was uncertain. Failing remembers, "We had no idea what the U.S. market was going to be."

Hard cider is better known in Europe, he says, but Failing got to work on developing an American version. "[Consumers in this country] want something that's light, fruity, and easy to drink," he says.

After years of steady growth and traveling to specialty food and drink festivals offering samples, a Vermont investment group has helped propel Woodchuck Hard Cider onto the national stage. It's available in every state but Hawaii, and has seen double-digit sales jumps the past four years. "We want to keep the operation as much as a craft winery as possible," Failing says.

Woodchuck goes shopping for its apple juice in Washington State and the Northeast, buying from Vermont companies like Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Champlain Orchards. They pump the juice into 12,000-gallon towers, where the juice ferments for two weeks before it's pumped to the bottling line.

The equipment can turn out 240,000 bottles a day, in the original tangy Amber style and seasonal varieties. Those include the summer blend, which has a hint of blueberry, but is not blue in color. "We try to keep it as natural as possible," Failing says.

The drink wasn't as sweet as I thought it might be. Failing tells me, "We try to keep it in the mid-range of sweetness and acid balance."

Behind the scenes, Woodchuck has put going green near the core of its business. It uses low-waste apple pulp filters, efficient lighting, and now, buys a quarter of its electricity from CVPS's cow manure-generated power sources.

Woodchuck says without a secure environment, it would have no apples for its hard cider. "They come from trees that are growing from the ground. It's important to us that the environment stays healthy; that there's trees out there," explains marketing director Bridget Blacklock.

The drink makers hope to continue building their brand and adding more workers to their staff of sixty-plus. Woodchuck Hard Cider is toasting the success of the "Made in Vermont" drink.

Woodchuck Hard Cider is gluten-free and the price is comparable to a craft beer. Click here for more information on the company.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont