Brian Bauman talks about Loganberry cider with his cousin Christine. They grew up picking berries together as kids. Grandma was usually one row over yelling at them because they were talking too much, not picking enough fast enough. This was their childhood and one of the berries they are discussing today are loganberries which are not something you will find very much. Christine is the head cider maker and the head of our cider company, it’s her baby.
Why did you choose this to be our signature cider?
It’s just so full of memories. During our childhood picking berries, that smell and flavor is iconic for us. It’s maybe the earliest berries we remember picking.
It’s not something you find very often because the berries themselves will stick to the bush. It’s a blackberry-raspberry cross. They don’t want to come off which means it was our job to be out picking them all by hand. There was a whole trove of us and we have 20 plus cousins. There are a lot of us Bauman’s running around and this was our job.
Some of us were better pickers than others. Grandma knew who to watch and who not to watch. We loved it. Loganberries have this unique aspect of a raspberry and blackberry together. It is the best cider I think we make. We make lots of ciders that are really good but I love the loganberry cider. We are going to pick some berries and fill up a pint to walk you through the process of how we make loganberry cider.
What is the process to make Loganberry Cider?
In the cidery, it’s kind of cool that you can hear the bubbling and noises all around. It’s like being a mad scientist. We start with our apple juice from apples pressed fresh here on the farm. We then ferment it to dry and then add loganberries. This video shows little mock-up of what that looks like. When the cider is finished fermenting we then add the berries in. The berries are put into a giant milkshake blender, mixed up, and blended.
You would think the berries would settle out in the bottom but the berries actually like to float in the tank. They want to float initially then as they are mixed up more and saturated with the cider they’ll kind of fall to the bottom. Then we pump it over for five days. We’ll pump the cider from the bottom over the loganberries until they mix and mix and mix. We want to get as much flavor out of the berries as possible.
The regular cider has nothing else in it but apple juice. Only berries get added to this mixture. We then add a little bit of fresh juice back in at the end just to give it that little sweetness that brings out the flavor. Eventually, we pull the berries out and filter them. That’s the secret sauce.
Loganberries are a unique kind of blackberry raspberry flavor together. It’s something you won’t taste in a lot of other berries. I think the aroma of loganberries is the most notable thing. It’s also cool that our big tanks have family member’s names on them that are all labeled.
Where do you find Bauman’s Loganberry Cider?
When starting this was the very first cider you brought out for all of us today and my dad flipped, he loved it. This was kind of how Bauman Cider Company got started. It is our signature cider and it’s pretty readily available. It’s our most popular in the state and we’re only in Oregon and Washington though we can ship it all over the country. This is the one that is in most grocery stores, restaurants, and bar taprooms. It’s so easy to find and if your bartender doesn’t have it then you can tell them to order it. That’s the easiest way to get it because they can get it for you. This is one of our favorites and we wanted to share it with you.
Watch as Brian Bauman from Bauman’s Farm & Garden and Christine from Bauman’s Cider Company talk about our signature Loganberry Cider.
We welcome you to come down to the farm anytime. We have Loganberry Cider on tap here and we have bottles at the store. Come give it a try and we look forward to seeing you soon!
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