Season2020

apples stocked before pressing

cidre flows (tasting), CCC Camp 2019

mobile press in action, 2018

feeding the rap

cylinder press used at my work

sambrone pressing, 2020 season

sambrone press

pressing the moût

garçons in action

cidre density measurement

me measuring the density, 2021

soutirage/racking 10 hl IBC

emouteillage/bottling set up

dream cidre atelier, above and below the ground

dream cidre atelier, outside, front

dream cidre atelier, 2nd underground floor

dream cidre atelier, 2nd underground floor, top

happy tasting together, cider flows 36c3

some of the bottles at tasting

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Here you can find the crowd funding and presale campaign to support 2020 cider season of Cidrerie Jara and other projects which I, František Algoldor Apfelbeck are realizing.

Campaign status

• Total amount desired: 20 000.00€
• Number of donations: 23
• Total amount received/pledged: 6762.00€
• Started 26/2/2021
• Ends 15/9/2021
• Updated 22/9/2021

Summary

There are three principal goals which I want to achieve through this crowd-funding&sale campaign. Number one is to complete the 2020 cider season. This means to bottle and distill, finishing therefore the production phase. Secondly, I need to prepare for and start to commercialize. This includes finishing design of the logos and labels, setting up Cidrerie Jara business pages and maybe online shop. Importantly I've to get ready for 2021 Cider Tour where I will promote and sell my products. Thirdly, I want to progress with preparation for 2021 season. This translates to setting up a small temporary living&working base here in Normandie and Czech Republic for me and people who would like to join me and help me with my projects. So to summarize, completion of 2020 cider season, preparing and commercializing the products over the summer 2021 and preparation of living&working base for 2021 season. I've around 22 000€ debt related to this project at the moment, 2021 season will cost another 10 000€ give or take so any money received&earned will to cover these responsibilities. The principal goal now is to get the products out, find especially long term clients and gain my living by doing and selling my products, knowledge and expertise making the business generating resources I need for living. For special innovative projects I would like to keep the crowd-funding campaign spirit.

PS With season 2019 and 2020, I should have around 55 000€ cidre worth to commercialize, part is ready, part by the end of this summer and over 20 000€ in distillate but that will take years to get to it's value ...

Donating

You can donate in the following ways:

• Bank transfer (preferred) to Frantisek Apfelbeck's (Algoldor's) bank account:
  • IBAN : FR76 1660 6100 1084 8435 1462 511
  • BIC: AGRIFRPP866
  • Please add the description "cidre2020" plus "perk name" if you claim one.
• Bitcoin donation receiving address (Algoldor's bitcoin wallet): 1AxX8BMNs4fnZXyCpZURqtMDiP1yGY3YMS
  • Please add the description "cidre2020" plus "perk name" if you claim one.
• PayPal Send money to: algoldor@yahoo.com
  • Please use the "Send money to a friend" function and include your Name, Nickname and "cidre2020" plus "perk name" if you claim one. Thank you!

Contact: algoldor@foodhackingbase.org

Perks

First, the ciders are legally produced so I've to pay the taxes, that is one of the reasons for increase in the price. Because of the 2020 and likely 2021 "big event&circulation" issues, I plan to deliver most of the perks/sales around Europe this summer during the 2021 Cider Tour. However if you can, do please try to pick them up by yourself at big hacker events (if there are any), here in my atelier in Vale de Saire, Cotentin, Normandie, France or at my storage in Kout na Šumavě, Czech Republic. Otherwise try to group with other people so I can drop it at one location for several people. Sending cider is possible too, especially around Europe, but the delivery price for one carton (6x 75cl bottles) is likely to be over 40€ and it would have to be covered by you. I can also deliver on request but I need coverage of the delivery costs, which means at least the fuel and toll. During this summer I will be delivering 2019 season so if you want your cider then, get the 2019 season. The cider needs time to finish it's fermentation in the bottle at temperatures if possible below 10°C which takes at least four months, so 2020 season will be ready by August 2021 and I'm not sure if I have a chance to deliver it before end of the year 2021. My cider in general should be stored if possible below 15°C, older the cider gets, more stable it is (the yeast get inactive). Temperature over 20 or 25°C should be definitely avoided during first year after bottling plus long distance transportation. Few days are OK but when you get it delivered please do respect the temperature requirements! It could start to re-ferment and explode, no kidding, it is life natural product, please do keep that in mind! The 2020 season has been bottled in "method traditionnelle" bottles (basically Champagne bottle), which can take up to 10 bars, so explosion of the bottle should not happen. The 2019 season was bottled in "cuve closed" bottles which can take up to 6 bars and there is a risk, however the aging strongly decreased this risk already. So far I did not have any explosions of my cider which I sold and both me and my assurance company would love to keep it that way. If you decide for a perk, which I hope so, please give me your preferred contact email, if possible phone number and address would be great too so we can coordinate the delivery!

• Symbolic

Price: a bit to a lot Available: un limited Claimed: 4

Well this one is simple. If you would like to support my activities you do, chip in as you please. If it is bit more than fiver than when we meet next time and I've some extra cider or other interesting product with me, well you will be not thirsty. You have a year or two to claim it I guess ...

• Vinegar

Price: €5 Available: 50 Claimed:0

This is cider vinegar which I've made last year, so season 2019. I've aged in a barrel after calva (no appelation) so it has bit of it's smell and flavour plus of course wooden bucket of the oak barrel. I do not have an equipment to measure the exact degree of the acetic acid but it is rather on the light side. The volume of the bottle is 500 ml. Let me know which one you would like to have. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Raspberry Vinegar

Price: €7 Available: 20 Claimed:0

As the non flavoured version it is the product of the 2019 season. In this particular case I've added the raspberries which were used before to make the raspberry cider. The final product has a lovely raspberry colour, aroma and flavour, it is also bit stronger than the cider vinegar above. The volume of the bottle is 500 ml. Let me know which one you would like to have. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Syrup

Price: €10 Available: 30 Claimed: 0

I've made lovely fruit and blossom based syrups using wild or organic ingredients like lemon, plum, elder flower and fruit mix (cherry, blackberry etc.). They are made by cold way so no heating up in any manner, generally one to one ratio with sugar (bio). The volume of the bottle is 500 ml. Let me know which one you would like to have. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Apple Juice

Price: €24 Available: 10 Claimed: 0

One carton which equals 6 x 1 l bottles of pasteurized untreated apple juice which I've made in my last job from local untreated apples harvest by friend with a small semi-automatic machine. I've done the final triage and as a team we did the pasteurization afterwards, it is unfiltered. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• 3xSyrups

Price: €30 Available: 20 Claimed: 1

Same as above, I've made lovely fruit and blossom based syrups using wild or organic ingredients like lemon, plum, elder flower and fruit mix (cherry, blackberry etc. all bio or wild). They are made by cold way so no heating up in any manner, generally one to one ratio with sugar (bio). This comprises of three 500 ml bottles. Let me know which one you would like to have. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Supporter

Price: €36 Available: 100 Claimed: 4

One carton of cider from season 2019 or season 2020 if you wait, which equals 6 x 75 cl bottles. Check the lots/batches description and decide which one you want and let me know, especially for brut or extra-brut. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Fan

Price: €72 Available: 50 Claimed: 5

Two cartons of cider from season 2019 or season 2020 which equals 12 x 75 cl bottles. There may be a bottle of micro-cuvé (small batches) like ginger, honey, raspberry etc if you like. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Lover

Price: €108 Available: 30 Claimed: 0

Three cartons of cider from season 2019 or season 2020 which equals 18 x 75 cl bottles. There may be a bottle or two of micro-cuvé (small batches) like ginger, honey, raspberry etc if you like. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cidre Gourmet

Price: €48 Available: 20 Claimed: 2

One carton which equals 6 x 75 cl bottles of selection of my micro-cuvés, which may include based on your preference fallowing ciders - ginger, elder-flower, raspberry, traditional (apples crashed and pressed on traditional click-clack press), mielé/honey, calvados (cider aged in oak barrels after calvados), buckwheat and more. I don't want to promise miracles but I should be able to add one small bottle of syrup of flavour of the cider like raspberry or elder-flower so you can sweeten your dry cider a bit. We need to discuss the pick up as mentioned in the perk section. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Tasting EU Donation Based

Price: €250 Available: 8 Claimed: 0

I come to your place (around Western and Central Europe) and I will do professional cider slide presentation, around one hour with discussion and afterwards guided tasting. There will be over ten samples of well selected ciders originating in different countries, produced by different styles, plus some related products. Between 10 to 15 participants is best, up to twenty really max! The event is donation based so people are encouraged to donate to cover the expenses for samples and especially the travel, the costs are likely going to be over the perk value (around €150 just for samples). I do this event regularly and it is a "class" by now. Please get in touch with me before confirming this perk, so we agree on time and place checking on the costs! Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Tasting EU Covered

Price: €400 Available: 8 Claimed: 0

I come to your place (around Western and Central Europe) and I will do professional cider slide presentation, around one hour with discussion and afterwards guided tasting. There will be over ten samples of well selected ciders originating in different countries, produced by different styles, plus some related products. Between 10 to 15 participants is best, up to twenty really max! The expenses of the event are covered, no donations needed but could be collected for the hosting place if you like. I do this event regularly and it is a "class" by now. Please get in touch with me before confirming this perk, so we agree on time and place checking on the costs! Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

• Cider Tasting International

Price: €600 and plus Available: 3 Claimed: 0

Now, in order to come to your place and do this professional cider slide presentation, around one hour with discussion and afterwards guided tasting, I need to cover the cost of the samples (around €150) and my travel. There will be over ten samples of well selected ciders originating in different countries, produced by different styles, plus related products. Between 10 to 15 participants is best, up to twenty really max! I do this event regularly and it is a class by now. Please get in touch with me before confirming this perk because with this one we really need to figure out the traveling costs, my availability, donation based or covered etc. The idea is to be able to come to places where I would like to sell in the future or which I would like to visit. If well done, the donations can bring quite some funds in, I would say over half of the budget. Do not forget to write the perk's name when making the contribution and your contact details.

Details

I started to work with microbes during my studies of biology in 2000 and my active food&beverage fermentation career started around 2007. I've been into it on "every day basis" since. I started with cider after I came back to Europe in 2016. This is my fifth season and second commercial one. I'm doing my best to produce and sell high quality product done in what we can call natural traditional manner. The product and the way how it is made, the business structure and medium to long term goals are described below. Please have a look on it because if you decide to support this project by donation or investment, which I hope for, I really prefer that you know quite well what is this about it is a "long distance run" for me.

Production

• manual harvest
• "nothing" used to treat the trees or cider, no chemicals added
• all fermented by natural yeast
• défécation and soutirage/racking
• prise de mousse naturelle - fermentation in the bottle by native yeast

The apples come from small non-treated orchards and they are harvested by hand as much as possible (100% for 2017, 2018 and 2019 season, 60% for 2020 season (I really hope only exceptionally)). No chemical products are used during the whole process, the cider is fermented only by yeast native to the apples and to the cellar. Part of the 2019 season is unfiltered, 2020 season is completely unfiltered. The fizziness of the product is accomplished by prise de mousse naturelle which is slow secondary fermentation of the cider in the closed bottle. For more info about the process see here. I can do between 500 to 900 kg per day by myself depending on the orchard, weather, my condition and also if I harvest directly to a trailer or into the bags. I transport my apples next to my workshop and in general I allow them to sit for two weeks so they can mature a bit more. After that I crash and press the apples with help of local prestataire de service M. Benoit Guerrand, who comes with his mobile press. Here a big thanks to my friends who help me with this! If we do well, we can transform around three to four tonnes during four hours. With around 60-70% efficiency it gives max 700 l of fresh apple juice from 1000 kg of apples give or take. I try to select which apples are pressed when during the pressing, which results in a juice/moût with flavour profile corresponding as much as possible with the final cider flavour which I'm after. It is called assemblage you can do it before pressing or after. I transfer the resulting juice into the fermentation vessels taking the samples. If all goes well, there is a process called défécation "high clearing" where the pectins clarify the juice. I let the young cider ferment at ambient temperature over the winter. During this period I'm transferring the cider (racking/soutirage) from vessel to vessel to slow down the fermentation, disposing the sediment therefore getting rid of impurities and excess life yeast cells including the dead ones. I check how is the specific density going slowly down, smelling and tasting if the cider doesn't have any off fragrances or off flavours. If it does I try to work with it or destine it for distillation. I also try to check the pH. Around February I do the final fragrance and flavour tests and check by microscope what is the yeast cell count. I stopped filtrating my cider by 2019 season so if the yeast cell count is too high I either wait longer or the cider will be distilled. When I decide that the cider is ready for bottling I buy bottles, corks, muselets and capsules, get the bottling equipment ready, some of it I'm still borrowing and with help of my friends I start to bottle. Well synchronized group of four people can bottle around 2 000x of 75 cl bottles depending if they are capsuling (faster) or corking. The cider continues to ferment in the bottle with just natural yeast strains which were already present, so called prise de mousse naturelle, which takes between four to five months. This process should occur at temperatures below 10°C resulting in pressure of 2-3 bars. If all goes well by the end of the summer or beginning of the autumn the cider is ready to be drunk. However any shipment on long distance and especially at higher temperature just after end of the season is risky so I generally try to deliver myself at the moment or I deliver previous season which is way more stable because the yeast cells are already inactive.

Business entity and Model

• for more information about the business have a look on the company Jara details.
• smaller artisanal production, high quality product, aim on export and higher quality restaurants and wine shops
• current size: 15 to 20 tonnes transformed into 90 - 110 hl (9 000 - 11 000 l) of cider, bottled around 40 hl (4 000 l) therefore around 7 000 of 37.5 and 75 cl bottles.
• future 2-4 years: +- 20 - 30 tonnes of apples transformed, so compared to 2019 and 2020 around double amount of products if I find customers and have money to invest
• long term: max 100 tonnes, rather smaller
• prices per 75 cl bottle: usual batch €5-6 for 75 cl bottle before tax (tax +-20%)
• prices per 75 cl bottle: premium batch/micro-cuvé, €7-9 for 75 cl bottle before tax (tax +-20%)
• prices per 75 cl bottle: helpers, perks and pre-buy €6 for 75c ml bottle including tax standard batches (for 2019 season and I will try to keep it at €6 for 2020 too at least one batch or so) and €8 for micro-cuvés

My aim is to keep making a high quality product in a manner described above at smaller quantities because I believe there is a limit how big you can go and do it well. Based on my experience I can imagine something up to 100 tonnes but that would be max and "long term future" maybe, which will be discussed later. This season I've transformed around 18 tonnes of apples resulting in over 110 hl (11 000 l) of juice. In the next few years, so 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons lets say I plan to gradually increase it to thirty tonnes if I manage to sell the product so I've money to invest. The standard price which I plan to ask for most of the batches (lots) will be around €6-7 for 75 cl bottle before tax (tax is 20% in general) and for €7-9 for 75 cl for special small batches (micro-cuvés) before taxes (tax 20%). I would like to make one batch for lower price for people who help me during the season financially or by their activity, plus people who would pre-buy. In this particular case I would like stay around 6€ per bottle for standard batches final price before after the tax. These prices seems to me reasonable concerning the type and size of production which I do. Also compared to other professional producers who do cider in a similar manner and quality, the price corresponds. For me the prices are simply reflecting economic reality, they give me a chance to compete, get into and stay on the market. My main aim for sale is export, especially countries in Europe where the clients are willing to pay for this product, like Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria etc. and places where I've been living before like USA, Japan, Korea and other. I hope to develop private lets say direct clientele but most of the product will be sold into restaurants, caves/wine shops and bioshops. I do not plan in foreseeable future to sell on local markets.

Long Term Vision

OK, so the ones who know me for longer have heard the story time after time, if you did not well enjoy! My long term goal is to set up a fermentation community in the countryside, I would like to do that in Czech Republic where I'm from. The community should be quite financially independent, providing for itself. I strongly believe in some commercial activities, read income if you like, to pay for it's independence and to keep it running, plus covering people's needs long term. There is no vacuum we interact with the world. For me having strong focus on educational and experimental is very important and honestly I would like to direct it there in a long term. I would like to be the main owner and have the right of veto. The idea is to buy land with either old farm or build up a place. I've decided that the central commercial activity to make this project happen and to keep it going in the first decade or two is production of cider and related products. I've spend quite some time thinking about it, trust me, it was not just the "dream castle" leisure. I actually had to defend it in front of the professional comity as my personal cidre installation project in order to became certified cidrie. Over twenty five pages in French. Long story short the total estimate of costs was around €375 000. There should be at least seven hectares of land for orchards, mix of dwarf trees (basse-tige) and standard threes (haute-tige). One hectare of agricultural land in Czech Republic starts around €10 000, planting an orchard properly is around €6 000 to €7 000 per hectare, so around €115 000 total just for land and planting. I've estimated that building up a decent cider making facility will be around €120 000. Three floors (two mostly sub-terrain), mix of bricks and concrete (see pictures). The machines and tools needed for taking care about the orchard, harvesting (manual harvest), transformation, fermentation, bottling and commercialization can be easily around €140 000. In total as mentioned, we can talk about €375 000 give or take. I believe that it can be done for less but on the other hand lets be honest, the project was not megalomanic, it was actually quite pretty minimalistic. I can hardly imagine doing this properly with funds under €250 000. Of course the question is if to really go by this size in the future, which is by the way still a very very small production concerning the standard in France or stick to much smaller scale but bit bigger than I do now. Well future will show. I've been also forty this year, I'm single no woman no kids, well I'm starting to ask myself how much I need to live if it is just me, doing some big things then makes not so much sense, does it?