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17_V1_WAT_Nov30 Th ursday, November 30, 2017 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • 17Serving your community since 1856 give the gift of music this season 36 King St. N (519) 885-4215 waterloo@long-mcquade.com Shop online gift cards lessonsmusicalinstruments Best selection. Best price.Best selection. Best price.e. Holiday shopping made easy.Holiday shopping made easy. Stop Pretending Cobwebs And Dust Are Halloween Decorations By Bill Jackson For the Chronicle That a University of Toronto mechanical engineering grad would surround himself with vats and valves in an industrial park isn't all that unconventional perhaps -- the fact he decided to make hard cider in Waterloo is more o� the beat- en path. It wasn't until a job opportunity led Michael Kramar abroad that he knew cider was his calling as a relatively untapped venture here at home. "I was working brie� y, about a year and a half, in England. I'd never heard of cider, but it's everywhere there," he said. "I came back to Ontario and it was nowhere here around that time in 2008." Somersby wasn't really a thing yet and Kramar knew of only one Ontario craft cider at the time, but no restau- rants served it. "So that was in the back of my mind for awhile," he said. "I thought it was great opportunity to make something tangible and work hard to see what you do, because when you sell it to a bar or restaurant, some- one opens that cider and has an expe- rience." However Kramar, now the owner- operator of KW Craft Cider on Colby Drive, decided to move to the region long before the apple-licious bevy caught his fancy. Following post-secondary school, the North York native had been work- ing with various manufacturing opera- tions in the area. He'd only heard of Kitchener-Waterloo before, but soon fell in love with it. "Even before I knew I was going to do cider, I � rst knew I wanted to move here," he said. And so here he is after about three years in business, churning out more than 100,000 litres of cider each year -- about 250,000 servings. The craft was self-taught, Kramar explained, alongside skids loaded with 50-pound bags of malic acid, sugar, sulphate, sorbate, bottles and kegs. "I read a lot of books," he said. "We didn't know how to make cider at � rst and decided to make a sparkling, dry cider, and make it as best we could. "I started with an idea and pulling together a plan and eventually rented this unit and got the licences." Kramar also came across various people who were willing to help him, including one man he referred to as "the best amateur wine maker" in Ontario. "Using winemaking principles, the cider is made in small batches to account for seasonal variations in each crop and achieve a rich, well-bal- anced blend," the company's website explains. "At 6.7 per cent alcohol con- tent, it is a dry, clear, re� ned cider with champagne yeast that can be enjoyed on its own as well as paired with a meal." Early batches of the drink con- tained a lot of mistakes, Kramar admit- ted, but the days of test runs are long gone. � e sparkling cider is now carried in 30 LCBO stores across Ontario as well as all Sobeys and Loblaws stores that are licensed to sell alcohol. Vari- ous restaurants, including � ne-dining spots like the Berlin in downtown Kitchener, now o� er it on their menu too. "So we did that, and then we found that a lot of customers were asking for what variations we could do," said Kra- mar. � ere are now � ve or six specialty ciders on the menus of local restau- rants at any one time, he said. Canadian Shield Berry Cider uses � ve di� erent types of native berries. "That's a popular one," Kramer said, stressing that local ingredients including Ontario apples are used in production. A seasonal cider called Winter Spice is aged in cinnamon, cloves, nut- meg, vanilla and peach. Another vari- ety uses hot green Thai peppers and provides a bite akin to ginger beer. Orchards press the apples and bring the un� ltered juice to the Water- loo facility where a dozen, 64-hectolitre tanks do the processing. The juice remains in sealed tanks for � ltering and fermenting before it's blended, carbonated and packaged, which is where Kramar's wife Sand- rina comes in. She handles the cre- ative, branding side of things, including social media. Kramar is hopeful that antiquated laws pertaining to the business will soon be updated so products can be sold directly to the public. Laws have been modernized for beer and wine, he said. Continued on page 20 A little holiday cheer KW Craft Cider's founder Michael Kramar has tapped into a growing taste for the drink BUSINESS WATERLOO CHRONICLEWATERLOO CHRONICLE A little holiday cheer WATERLOO CHRONICLEWATERLOO CHRONICLEWATERLOO CHRONICLE BILL JACKSON PHOTO Micheal Kramer, owner of KW Craft Cider, shows off a couple of his bottles, including a cranberry variation.