A GLIMPSE INTO STRING THEORY

Richard Ihrig, President
richard@stringtheorycider.com

Hi. I’m Richard Ihrig, the founder and owner of String Theory Cider. Not much happens at String Theory that I don’t have a hand in. I select the apples and pick and press some of them. I haul the juice and superintend its fermentation. When the time is right, I blend and bottle it. Since I’m the only employee, often mine are the only hands involved. It’s nice though when now and again family or friends stop by to lend a hand. When I’m done, Rick takes over and says and does things to persuade you to buy String Theory. Rick is a salesman, but what he says about String Theory is true, mostly.

String Theory isn’t made with juice from apples picked from trees planted and earnestly tended by my grandfather. My grandmother didn’t have visions of apple pie while she hung wet clothes on the line. String Theory won’t usher in a post-urban, post-industrial, pastoral utopia. Conventional advertising notwithstanding, bucolic nostalgia and political fantasy have nothing to do with the quality of cider.

Please forgive my use of an often used and abused word, but String Theory strives for authenticity. The problem is that although this is my 11 th year of cider making, I’m not sure what makes for an authentic cider. Figuring this out isn’t helped by a marketplace flooded with multi flavored mildly alcoholic apple based soft drinks called cider that, in my view, stray far from what cider was and could be. So, at this time I don’t claim that String Theory is the real thing. Still, the more I learn about the history and science of cider, the more I think that someday String Theory might creep up on authenticity. I’ll give you a heads-up if ever I think we’re getting close. Until then, keep drinking String Theory. It costs a damn fortune to make, and I need the money to make more.

Richard