Peaks and Pints SudsPop: Seattle Cider and Kim Archer

With Thanksgiving approaching, Peaks and Pints gives thanks daily for having Eric Willard and Kim Archer in our lives. We have known the Seattle Cider/Two Beers Brewing executive and award-winning R&B singer, respectively, for many years. We’re thrilled to host Peaks and Pints SudsPop: Seattle Cider and Kim Archer Wednesday, Nov. 14 — a week earlier than typical SudsPop session due to the turkey holiday.

Each SudsPop session features beer or cider insider, an exclusive one-off beer or cider brewed by the guest brewery or cidery and a chosen artist or band in our East Wing events room. For the Nov. 14 SudsPop, Willard will discuss how to open a cidery and what it takes to produce award-winning cider while Archer performs favorite from her vast repertoire —just her and her guitar.

In 2009, with sales tripling in less than a year, Two Beers Brewing Co. moved its full operation from a tiny spot in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood into a 2,400 sq. ft. SoDo neighborhood brewery and tasting room. The brewery grew quickly. Tacoman Eric Willard, who worked across the street at Tiny’s Organic, wandered over to Two Beers and began a friendship with owner/head brewer Joel VandenBrink. Willard would often push aside his beer and help wash pint glasses and fill kegs. He would deliver kegs to Tacoma taverns on his way home.

VandenBrink launched the Seattle Cider Company in August 2013, with the help from his Two Beers sales rep and a former farm hand Willard. VandenBrink launched the cider company with only two products: Semi Sweet and Dry. VandenBrink didn’t launch with six to 10 products, common with start-up craft breweries. He didn’t launch with experimental pineapple cider or pomegranate cider. No, VandenBrink, Willard, up-and-coming cider savant Brent Miles and the Seattle Cider crew — with natural support from the Two Beers crew too — hit the market with two, solid ciders. And the cider company sprouted big and wide.

When you feel the music, you feel the music. And Kim Archer feels the music. She has been active in the Tacoma music scene since 2004, after she moved here from her hometown in Indiana. Archer’s powerful voice a la Janis Joplin and Chaka Khan commands the stage playing her own original songs rooted in old school soul, funk and classic rock, sultry blues and ballads while remaining a master at giving choice cover tunes the “Kim Archer treatment,” such as the crowd pleasing “Shaft.”

Willard will pour Seattle Cider’s holiday cider, explain the science behind it, as well as the in and outs of opening a cidery and answers question. Archer will perform her latest works, as well as her popular hits.

Please join us 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14 in the Peaks and Pints East Wing for an incredible night of cider and song.

Tickets are $14 plus tax, which includes the special event ciders, nibbles from Peaks and Pints kitchen and, of course, all the cider education and music. There’s a limit of 20 people. Tickets are available at Peaks and Pints.

PEAKS AND PINTS SUDSPOP: SEATTLE CIDER AND KIM ARCHER, 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26^th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, $14 presold