Category Archives: Cider

Spire Mountain – Dark & Dry

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Bottle and glass of Spire Mountain Dark and Dry

Bottle & glass of Spire Mountain Dark & Dry

I’ll give this one “dark” — it’s about the color of strong black tea, or perhaps the ice-diluted ends of a glass of Coke — but “dry” it ain’t. It’s flavorful, and smooth going down, but very sweet, on par with an Angry Orchard or Woodchuck at least.

There’s a distinct brown sugar aspect to its sweetness, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “molasses” as the Spire Mountain website does. The aroma is also a little sweet, but crisp and clear, not cloying.

There’s some tartness rounding out the flavor, but no bitterness, woodiness, or earthiness, and the aftertaste lingers for a little while before fading.

It’s low fizz but foams up quite a bit when poured, with more foam lingering around the rim than I see with most ciders even after the head subsides.

At only 5% ABV it’s more suitable for an extended drinking session than most of the other ciders I’ve reviewed. If I had to pick a single word, I’d call the Dark & Dry “mellow.”

Other than the inaccuracy of its name, I have no particular qualms with it, though I’m sure its sweetness won’t appeal to some. It’s the kind of cider I might like to drink in the dark, on a cool evening, after spending a hot day working outside.

Spire Mountain doesn’t have a locator widget on their site, but they’re based in Olympia and I’ve seen them around at plenty of stores as well as eating and drinking establishments. If you’re in the area, I’m sure you’ll be able to find some; if you’re not, well, come visit!

 

Sea Cider – Prohibition/Rumrunner

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A bottle of Sea Cider Prohibition

A bottle of Sea Cider Prohibition against the blue Seattle sky.

At 12.5% ABV, I feel obliged to start out by letting you know right up front that Prohibition is a boozy doozy.

It’s flavored and colored with molasses, and aged in bourbon barrels for 6 months; this gets you a fine, fizzy, caramel-colored drink which — and Andrea can back me up on this one — may knock you flat on your ass and/or leave you full of regret in the morning if you don’t pay attention.

(Not that there’s too much of a chance of that in modest doses, but given it comes in 750ml bottles, you may want to make sure not to down a whole bottle in one session, is what I’m saying. Bad Rider doesn’t judge anyone’s drinking habits, we just want you to have the facts so you can make well-informed decisions.)

I imagine Sea Cider might’ve had to add molasses just to get it sweet enough to ferment to 12.5% ABV without it going completely, undrinkably bone-dry — in addition to the color, there’s definitely molasses in the flavor, sure, and the aroma’s laden with brown sugar, but Prohibition doesn’t actually end up terribly sweet overall, and has so much else going on that its sweetness hardly even takes a dominant note.

Prohibition is spicy and fiery and kind of rummy, with a sharp bite up front on top of a woody, somewhat bitter foundation. It’s a unique and complex cider for sure; probably not the kind of thing you’re going to want to drink all the time, but absolutely a treat worth picking up now and then when you want something with a real kick.

Frankly, I think every single suggestion Sea Cider makes about Prohibition on their site sounds fantastic (“delicious cold, or mulled and heated with butter…pairs well with steak, Caribbean and Moroccan food, and is perfect for marinades, barbecue sauces and cocktails”), and can’t wait to try some of them myself.

You can locate some Prohibition for yourself here — or, if you’re in Canada, some Rumrunner, as that’s the name it’s sold under there.

2 Towns Ciderhouse – The Bad Apple

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Bottle & glass of 2 Towns "The Bad Apple"

Bottle & glass of 2 Towns “The Bad Apple”

When I saw this in the store I thought, ah, surely this is a cider for the Thoroughbred of Sin himself. Having tried it, I’m inclined to stand by that initial impression.

The bottle description claims notes of fruit and vanilla; though I wouldn’t have picked vanilla out of a hat myself, having read that I do get some vanilla coming through in the aroma. The taste is sharp and strong, quite tart but not bitter, just sweet enough to earn its “semi-dry” self-description.

It’s definitely a very present cider, the kind of thing you pay attention to while drinking — no idle sipping while your mind is elsewhere, and a taste that lingers in your mouth.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, the way the red cap on the bottle picks up the red accents in the label is a nice touch that drew my eye. It’s surprising what something as trivial as “not a generic black or gold/brass cap” can do to boost your visibility and appeal. (Yeah, I’m a sucker for presentation; I judge books by their covers too.)

The Bad Apple is a vivid amber in color, low fizz, and a surprising 10.5% ABV. There’s a map of where you can find 2 Towns cider on their home page.

Seattle Cider Summit Roundup

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Seattle's secret: beautiful, sunny summers.

Seattle’s secret: beautiful, sunny summers.

In lieu of a regular post today, I thought I’d give some quick notes on things I tried at last weekend’s Seattle Cider Summit. With 40 tables and several offerings per table, there was no way I could have tried everything, even had I been there the entire duration of the festival. A lot of the offerings were things I’ve seen in local stores, though, so I was able to focus mainly on stuff that was local but new or unfamiliar.

Boonville – Bite Hard: Very very dry, and a little bitter, but medium body and a pretty decent balance of flavors.

Crispin – Pacific Pear: WOW, I love this. Dramatic pear flavor and aroma, quite sweet but still pretty light. The pear cider answer to something like an Angry Orchard Crisp Apple, perhaps. Made completely with pear juice, rather than a mix of apple & pear as many pear ciders are.

Eden Ice Cider – Heirloom Blend: If you like ice wine, or extremely sweet dessert wines in general, this is for you. Extremely concentrated apple flavor & sweetness.

EZ Orchards – Hawk Haus: Crisp, dry, light, sparkling. Slight farm-y aroma.

Grizzly Ciderworks – Bourbon Barrel-Aged: Yikes. Yikes. I don’t know if I’m just not the target market for this cider or if it got too hot and the supply went bad or what, because it tasted terrible. Kinda soapy and kinda gross and entirely yuck. I got nothing in the way of a “barrel aged” flavor.

Liberty Ciderworks – Stonewall Whiskey Barrel: Crisp and dry but a little bitter and musty. Respectable but not my favorite.

Methow Valley – Honey Bear: This is the 3rd year I’ve been to the Seattle Cider Summit and I’ve made sure to get some Honey Bear every time. Love this stuff. Distinctly lovely honey aroma and flavor, and like the Pacific Pear it’s sweet but still fairly light.

Neigel – Pearfect Pie: HELLO YES THIS IS PIE. This is definitely totally a pie-flavored pear cider, and I wasn’t that wild about it just because it was so strongly about the clove-cinnamon aroma and apple-pie-but-kinda-pears taste. I meant to get back to this booth & try another cider of theirs but didn’t have a chance, which is a shame because I really respect & am intrigued by any cidery that’s focusing specifically on pear cider.

Rogue – Fruit Salad Cider: Pretty much what you might gather from the name. A mix of fruit flavors and a general “fruit juice” red/orange color, though they kept it pretty dry despite the fruit.

Sixknot – Purple Sage: I don’t know if this is really what they were going for but I got a distinct vinegar aspect from the taste. I wish I’d written down the description of it, because it said it was an experimental blend of some kind of pomace and some kind of apples. It’s not terrible, but you really better like drinking fizzy vinegary acidic cider.

Finnriver – Lavender Black Currant

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A bottle & glass of Finnriver Lavender Black Currant

A bottle & glass of Finnriver Lavender Black Currant

Today in “ciders I probably should have reviewed earlier in the summer,” this Lavender Black Currant summer offering from Finnriver’s “Elijah Swan Seasonal Botanicals” line. I see a lot of Finnriver around Seattle — I get the feeling they’re doing pretty well for themselves, and rightfully so.

The lavender here comes through mostly in the aroma, though if you’re not wild about the idea of drinking your lavender it may not be to your liking, as it does also come through in the taste with a touch of green herbiness.

The black currant really dominates, though — this isn’t a “hint of fruit” kind of cider, it’s got a lovely rich garnet color and a strong, tart berry/dark fruit taste.

This is a good cider to try out if you want something a little different, but if you’re having it with a meal be sure it’s something that can either hold its own (like, I dunno, a juicy burger — though let’s be real, burgers are my answer to everything) or blend in (like lavender scones).

Finnriver’s Lavender Black Currant has a 6.5% ABV and you can look for it in stores around the PNW or order it direct from them, if you live in AK, CA, CO, DC, FL, MN, OR, or WA.

 

Schilling Cider – Grapefruit

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A bottle & glass of Schilling Grapefruit Cider

A bottle & glass of Schilling Grapefruit Cider

For this review I actually went out and got a Steigl Grapefruit Radler to compare with, even though beer is gross, because I couldn’t quite believe how much this grapefruit cider doesn’t appeal to me.

Turns out Stiegl Grapefruit Radler is not all that bad to an anti-beer person, really. (Which has cued subsequent curiosity for me about whether hopped and yeasty ciders are eroding my hardline resistance to ALL BEERS EVER.)

There’s certainly a lot of grapefruit taste in this cider, even a grapefruit aroma stronger than any aroma I get from most ciders. But it’s not a good grapefruit taste, it’s bitter and sour and tart, with no balance. My original notes on this cider started with “blech.”

Perhaps grapefruit and apple is just inherently a bad combination, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true without additional data points. Instead let’s chalk this up to a learning experience for Schilling, a new local company I’m otherwise fond of — their Oak-Aged is one of my go-to ciders and will show up in a later review.

Schilling’s Grapefruit Cider is a cloudy pale yellow and has an ABV of 6.0%. Schilling seems not to acknowledge that this cider exists anywhere on their site, so I’m not sure where you can find it — in my case, it was at a small deli/convenience store that opened up just down the road from where I live.

Dragon’s Head – Manchurian, Pear, and Pippin Ciders

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Dragon's Head "Manchurian Cider" & "Pippin Cider" Bottles

Dragon’s Head “Manchurian Cider” & “Pippin Cider” Bottles

In this review I’m covering three ciders at once because I can’t tell the difference between them and I feel like it would be cheating to post the same review three separate times with only minimal changes.

Okay, fine, it’s not entirely true that I can’t tell them apart at all — they’re a light, clear yellow-gold color with mild fizz, but when I hold them up to the light the Pear is slightly more yellow and the Manchurian slightly more gold. All three taste light and fairly dry but not bone-dry; the Pear’s a bit more sweet and mellow while the Manchurian has more bite, and the Pippin is slightly more tart.

If it were the case that these ciders all tasted incredible I might not be bothered by the fact that they’re nearly identical; as it is, none of them are objectionable, but neither do they stand out in particular.

I’ll be the first to admit here that this may all well come down to my own palate being insufficiently refined, but if I tasted one of the three at random from a glass, I wouldn’t for the life of me be able to guess which one it was. If it helps, I have high hopes that their fourth cider, the “Wild Fermented,” will stand out from the other three. I mean, it ought to, right?

The Manchurian is made from (surprise!) Manchurian Crabapples, the Pear is made from (quoth the bottle) “a blend of seedling and traditional perry pears,” and the Pippin (again – surprise!) from America’s cider apple darling the Newtown Pippin. The Manchurian and Pippin are 6.9% ABV, the Pear is 6.5%.

If you want to try one, I recommend the Pear, which comes in a bottle double the size of the Manchurian and Pippin at a couple dollars less than double the price. You can locate some Dragon’s Head for yourself here.

Square Mile – Spur & Vine

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Square Mile "Spur & Vine" Bottle

Square Mile “Spur & Vine” Bottle

When stopping by a grocery store I don’t usually visit to grab a bottle of wine for a housewarming party, I stumbled across two bottles of Spur & Vine all by their lonesome, and thankfully there weren’t too many people around to hear my ensuing noise of delight. They were even the 650mL bottles I remembered from Cider Summit Seattle last fall.

Unlike The Original, Spur & Vine holds up to my memories — this is such an interesting and delicious cider. The whole reason I’ve become such an avid cider drinker is because I dislike the yeasty, hoppy, bitter taste of every beer I’ve ever met (all of them, yes, probably that one you’re thinking of too), but because of the dry-hopping process Square Mile uses, the cider doesn’t come out tasting particularly of hops at all. Instead, it’s gained a lovely floral aroma and a citrusy, slighty fruity taste, sweet enough that I wouldn’t describe it as dry, but with earthiness and a little tartness to balance it out.

Square Mile’s website says they add Galaxy hops to the same apples used for The Original (Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, and Jonagold), but if I hadn’t read that, I would have thought there were some bittersweet apples in the mix. All in all, a memorable cider and one I wish I could get my hands on more often — though now that I’ve found a store that carries it, perhaps I can.

Spur & Vine is a light, clear yellow, with a floral aroma and low fizz. It’s 6.7% ABV and can be purchased in 12oz or 22oz bottles.

Angry Orchard – ~*~ELDERFLOWER~*~

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A bottle & glass of Angry Orchard Elderflower

A bottle & glass of Angry Orchard Elderflower

(Yeah, I’m a fan.)

Elderflower is Angry Orchard’s summer seasonal, and it’s pretty much exactly what you might imagine — cider that tastes like it’s been spiked with St. Germain (or other elderflower liqueur of your choice).

I have no idea how much either this cider or St. Germain tastes like actual elderflower, but on the other hand, I’m guessing neither do most other drinkers, so we’re all in this together. It’s fruity but more like mild citrus and pear than apples, flowery but not oppressively so, and even a little medicinal. It’s a complex flavor that lends itself as well to a cider as it does to any number of cocktails in the form of liqueur.

I drink a fair amount of Angry Orchard cider; having tried most of their catalog at this point, this is hands down my favorite. Like their other varieties, it’s quite sweet, but most of the apple flavor vanishes behind the elderflower, which really lightens it up and makes it much more interesting.

Angry Orchard is a pale straw color with an almost peachy undertone. It has a light but persistent floral aroma and an ABV of 5%. It’s only around April through August, so if you want to track some down, make sure you do it soon or you’ll be SOL till next spring. I’ve only found it in 12oz bottles, either in six-packs or included in the 12-bottle variety pack boxes.

Grizzly Ciderworks – The Ridge

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Grizzly Ciderworks' "The Ridge" in a glass

Grizzly Ciderworks’ “The Ridge” in a glass

Due to some, hmm, shall we say misunderstandings regarding the recent Washington state privatization of alcohol sales and the classification of cider under state laws, this is the first cider my local liquor store has been able to offer on tap at their growler refill station in many months.

Grizzly Ciderworks’ The Ridge is a solid dry cider that doesn’t mess around. It gets in your mouth full of firm woody bitterness, accompanied by a healthy complement of green tartness and acidity, and then moves on with a finish that barely lasts.

I do recommend you keep this one cool as you’re drinking it, as there’s a certain amount of earthy funkiness that starts to emerge in the taste as it warms up — unless you enjoy that sort of thing, of course.

Fresh from the growler, it smells strongly of yeast, but that fades into a light aroma of apples gone just off, like they’ve dropped from the tree and spent some time on the ground but are still fine to use.

The Ridge is a cloudy light amber color, medium fizz, 6.7% ABV. I got my hands on it at the growler station at my local liquor store and from what I can gather it’s only offered on tap in various locations, not bottled. Find some for yourself here!