Cider Reviews: Big Hill Ciderworks Little Round Hop and Black Diamond Cider's Slatestone

My weekend started with some surprise snow on Saturday morning! One moment, I’m admiring the sunshine and sipping coffee, only to look up again and see swirling snowflakes on a cold wind. As much as it feels like a surprise, it is time for the approach of winter here. Thanksgiving is next Thursday! I can barely believe it. I hope you’ll be setting your holiday table with some ciders. I have two very food-friendly ciders to share this week to lead us closer to the dinner table. 

We’re starting today with a hopped cider from Big Hill Ciderworks. 

This Adams County Pennsylvania cidery was started in 2013 by two men who met years earlier in a very different industry but who both dreamt of farming. Therefore the cider company makes very clear that farming is the priority. That doesn’t mean it’s all they do. They grow their own apples, make and bottle the cider as well as doing their own sales and distribution. That’s quite a lot ot master in 5 years, and yet the company has a fantastic reputation, even outside of the state. 

I got to take my sample bottle home after a cider competition when I was judging. Sometimes we get lucky like that. I cannot buy most Pennsylvania ciders anywhere near Ithaca, so I was very excited to get to try this one a while ago. 

You can learn more online about Big Hill Ciderworks here: http://www.bighillcider.com

Here’s the official description for the Little Round Hop, “To elevate this cider’s bright, citrusy personality, we’ve dry-hopped it, using a blend of whole leaf Columbus, Centennial & Cascade hops – the legendary “three C’s.”  Organic lemongrass focuses the hop overtones and adds a citrusy finish to this light and effervescent cider.  Available year round.” 5.5% ABV

Appearance: Brilliant, bright corn, no visible bubbles

This cider offers  such a lovely brilliant clarity. I don’t see any bubbles when I pour it, and the color is a like ripe bright corn on the cob.

Aromas: pear, piney, grapefruit, ripe apple

The Little Round Hop smells fruity, juicy, like pear and ripe apples. But it also smells like hops peppery, piney, grapefruit rind—a little sweaty. I love that the ripe apple notes come through alongside the hops. 

Dryness/sweetness: semi-sweet

You’ll find out a lot more about this cider from the tasting notes, but I taste this one as a semi-sweet in a pleasant balanced way.

Flavors and drinking experience: bubbly, fruity, high acid, sweet finish

The Little Round Hop makes a big impression with its strong acid and citrus flavors. These notes are accompanied by some dark cooked apple presence and a maple finish. The cider delights me with intense bubbles! Two thumbs up for a very clean fermentation and good balance overall.

 Though the cider is fruity, it’s also hoppy but not overly so. I detect a notes of pine and green tea. The fruit reminds me of ripe apple at the start. Very little yeast characteristics is separately distinguishable. I enjoy the round and notably pleasant mouthfeel. As my tasting companion noticed; this works well  in big drinks.

I had this cider over the course of two nights. The first glass was simply paired with good conversation after dinner and the second night I had a glass with a brownie. I think you could pair this cider with a wide variety of foods, including a number of comforting Thanksgiving-appropriate side dishes like savory dressing or honey-butter carrots. 

One of my absolute favorite cideries in the Finger Lakes has to be Black Diamond Cider. If you aren’t already familiar, here’s the briefest of backgrounds  Ian and Jackie Merwin, long-term home cidermakers, orchardists, and farmers, founded this company in 2014. Dr. Ian Merwin is a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University in Pomology, specializing in cider. He and Jackie founded their own fruit orchard in the finger lakes, near Trumansburg, New York. These apples go into Black Diamond Cider. 

You can read much more about them and their ciders at Black Diamond Cider's Website: http://blackdiamondcider.com

I'm concluding this week’s reviews with the Slatestone. This cider was shared with me for review by the generous souls at Black Diamond. I've tasted it many times and taken my impressions from more than handful of tastings.

I have reviewed a couple of the company’s ciders previously. 

The Rabblerouser: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/09/cider-review-black-diamonds.html

The Solstice: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/08/cider-review-black-diamonds-solstice.html

This cider was my #2 favorite cider of 2017!

The Hickster:

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/12/cider-review-black-diamond-ciders.html

This was my #3 favorite cider in 2016

And the Pommeau made an appearance at the Locavore Birthday pairing dinner in 2017:

https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/09/finger-lakes-cider-week-and-birthday.html

The Slatestone’s Official Description is helpfully complete. 

2017 SlateStone Cider is our “terroir” blend made from heirloom apples, fermented slow and cool, and bottled without filtration or preservatives. This cider is crisp and completely dry with no residual sugars. It has aromas of russet green apples and limes, and can be paired with many different foods. It tastes best when chilled before serving. 

Tasting Notes: Soft tannins, minerals, limes, and tart green apple with a dry, sharp finish 

Alcohol: 7.5%  Residual Sugar: 0% (Dry)  PH: 3.6  TA:  7.5 g/L 

European Bittersweets  – 40%             North American Heirloom Sharps – 60%
2017 Harvest: Goldrush, Brown Snout, Chisel Jersey, Zabergau Reinette

The other background that’s really amazing is not only the Gold Medal from GLINTCAP in 2018 but that this cider made #3 best in its category, Heritage Dry. This is a big deal!

Appearance: deep butternut color, transparent, no visible bubbles

Oh my, my mouth waters just as soon as I pour this one. The color on the Slatestone is so deep and vibrant. In this season it reminds me of a just peeled butternut squash. I don’t see any bubbles, though I know they will be there. This is an unfiltered cider, and I’d not call it brilliant or hazy. It’s simply transparent. 

Aromas: soft overripe apples, Meyer lemon, Persian lime

Luscious aromas are the number association I have with Black Diamond ciders and the Slatestone exemplifies this beautifully. This one smells like overripe apples softened by the warm afternoon sun. But it also smells like a zest of bright citrus, like Persian Lime and Meyer Lemon. I get a strong salivary response just from smelling the Slatestone.

Sweetness/dryness: dry

What a lovely dry cider! It has so much flavor and intensity while remaining unambiguously dry. Some of this is the decadent big blend of apples, but I think it’s also in how Black Diamond crafts the cider.  

Flavors and drinking experience: intensely sparkling, pointed acid, round fruits

Use this cider for Thanksgiving. Just do. It’s a high acidity cider with strong sparkle that will lighten heavier foods. These bubbles also help carry and expand flavors, giving it a lot of flexibility for pairing. I’ll have it with a Celebration Roast, but one could serve it with the more traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. 

The same apple and citrus flavors that were evident in the ciders aromas come through for flavors as well. The scintillating freshness comes with the citrus and minerality. That wasn’t as present when only smelling the cider but the flavors do include sharp minerals and even peppery notes. These sharp flavors are balanced beautifully with the richness of ripe fermented apples.  

The overall impressions of this cider are sophistication, balance, and lightness. The Slatestone makes some big promises with its gorgeous aromas, and, thankfully, it delivers.

Cider Reviews: Castle Hill's Levity and Treasury Cider's Burr Knot

Last week, I shared two ciders with extra seasonal ingredients. But I can’t leave heritage orchard-based cider out in the cold. As much as I love experimentation, my fondness for this cider style cannot be matched. Apple only ciders can be so much more than the familiar flavor of the fresh fruit. Often these ciders are the most wine like in the cider world, and like many wines, one cider will offer up dozens of aromas, flavors, and scintillating nuances.

Let’s start today with Castle Hill’s Levity. Castle Hill is an orchard-based Cidery in Keswick, Virginia. This cidery was founded in 2011, but many of the trees that grow its apples are more than eighty years old. It’s history is closely connected with the Albemarle Pippin apple. Many of the apple choices and fermentation techniques at this cidery appear to be inspired both by history but also by technical exploration, seeking traditions from around the world and local apples to make their cider.

Read about Castle Hill on the cidery website: https://www.castlehillcider.com/

I’ve had a few Castle Hill ciders before.

Most recently, the Terrestrial had a place on the table for my friend Elizabeth’s pairing birthday dinner: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-dear-friend-el-just-had-birthday.html

My first review of Castle Hill was their Celestial in 2015: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/02/cider-review-castle-hll-ciders-celestial.html
That cider made it to #5 of my favorites list of that year.

And I did get to taste the Levity at CiderCon this past winter as part of the Heritage Cider track: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cidercon-part-2-including-heritage.html

This bottle was shared with me as a sample. Here’s the official description:

“A feral yeast fermentation of traditional high-tannin cider apples, high-tannin and high-acid crabs, and heirloom varieties --some gathered from 80+ year old trees. Levity is fermented in buried beeswax lined terra cotta fermenters called Qvevri-the world’s oldest known fermentation vessels. We draw Levity out of its earthen womb and place in bottles before fermentation completes, allowing the yeast to naturally produce a sparkling cider. Enjoy at cellar temperature.”

Appearance: very bubbly, rich butternut color, brilliant

Thought this cider is super bubbly, it’s also brilliant. One could easily read straight through that rich butternut color. What a lovely sight.

Aromas: cinnamon, cooked apple, Baking spice

I have to make known that glorious intensity of the Levity’s aroma. Wow! It smells just divine. I love the cooked apple, baking spice, and cinnamon notes. What’s harder to describe is the warm clean fermentation character I’m also picking up on.

Sweentess/dryness: Dry

This is a dry cider. Yes, it’s rich and lucious and fruity, but it’s also dry.

Flavors and drinking experience: Golden, tiny bubbles, high acid, tannins

Ooh! I get shivers just thinking about how good this cider is. Wow! The baking spice notes I detected as aromas also approach as flavors, but they aren’t alone. The Levity also tastes of fall flowers, cooked fruit, and quince. I don’t know how to say it exactly but there’s something light and silvery to the flavors also.

Dry, yes. High acidity and medium high tannins, yes but fresh and fruity. No one characteristic can fully describe this cider. It’s light and playful yet rich and complex. The bubbles are so fine and numerous. Of any individual note, quince probably comes through the most clearly. It’s just such a lovely cider.

From Virginia to New York, I want to share my thoughts on Treasury Cider’s Burr Knot next. Fishkill Farms is the home orchard for this relatively young cidery. They use heritage, crab, and eating apple varieties. I love the simple yet sophisticate sense of graphic design I get from both their labels and website.

Visit Treasury Cider online: http://www.treasurycider.com/

I have talked about this cider briefly in February when I wrote about the Gathering of the Farm Cideries: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/gathering-of-new-york-farm-cideries.html

The Burr Knot’s official description reads:

A careful mix of apples from our family orchard, Fishkill Farms, was selected to make the hard cider in this bottle. Heirloom varieties, proper harvest timing, ecological farming, and traditional wine-making methods all come together in our cider. Our name is an homage to the farm's founder Henry Morenthau Jr., who served as Secretary of the Treasury under FDR. It also celebrates the revival of hard cider in America. 8.4% ABV

Other descriptors include, “Dry and unfiltered / orchard cider / traditional method” and a list of apples, “Hyslop crab / Granny Smith / Pink Lady / Old-Growth Golden Delicious / Jonamac”

If you have the chance I do recommend looking at the cider descriptions online because you can click on any variety and get some incredibly rich detail on the orchard and the cider making info.

Appearance: hazy, no visible bubbles, goldenrod

This unfiltered cider has a harvest glow about it, as it’s hazy and warm hued. I love the goldenrod color. I didn’t see any bubbles when I poured.

Aromas: Stony, melon, quince

The cider smells like apple juice splashed onto limestone; it’s all fruit and minerals. Those gorgeously stony smells appear at the same time as fruit notes, but they never compete. I get tons of quince and melon with a delicate creamy background of velvety yogurt.

Dryness/sweetness: Dry

I love how dry dry dry this cider is.

Flavors and drinking experience: high acid, funky, milk chocolate

Even though I expected relatively high acidity, this tartness was striking! But I also got some of the creaminess I smelled in a new rich milk chocolate note. What a fun and surprising facet.

This intensely flavorful is fruity and funky! There’s peach and strawberry but also savory notes like sesame seeds and toasted grain. The Burr Knot goes everywhere, powered by that zesty acid and structured by medium tannins. Needless to say, I adore this one.

Gathering of the New York Farm Cideries: Nine Pin Ciderworks, Treasury Cider, Awestruck Cider, and Descendant Cider Co.

This past Saturday, I bundled some friends who happen to be fellow cider nerds into the car to make the trek up to Albany for the Fourth Annual Gathering of the Farm Cideries. For a little background, this is a New York even that Nine Pin hosts yearly to celebrate the birthday of their own business, but also to celebrate a whole generation of young NY cideries that operate under New York's Farm Cidery license. Nine Pin was the first to open as an official NY Farm Cidery, so it makes all the sense in the world that they gather everyone to Albany. I love that these cider companies are forming a community and sharing their huge range of beverages with the public together. This is crucial cider education!

Each year, more cideries work under this license and are thus eligible to take part. This year around 17 cider companies participated by setting up a table, sampling, introducing and selling their ciders under one warehouse roof. That's one of the things I love about the gathering. Some of these operations are either quite young or quite small, and many self distribute to a very limited local area. This may be the only chance many people have to buy anything from Roger's Cideryard(https://www.facebook.com/RogersCideryard/), and it was assuredly my first tasting with Ithaca's newest cider producer: New York Cider Co. (https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkCiderCompany/).

When we arrived, about 20 minutes after doors were due to open, there was already a line stretching around the corner from the cidery's entrance. One of the things to note about Ninepin is their extensive and agile menu of limited release ciders. Several of these are only ever available in their tap room and only around for a short time. These run the gamut from this year's Ashmead's Kernel single-varietal to the wildly inventive such as their Blueberry Peach Cobbler. And I think their adventurousness has rubbed off on Albany's cider scene more generally, hence the folks waiting for doors to open on Saturday.

Once inside I tasted and chatted and listened to what other folks were saying about the sold-out event.

I didn't get to try everything; I never manage to, but I did find several things to take home. But here are four highlights of what I did get to try.

Nine Pin Ciderworks,

http://www.ninepincider.com

Cascara Nectar

This is a soon to be officially released cider and it was astounding! Cascara is the berry of the coffee plant, but this cider struck me as tart and spicy more than anything else. This cider is the result of a collaboration between Nine Pin and Joe Bean Coffee Roasters. It uses Cascara Coffee Cherry Tea and the hulks of Bolivian Cascara fermented with New York State Apples. I bought a four pack of cans to take home because this spicy, fruity, high acid cider exhibits what I love about experimental ciders. The apple flavor remains present but does something new with these additional flavors.

Here's a link to Joe Bean and Nine Pin's Release party coming up soon on February 24th: https://www.facebook.com/events/147819415930296/

Treasury Cider

http://www.treasurycider.com/

Burr Knot

The official description reads:

A careful mix of apples from our family orchard, Fishkill Farms, was selected to make the hard cider in this bottle. Heirloom varieties, proper harvest timing, ecological farming, and traditional wine-making methods all come together in our cider. Our name is an homage to the farm's founder Henry Morenthau Jr., who served as Secretary of the Treasury under FDR. It also celebrates the revival of hard cider in America.

Other descriptors include, “Dry and unfiltered / orchard cider / traditional method” and a list of apples, “Hyslop crab / Granny Smith / Pink Lady / Old-Growth Golden Delicious / Jonamac”

Wow! Just wow! I've had other ciders by this maker, but nothing in the past year. They've really matured and this cider shows their best qualities. Yes, I'm fond of a cider with crab apples, but the maker has to do know what to do with them. Treasury Cider certainly does!

Awestruck Cider

http://www.awestruckciders.com/

Lavender Hopped

I love their introduction to this cider.

Think of lavender and you imagine rows of sun-kissed purple, with a gentle scent of Mediterranean summer evenings. Our Lavender Hops is created to capture the same sensation of warm, fragrant summertime. We infuse our traditional hard cider with a secret blend of hops and sweet lavender. This adds a mildly bitter complexity which, together with the citrus and floral undertones, combines to produce a unique flavour. Like a summer evening, Lavender Hops is mellow - perfect for cider and beer drinkers alike

This one sold out entirely at the event! I loved it and one of my cider compatriots did too. The lavender tastes herbal without being soapy. The cider has zesty high acid that always goes well with hops. Its a balanced and full bodied cider. Other fruit notes were tropical fruit and berries.

Descendant Cider Co.

http://www.descendantcider.com/

Dry

The limited release Descendant Dry is introduced like this by the cidery,

DESCENDANT DRY (6.9%) - 2016 Harvest availableDry" has strong ripe apple aromas and bright acidity balanced with bittersweet tannin. It is medium body and bone dry. It also has bright appearance as a result of the aging process.

What I like about this cider is both its body and its balance. It has some zesty acidity, mild astringence, and soft tannins. It also had some floral and spicy characteristics that really add to its complexity. Yum! I also picked up a few of their other ciders for future tasting.

Overall, it was a wonderful day. Yes, there were cider donuts! Nine Pin Ciderworks really knows how to host this event well. They managed a big crowd and avoided many of the common pitfalls to such events. I had a fantastic time and only wish I could visit these cider folks more often.