This week, I’m sharing notes on two very different hopped ciders. Some folks don’t care for hopped ciders for reasons of either tradition or taste, but I enjoy them tremendously. Also, we are headed towards Cider Week Finger Lakes fast and furious!
Check out all the events and participants here: https://ciderweekflx.com/flx/.
I'm participating in a few events this year, but
I’m starting with 1911 New England Syle IPC Hopped Cider. I picked this can up when I visited their tasting room early in the summer.
1911 Cider and Distillery operates in LaFayette, New York and supplies many varieties of cider throughout the region and beyond. The fermentations are consistently clean, and the cidery presses local fruit to craft well-balanced, approachable, sessionable ciders in an ever-growing variety of flavors.
Find out more online: http://1911established.com/cider/
1911’s Facebook page is updated regularly: https://www.facebook.com/1911Spirits/
I have just a few previous reviews of 1911 ciders, but here they are. Keep watching the blog for more 1911 in the coming months!
Most recently I reviewed the Tropical: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/06/cider-cans-crush-it-1911-tropical-cider.html
Somerset Original Cider: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/06/cider-review-beak-and-skiffs-1911.html
Founders’s Reserve Hopped: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/09/cider-review-1911s-founders-reserve.html
On to 1911’s New England Style IPC Hopped Cider. Here’s the official description:
1911 New England Style I.P.C. is a supremely aromatic sparkling cider made with NY State apples and hops. Harvested from Hop Haven in Skaneateles, NY, we use only the finest Cascade, Nugget and Chinook hops, for a bold and juicy flavor profile. 6.9% ABV
Appearance: cloudy, apricot, few visible bubbles
The appearance is part of what gives the cider it’s name. One of the salient features of New England Style IPA (or IPC in this case) is the unfiltered turbidity of the beverage. This cider is quite cloudy; I’ll even call it fully opaque. The color reminds me of dried apricots.
Aromas: juicy apple, pine, pear, pineapple, hoppy
This cider smells extremely juicy with notes of fresh apple everywhere! That’s not all I get from the aroma though, it’s also piney with splashes of pineapple and pear. I get plenty of hop characteristics as well. They include more notes of spruce or clean sweat than citrus.
Sweetness/dryness: Semi-sweet
This cider tasted semi-sweet to me and my tasting companion. We were surprised by this because of the graphic we found to indicate sweetness on the can and the website. The graphic was set up with a numeric scale of 1-6, marking this cider as a 1. I’m guessing 1 is meant to be the drier end with 6 the sweetest, but on that scale I’d give it a 3 to 4. I expect my perceptions to be shifted a little dryer than most, but I’d not call this a dry cider.
Flavors and drinking experience: juicy, fruity, lush, apple and citrus
The IPC tastes so very juicy; it’s semi sweet bursting with crisp wet apple and citrus. I find it lush and soft. It’s not quite as high acid as it could be to balance out some of that fruitiness, but I like that it’s profile is different than many NY ciders. The cider doesn't taste sweaty but is dewy, wet, and fresh.
The fruit notes include lots of apple, apricot, and green grapes. It has no tannins, but it doesn’t need them. It’s going much more for fun than structured. I paired with tomato basil risotto with spring peas and it was lovely and approachable.
Next up, it’s Kekionga Cider Company Hop
For a bit of background on the cidery, Tyler Butcher and Logan Barger founded Kekiona Cider Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is closely allied with Goeglein Mill where Kekionga now has a seasonal tasting room. Reading a bit more about the company and it’s flagship ciders: the Hop, the Crisp, and the old Bicorne, the company explores with culinary and heirloom varietals. The focus appears to be on approachability and sessionability. I got my can of theirs through a cider competition this year, and I’ve been waiting on just the right enthusiasm for a hopped cider to break it out.
Visit the company online to read more: http://kekiongaciderco.com/
Here’s how Kekionga Cider Company describes one of the flagship ciders, “Hop – Made with a unique blend of culinary and heirloom apples, Hop is then amplified with a variety of hops that are carefully selected to intensify the aroma and mouthfeel of an already great tasting cider. (Off-Dry) 6% ABV
Appearance: hazy, pale moon glow, few visible bubbles
Looking at my Hop in the glass, I can see a gentle glowy haze that makes the color remind me of the moon on summer nights. I don’t get a lot of visible bubbles when I pour the cider.
Aromas: Berries, pineapple, juicy and floral
The hop smells immediately like berry and fruit. Specifically, I get strawberry and pineapple, and tons of apple flesh. The smell overall is very wet and a bit floral. It is not distinctly hoppy.
Dryness/sweetness: Semi-dry but close to semi-sweet
It’s right on that line between semi-dry and semi-sweet. I did expect it to be sweeter than it was because of what all I was getting in the aromas.
Flavors and drinking experience: pine, petillance, medium acid, fruity
When sitting down to taste the Hop, I got a few surprises. I did expect a more desserty cider based on how it smelled. What I taste instead starts with a little bit of pine and sweat in the hop action. It’s there, but it’s mild. The hoppyness comes through most in bigger sips. This cider has relatively low carbonation and medium acidity. My biggest surprise was that the Hop has a bit of tannin. These are shifts from the usual hopped cider profile, and they really work together well. This cider has its own identity.
As I keep drinking the Hop, it doubles down on fruitiness. All of the astringe occurs in the middle palate. Overall the cider tastes wet and cool; it comes across as aquatic. The Hop has a heavy languid mouthfeel. The whole experience feels both relaxed and sessionable. The fermentation is clean with no real flaws, and it drinks easy. I had mine with deluxe macaroni and cheese with bell peppers and local tomatoes added. The creaminess and vegetal notes played well with the mildly hopped cider.
