My Cider Event Calendar: Cider and Beer Together At Last, Gathering of Farm Cideries, & GLINTCAP

Just a quick post while I'm still going through my notes and photos from CiderCon. (Don't worry, those posts are coming.)

These are some of the awesome cider events coming up on my calendar!
 
Cider and Beer Together At Last in Ithaca, NY
February 26th 5-9pm Free Entrace (but cider and food cost $)
Hosted by Ithaca Beer Company (http://ithacabeer.com)

Cideries Attending
South Hill Cider
Bellwether Cidery
1911 Cider


Nine Pin Anniversary Party and Gathering of Farm Cideries in Albany, NY
February 28th 11am-4pm Tickets are $10 ahead of time and $15 at the door

Hosted by Nine Pin Cider Works (http://www.ninepincider.com)

Cideries Attending
Sundog Cider, Chatham
Blackduck Cidery, Ovid
Cider Creek Hard Cider, Canisteo
Fishkill Farms, Hopewell Junction
Bad Seed Cider Company, Highland
Kaneb Orchards, Massena
Descendant Cider Co., New York City 
Maplestone’s Cider, Maspeth
(and possibly more!)

In addition to cider, there will be music, speakers, and food available from a beloved local food truck.


And a little bit later, but perhaps the most exciting of all, is the 10th Annual Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition. This is one of the two largest cider competitions in the world. And I'll be attending as a judge for my second year in a row!

The event takes place April 10-12, 2015 in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Interested folks should read more about the organization and the upcoming competition here. It is not too late to volunteer as a judge, steward, or to find out about submitting your own ciders to the competition.

Here's the site with the info: http://greatlakescider.com/index.html

As I find out more, I'll be sure to post it here.

Basically though, I'd love to see friendly faces at all of these events. Come on out if you can and if you do, say hi!

Cider Review Roundup: Virtue, Slyboro, William, Aspall's, Kettleborough, and Bad Seed

Whew! Back from Cider Con in Chicago (posts coming soon) and covered in yet more snow! Winter is very...real outside of Florida. But it is beautiful and snow days give me unexpected chances to write, so I'll take advantage while I can.  Today I've continued the process of going through my computer, phone, email, etc. to find sets of abandoned cider notes and photos. Since these reviews are varyingly complete or incomplete I though I might share a whole batch of them together.
 
Please consider most of these pictures representative of the appearance and style of the ciders in this post; I'm doing my best to match things up but these are found notes and found pictures from various moments in 2013 and 2014.

Virtue Cider's The Ledbury

http://virtuecider.com

This is how Virtue describes this particular cider, "The Ledbury Cider is an English-style medium cider crafted by Virtue with Tom Oliver. It's not too dry, not too sweet. A blend of old world bittersweet apples and new world heirloom varieties are fermented with native yeast, adding a bit of farminess to the ripe apple nose."

In appearance, this cider is relatively light and just a bit cloudy. It tastes bright and peppery with an almost spicey aftertaste, high tannin high acid, medium level of bubbles; not a lot of body, but would go well with swordfish. Smells like honey. At first, sweet melon, but not too gentle. Interesting and dynamic.

Slyboro's Night Pasture

http://www.slyboro.com/nightcider.php

On the Slyboro website, this is what I could find about their Night Pasture: "Subtly complex, dry, with hints of spice and caramel, made from Golden Delicious, English Bittersweet varieties and Northern Spy apples. Named after our oldest orchard, where earlier farmers once turned out their livestock at the end of the workday. Now a favorite spot for painters, dancers, apple pickers, skiers and red foxes. Serve chilled. 8% alc/vol 0% residual sugar. 750ml"

In appearnce this is very bright and clear; it looks still. While big gulps can allow me to detect a little fizz, this cider basically still as it appears. The Night Pasture tastes lightly but decidedly oaked, not a long finish, super clean. Bright and uplifting but very little acid with medium tannins. It tastes more minerally and stony ot me or like very green underripe grapes. Somehow the whole flavor is green.

William Premium Cider

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/william-premium-cider/173039#.VNkVhSeIA04

This cider has a notably low ABV of 5.2%. It is made in Quebec and sold in cans. The brief official description says this about the William Cider, "pale straw colour; delicate green apple aroma; off-dry, soft spritz with balanced acidity."

I enjoyed the nice burst of bubbles on pouring. Smells like sweetened apple chips. Tastes like a drier caramel apple. Very fruity, semi-sweet, drinkable, easy, and pleasant with tiny note of bitterness like hops or something beery. I tastes it as lemon but two of my companions definitely interpreted this note as more reminiscent of light lager. It tastes like approachable English pub ciders in the best way. This cider doesn't take itself too seriously and is all the better for it. 

Aspall Grand Cru

http://www.aspall.co.uk

I could not find very much information on this cider aside from the fact that the apples used are organic and the ABV is 6.8%.

Lots of funky notes in the aroma make this cider stand out. The taste is similarly sharp, barnyardy, and tannic. I cant taste wood, sweetness and complexity with some phenolic notes that at first tasted just lovely and astringent to me. But once one of my fellow tasters suggested that they reminded him of olive juice, I couldn't get that thought out of my mind. Yes, the tannins and vegetal notes plus sweetness somehow come across like olive juice. Still a great cider though.

Kettleborough Cider House

http://www.kettleboroughciderhouse.com

"Our flagship cider.  Dry Cider is a departure from sweeter run-of-the-mill hard ciders that have always dominated the market. Our Dry Cider is made from a blend of Northern Spy and Granny Smith apples to create a balanced acidity and fresh green apple flavor.  Think 'Dry Apple Prosecco.'  It pairs well with many foods, especially white meats, cheeses, fruits and especially any spice-forward dishes."

Tim Dressel makes this cider in the Hudson Valley of New York. The appearance of this cider surprises me because it looks nearly white in color. The cider smells wonderfully like Northern Spy apples. Cider is very acidic, a little meek but bright. The apple smell seems to presage more than the flavor actually delivers. I get quickly dissolving tannins that give it minerality. One note stands out agressively with lime and tropical fruit.

Bad Seed Dry Cider

http://www.badseedhardcider.com

Here is how Bad Seed rather cheekily introduces their Dry Cider, "Each bottle of Bad Seed Dry Cider is hand crafted in small batches never filtered, bottle conditioned and made from apples grown in the Hudson Valley. A Dry Cider that's really dry. Yeah that's right buttercup this isn't your little sister's sweet cider. What's more, each cider has been carefully tasted, tested, and then tasted again by our cidery team. Lucky bastards!" 

I got a big honey smell that goes positively florid after repeated sniffs. In appearance it looks hazy and light yellow. The Dry smells much sweeter than it tastes. The cider is high tannin with medium aid. It tastes just a little chemically but more than that I taste dry papery pineapple. The mouthfeel has medium astringence and a light body. 

Cider Review: Bad Seed's Belgian Abbey Hard Cider

 

Though the Hudson Valley cider scene is physically close to us here in the Finger Lakes, I've felt surprised by the relative separateness of our cider scenes. Nonetheless, I always try to pick up these ciders when I see them for sale. Hence, my review of Bad Seed's Belgian Abbey Hard Cider.

The last time I reviewed a Bad Seed cider it was their IPC (India Pale Cider) back in September of 2013. You can read the review here: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/08/cider-review-bad-seed-ipc-india-pale.html Theyve come a long way since then and even longer since Bad Seed was started by two friends in 2011. Now they even have website: http://www.badseedhardcider.com/ in addition to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Badseedcider.

In reading Bad Seed's website, the most fascinating writing I found says, "We seek to advance the craft cider industry through mixing both old and new cider techniques and craft beer influences. Making ciders from 100% fresh pressed apples grown by us on a 6th generation family farm with no Alchemy used, after all this is cider not science. You wont find the endless list of chemicals, artificial sweeteners, and excuses on our label because we don't use them." Alchemy, eh? I hadn't known that was a major issue in the industry, but what a fascinating idea.

This is what Bad Seed says about their own Belgian Abbey Hard Cider: "If Belgian Monks only found this the higher purpose of the apple, Crafted from apples grown in the Hudson Valley , fermented with a Belgian abbey beer yeast, unfiltered and bottle conditioned. Tart, tangy, Dry and a little off beat like a Bad seed should be." This cider has a very middle of the road 6.3% ABV, making it nice and easy with meals.

 
Appearance: Hazy bubbly lemon sorbet color

Aromas: beery, yeasty, citrusy

First and foremost, this cider smells like beer. Behind the intense beer smells, I can also detect some citrus and maybe maybe a hint of apple. Mostly though the yeast choice makes itself clear in the aromas of the Belgian Abbey Hard Cider.

Sweetness: Dry

Absolutely bone dry. Both from the copy on the website and the dryness of this cider, I'm confident saying that the Belgian Abbey Hard Cider has been bottle conditioned.

Flavors and Drinking experience: beer-like, bitter, bubbly

Unsurprisingly based on the aromas, this cider tastes very beer-like to me, mind you I don't usually drink beer. Somehow though, the bitterness and citrus notes just say beer to me. The Belgian Abbey is very bubbly too, but not very appley. This isn't a problem; ciders don't have to be very fruity or appley and this one is not. As I drink on, it seems almost burly and definitely burpy. I can taste hints of something savory: celery, fennel and pepper. And I get a consistent minerality. The only true fruit note is grapefruit pith. Very interesting. This cider is definitely low in tannins, medium low acid, and no sweetness.

My impression is that it is so dominated by the yeast choice that if you like that you'll like the cider and if you don't, you won't. The Belgian Abbey even pours with a lot of yeast at the bottom if the bottle when compared to other bottle conditioned ciders.

This cider made a great match with vegetarian chicken dumpling soup. I would always choose to pair the Belgian Abbey Hard Cider with salty food. Its combination of citrusy notes, extreme bubbliness, and bitter beery edge complement salt and heft extremely well. With food, I liked this one a lot, but I think it needs food: at least for me.

Cider Review: Bad Seed IPC (India Pale Cider) Reserve

Before leaving New York City, I stopped at the Union Square Greenmarket regularly. It is a great place to pick up some New York State ciders that are a bit off the beaten path. If you ever want to check out their times, vendors, etc. the website has all that info: http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket-site/manhattan/union-square-greenmarket. On one of my last trips before moving, I picked up four ciders from a quite small new cidery, Bad Seed Ciders. Their offerings seemed adventurous and what I tasted at the stand pleased me. This is the first, but I'll be reviewing all four the ciders I bought.

Bad Seed Cider doesn't have a traditional website. Like more and more companies, they are spending their web time on their Facebook presence. Here's the link to their active Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Badseedcider. It has tons of great pics and updates about their availability, but not much info about each of the ciders. I'm not a big fan of cideries not having a consistent place with tasting notes and detailed information about each of their offerings, but I understand that developing and maintaining both a website and a social media presence is tons of work that can feel redundant. Here's what I could find out on their FB page. They were founded in 2011 and are based out of Highland, New York as a development of Wilklow Orchards.

The Bad Seed's cheeky acronym IPC stands for India Pale Cider, not a phrase I've ever seen before. The official description says this about the beverage: "India Pale Cider- Fermented with and American Ale yeast and Dry Hopped with Cascade hops for a bright grapefruit flavor of a fresh IPA" The cider is a small batch reserve with with an ABV of 5.5%. I have shared here a few times how much I love dry hopped ciders, so my hopes are high.

Appearance: tremendously bubbly, hazy, creamy beeswax

When poured this forms a head briefly, but even after that dissipates lots and lots of bubbles both cling to the glass and to the surface of the liquid. I'm almost alarmed by how bubbly this looks. The color is a creamy beeswax with hints of yellow/green. I think the color looks a bit different than many ciders because of the number of bubbles and because it is hazy rather than brilliant.

Aromas: Not apple, lemon, bran and wheat, hint of herbs

The IPC smells cold in an unexpected way. I smell all kinds of fruits and foods, but not much apple. The citrus smells dominate the nose of this cider.

 Flavors: Big citrus bitterness, fresh hay

 Again, not very appley. The Cascade hops speak as grapefruit pith and there's a decided backdrop of hay and bitterness. I think by using both beer yeast and hops, this has traveled further into beer territory than most ciders influenced by beer. I love how full the mouthfeel tastes to me.

Drinking Experience: first though is cider for beer people.

Mind you, I second guess that, because the passionate beer afficianados in my life seem to divide binarily about cider. Either they grant its pleasures and validity, in which case they like a number of ciders, or they do not and they list the things they dislike about every cider they try. So I guess it is a cider for cider people who enjoy some beer characteristics. I fall decidedly into this category, so it certainly is a cider for me. It is citrusy, bittery, and extremely carbonated. There is a slightly soapy aftertaste which is odd and perhaps a sign of stressed yeast, but doesn't prevent me from enjoying the cider tremendously.

In terms of pairing, I'd suggest having it with a very flavorful meal. This isn't a light salad or dainty snacks kind of cider. Get a big pizza or make it a burrito night when drinking Bad Seed's IPC. The cider's bitterness would go well with rich foods, including everything cheesey. The flavors are so big and lovely that it really demands some big food as well. I think it could also be a great cider for the last grilling occasions of the summer. Take advantage of the good weather and this very summery cider before fall arrives.