I recently stumbled upon some videos by the folks at Schilling Cider House of Seattle, WA, which detail some basic aspects of cider tasting, including: types of cider aroma acidity sweetness (brix) tannins mouthfeel Check them out; I think they’re well worth the few minutes each that they [...]

I recently had the opportunity to sample two ciders from Two Rivers Cider of Sacramento, CA. Each features a bright, refreshing apple base and an added fruit–in one case, Blood Orange and in the other, Huckleberry. How were they? Well, I’ll tell you. Read [...]

Cherry Daze is a semi-sweet hard cider from Big B’s Hard Cider of Hotchkiss, CO. Made from organic apple juice produced onsite at their own orchards, the crisp apple character of this cider is also accompanied by ample amounts of tart Montmorency [...]

Some of you may remember the post about my first visit to Scrumpy’s Hard Cider Bar in Fort Collins, Colorado. That was in its early days, before they ramped up their own cidermaking operation, Summit Hard Cider and Perry. This time, there were numerous Summit ciders on hand and I managed to [...]

I’m tempted to say that John Chapman–Johnny Appleseed–would be turning over in his grave if he knew about the quality of the commercial cider that now bears his name, but to be honest, I have no idea how good or bad the cider he had in life was. But one thing I do know: Johnny [...]

The Bad Apple is a strong (10.5% abv!), oaked, honey-fortified cider from Two Towns Ciderhouse. Highly carbonated, fairly dark, with a crabby bite and some oak complexity, Bad Apple certainly is bolder than many of the dry, west-coast ciders I’ve [...]

Well, folks, it’s that time of year again: The Holidays. And besides being the perfect excuse to bust out the home-fermented beverages, the holidays are a time for something else: awkward, anxiety-laden gift-giving. Anxiety which requires consumption of home-fermented beverages to deal [...]

First up, my apologies for the long hiatus…I’ve been quite busy of late on the work and personal front. But time and cider (or was that time and tide) wait for no man, and so here we are. Again. Once more into the breach. Two Rivers Gravenstein may be the U.S’s [current] answer to [...]

  I thought it might be interesting to periodically profile an ingredient often used in cider and/or mead and the incarnations it can take. Guess we’ll find out if that impulse is [...]

Despite having what, at first blush–if you’re wired like me–seems to be a dirty name, this cider is a gem. A rather large gem, truth be told, in an all-too-convenient, 3-liter bag-in-box package…as my companions, Dick and Diane Dunn, and I discovered over the course of [...]