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 [...]

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 [...]

Bite Hard Apple Cider is the cider Smith & Forge secretly wants to be but falls short of. Dry, crisp, quite tart, and clean, Bite Hard packs a bitter bite that reminds me a bit of a milder version of Wickson by Wandering Aengus, with a bitterness that more closely resembles a hard, [...]

L’Hermitiére is a sparkling Norman cider that in my mind sits roughly halfway between  Clos Normand and Etienne DuPont on a few [...]

Now this is more like it. Bitter Sweet Funk Dry Cider by Oliver’s Cider and Perry of Herefordshire, UK is funky, phenolic, and still.  Imported by Shelton Brothers, which also imports Ross-On-Wye and Hogan’s, this is a farmhouse cider fermented by wild yeast, aged in barrels and [...]

I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one: Smith & Forge Hard Cider is one of the worst ciders I’ve ever tried. I discovered it in the usual way–looking for new ciders at my local liquor stores–and made the mistake of buying this just because it was new and next [...]