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Commercial Hard Ciders

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capoeirista13

capoeirista13

Honey Master
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Aug 17, 2008
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Philadelphia
So this isn't a mead review so much as it is my thoughts on some hard ciders I tried. So because I recently started my first cyser I thought I would try some commercial ones to see how they tasted.
So I tried strongbow, and thought it was OK. It was much better than beer (but I'm not a beer fan), but still had a bit of that beer taste, does that mean it might be made with an ale yeast?
The next one that I tried was Hornsby's Crisp Apple cider and it was DAMN GOOD! It was like drinking green apples, I would drink it at class/work all the time if it didn't have alcohol in it. I didn't notice any beer-like taste in this one, it was pretty sweet though.
So, has anyone else tried these, any thoughts? Or have you tried any others?
 
Strongbow is one of my favorites. I like that it's on the drier side. Hornsby is one of my least favorites because they sweeten it with barley. Woodchuck/Woodpecker/Newton's Folly are all made by the same company and excellent sweet/forced carbed ciders. J.K. Scrumpy's is my favorite. It's all natural, lightly carbonated, cloudy goodness.
 
I can't recall the name of the company, but someone makes cider that is often available on tap at bars here (SF Bay Area). The pomegranate cider is usually what I see, for whatever reason. It's good, but I usually don't want to drink a whole pint of it.
 
There is a new Cidery in Oregon that makes some absolutely delicious ciders. I wish I could remember their name. They are somewhat pricey but worth it. I tried some samples about a year ago and was floored. They've recently started to appear in the grocery stores here in McCall (a veritable wasteland of tasty beverages) so maybe they are getting some wider distribution now.

I'll try to find the name.

Edit: Found It! It's Blue Mountain Cider in Milton-Freewater, OR. They ship to six different states.;D

Edit Again: Also go to Old Time Cider and click on the map on the right side of the page. It shows a Google map of a bunch of different Craft Cideries across the US. They have reviews of all kinds of ciders on the site.
 
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It's pretty hard to find ciders around me, and even harder to find cysers. I actually had these sent up from Florida because my cousin raved about cider. I'd love to try a commercial cyser and taste the difference, I'll look into meaderies/cideries around me I suppose. I suppose this lets me know that I like my drinks sweet though! Based on the bit that I've seen in response here I'll probably try woodchuck's next, or whatever I can find around me, lol.
 
I love Bellwether hard cider: http://www.cidery.com/

They're in the Finger Lakes region of New York. They use traditional English and French cider apple varieties for many of their ciders. Heritage, a still off-dry cider is my favorite.
 
capoeirista13 said:
It's pretty hard to find ciders around me, and even harder to find cysers. I actually had these sent up from Florida because my cousin raved about cider. I'd love to try a commercial cyser and taste the difference, I'll look into meaderies/cideries around me I suppose. I suppose this lets me know that I like my drinks sweet though! Based on the bit that I've seen in response here I'll probably try woodchuck's next, or whatever I can find around me, lol.
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If you are a fan of the sweet stuff you should try this - http://www.appleicewine.com/neige_en.html

Its a pretty awesome ice cider that you can find in several places in the US. There's also store in NJ thats not too far from Philly that carries it.
 
I had some apple ice wine when I was up in Canada a couple years ago. Very, very nice. It's been too long to recall details, but I do remember the region was in Quebec just south of Montreal. I understand that area is famous for artisanal ciders and such.
 
crowquill said:
I love Bellwether hard cider: http://www.cidery.com/

They're in the Finger Lakes region of New York. They use traditional English and French cider apple varieties for many of their ciders. Heritage, a still off-dry cider is my favorite.
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Awesome! I could never remember the name of that place. We drank their cider while we were at Cornell. Mmmmm.
 
It's fair to point out, that with cider (*UK definition, not US), it depends where it was made as to what it might taste like.

For example, English "West Country" cider is normally made entirely from "cider" apples i.e. bitter sweet and bitter sharp apples. Whereas, "Kentish" cider will be made from a mix of sweet (eating) and sharp (cooking) apples and tends to be a little more "wine like".

Pop across the channel, to those jolly French chappies who make the "Normandy" cider and it's different again. I understand that they're more likely to use a more varied mix, as well as pulping the apples and leaving it for a good while to allow the pulp to oxidise before the juice is strained from the pulp and the pulp pressed.

The problem, when thinking in terms of brands of cider, is that the likes of strongbow, woodpecker and dare I mention the name magners, these are "factory" made ciders and considered by a lot of people as commercial rubbish. They work by all that "trade secrets" crap and are more obsessed with the brand than the quality of the cider.

There's hundreds of different smaller makers, some of who also make "cloudy rubbish" to get onto "the bandwagon" of "scrumpy" makers. Though there are also quite a number of very good, independent makers as well.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely that you'd see much in the way of "quality" cider that's made here, in the US. They just don't make enough to justify all the hassles of exporting and the US customs etc.....

Though if anyone visits the South of England, I'd be more than happy to give them directions to a place that keeps over a hundred different ciders to try8)

regards

fatbloke

p.s. anyone who knows a little about cider seems to shy away from magners. All that marketing crap about "traditional Irish cider" is bollocks. There never was any tradition of making cider in Ireland. It just happens to be where they decided to set up a factory.......probably because of tax breaks from the Irish government or something like that.

Plus magners is bloody horrible!
 
I forgot to mention NYC's contribution to Cider-dom.

Original Sin Cider. It's amazingly good, although somewhat hard to get depending on where you are. I can't speak any higher about them because I've had it so many times :)

http://www.origsin.com/

Some of the artwork is a little racy, so you've been warned ;)
 
Picked up a (375 ml) bottle of Rossignol Iced Liberty Blossom (Little Sands, Prince Edward Island, Canada) on a recent business trip to Ottawa. I'll post taste notes whenever I crack the bottle.
 
UDV said:
\

LOL. I started drinking Cider with Magners, and White Lightning. I must have no palate left!
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Over here, when magners started up - with no "tradition" of irish cider (certainly not that I can find - despite what the marketing fascists say in the adverts), they pushed the price of apples over the moon, because they just wanted enough so they could say that it was made with english/irish apples.

It tastes more like a perry than a cider.

Plus "white lightning" is also anonymous as to it's origins, but do you really care if you just aim to get as drunk as possible, as cheaply as possible ?????

Of course, it's all relative i.e. magners, white lightning (and other "white" super strenght ciders) are considered rubbish because like strongbow, woodpecker, etc they're made in factories, in huge quantities, with only the slightest "lip service" as to how cider was originally made. Hence it's more about brand and profit, than quality of product.

There's a bloke about 30 miles from me, who's a commercial cider maker, he manages to make a cider that's about 6% ABV for draught/pump/keg sales, that is accredited as organic. It's quite a light, sweet cider, not unsimilar to woodpecker - but considerably nicer. He also does a limited range in 1 litre bottles that is similar, but is 8% ABV. You'd have to have a "proper" testing session though to see why his product is better.

Of course, I did say it's all relative, because 1 person might prefer the taste of factory crap, to a traditionally made cider. Another might prefer something sparkling/carbonated to a still cider. Or filtered and clear, to cloudy traditional farm scrumpy! :p:cool:

regards

fatbloke
 
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