This is Washington Cider Week and last weekend was Cider Summit Seattle. I’m working on a larger story on cider and thought it would be a good idea to attend Cider Summit Seattle to test some great ciders and talk to the heads of a number of cideries on the forefront of this growing industry.
Ciders are also something that my wife and a few friends — all of whom are trying to eat and drink gluten free — have recently taken more interest in. So I grabbed my wife and we headed for South Lake Union on a sunny Friday afternoon.
Four years ago the inaugural Cider Summit had just 10-12 cideries in attendance. This year there were tents everywhere and 40 different cideries serving nearly 160 different varieties of ciders. I was amazed at how many types of ciders and cideries there are out there. Of course there was plenty of the typical ciders (lightly fermented, dry or sweet), but there were also apple wines, pear ciders, ice ciders and sidras, or Spanish hard cider.
This is Washington Cider Week. For more information on upcoming local events, click here.
Nearly every person I spoke with was in awe of how far the cider industry has come in five years. One cidermaker remarked that in Washington more cideries have opened in the past five years than in the past 50. It’s a booming industry and it was easy to see (and taste) why on Friday.
Most of the drinks are not your typical Angry Orchard cider. These are complex ciders and, like their craft beer brethren, there is a lot of experimentation going on. There’s the hopped apple wine from Reverend Nat’s or the double hopped apple cider from Schilling that passes through a randall full of hops (a randall is a double-chamber filter that you connect to a tap usually of beer but in this case cider and fill with ingredients like hops or fruit).
My wife and I had plenty of tickets and put them to good use. We tried ciders from a little more than half of the cideries in attendance and were blown away by the quality. We purchased bottles of our two favorites (I’ll leave that until later) and have a planned trip to the peninsula to visit three other cideries we enjoyed. Here’s a look at our top five conventional ciders and top five unconventional:
Top 5 Unconventional Ciders
This is a big group. You’ve got the apple wines, ice ciders and the ciders pressed with other ingredients, including grapefruit, hops and even chocolate. Some aren’t even apple ciders, but rather pear, quince or cherry ciders. Here’s the five we liked best:
Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Portland, Ore.
Cider: Envy, an apple wine with hops.
Unlike most ciders, Envy is brewed in conjunction with Harley Brown’s Beer. Inspired by an imperial IPA style, Envy is almost like a sour rather than a cider. It has delicate apple flavors but a lot of hop character. Really interesting.
Carlton Cyderworks, McMinnville, Ore.
Cider: Impearial Asian Pear Hard Cyder
Pouring a bright yellow, this is as good as it sounds. I love Asian pears and this was exactly like it sounds. The carbonation gives it nice refreshing quality and the Asian pears are perfectly sweet.
Troy Cider, San Francisco
Cider: Troy
Aged for 9 months in neutral oak barrels, Troy undergoes a natural fermentation and is amazingly smooth. It’s made from Heirloom apples farmed in Sonoma and the taste is divine. The carbonation is very low, making it feel like a fine wine. We remarked that we could drink this forever. Hint: We bought a 500 ml bottle.
Alpenfire, Port Townsend
Cider: Calypso
One of our favorite cideries (there are two Alpenfire ciders on this list). We chatted with Alpenfire cidermakers Steve “Bear” and Nancy Bishop for more than 15 minutes and they were very friendly and gave us a lot of helpful information on other great ciders to try. But that’s not why they’re on this list. Their ciders are also amazing. Calypso, which is made from apples and blackberries, is aged in rum barrels. It’s bottle conditioned and has a nice balance of apple and blackberry and good sparkle.
Finnriver Farm and Cidery, Chimacum
Cider: Spirited Apple Wine
Be careful this will knock you on your butt. After fermenting the apples, this wine is fortified with apple brandy making it more of a port than a cider. It’s as good as it sounds (apple port!) and comes in at 18.5 percent. We shared a half taster.
Honorable mention:
Schilling Hard Cider, Seattle
Cider: Grapefruit Cider
Bright, tasty and very grapefruity. On another note, Schilling just opened its new tap room in Fremont on Saturday (708 N. 34th St., Seattle).
Top 5 Conventional Ciders
This is a mix of single varietal and multi-varietal apple ciders.
Montana Cider Works, Darby, Mont.
Cider: McIntosh (Small Batch variety)
This is a small batch, single varietal cider that is a limited release from the Montana cidery and it is everything you want in a cider: bright, lightly sweet, nice tart finish. This was a thing of beauty and had at least one of the veterans in attendance calling it the best cider at Cider Summit Seattle.
Alpenfire, Port Townsend
Cider: Spark!
Tough call but I’m going with my favorite from Alpenfire over my wife’s. She enjoyed the appropriately named Pirate’s Plank “Bone Dry” Cider. I really liked the semi-sweet Spark! A blend of five different apples, this cider is really crisp and has a strong apple taste.
Liberty Ciderworks, Spokane
Cider: English Style Craft Cider
Made in the English style of cider (see: dry, tannic, higher alcohol percentage), this is a perfectly balanced cider made from classic varietals from England, including Dabinett, Yarlington Mill and Ashton Bitter. This cider was a gold medal winner at the 2014 Greater Lakes International Cider and Perry competition.
Dragon’s Head Cider, Vashon Island
Cider: Wild Fermented Cider
Made from apples from the Dragon’s Head Farm on Vashon Island, this cider uses wild fermentation, or the natural yeast present on the apples, instead of the usual normal fermentation method from a yeast strain. My wife remarked that it was slightly reminiscent of when she was a kid and she tried some apple juice that a friend’s mother left out in hopes of making sparkling cider. Obviously this was much better but you get the idea. It’s much drier what you think when you think cider but it has a perfect amount of carbonation and has a well-rounded taste. We bought a 750 ml bottle of the Wild Fermented Cider before we left.
E.Z. Orchards, Salem, Ore.
Cider: Cidre (Dry)
Made in the winery-rich Willamette Valley, this cidery feels like more of a winery in the presentation and quality of its product. Coming in 750 ml bottles and packed with nuanced and balanced flavors, this cidery definitely takes care of its apples and takes its time in turning them into ciders. The Cidre version is a very dry cider that has a soft effervescence and rounded apple flavor. You’ll want to rinse out any glass you’re having before trying this cider. It’s delicate but beautiful.
Honorable mention:
Riestra, Sariego, Spain
Cider: Sidra Brut Nature
Using the method of second fermentation, this cider turns into basically champagne. A must try.
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