My wife has been wanting to try ciders lately. What's your favorite?
Best Hard Cider
- Thread starter Clay
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Clay:
One of the things that makes the Mrs. and I all warm and fuzzy inside about the fall season is apples. Fall and apples just go together like baseball and apple pie and our memory of apple trees in yards loaded with fresh fruit.
Having said that, I found Woodchuck Private Reserve Barrel Select Cider (seasonal summer cider...ABV: 6.9%), to have no head when poured, a deep golden amber color, pleasingly-sweet with fragrant aromas of fresh sliced apples with a pleasant effervescent, hints of bourbon aromas (due to aging in bourbon barrels), and fruity medium body. The flavor is well balanced and complex and I really like this American Hard Cider and goes great with a cigar.
Cider on beer, never fear; beer upon cider, makes a bad rider. English Proverb
One of the things that makes the Mrs. and I all warm and fuzzy inside about the fall season is apples. Fall and apples just go together like baseball and apple pie and our memory of apple trees in yards loaded with fresh fruit.
Having said that, I found Woodchuck Private Reserve Barrel Select Cider (seasonal summer cider...ABV: 6.9%), to have no head when poured, a deep golden amber color, pleasingly-sweet with fragrant aromas of fresh sliced apples with a pleasant effervescent, hints of bourbon aromas (due to aging in bourbon barrels), and fruity medium body. The flavor is well balanced and complex and I really like this American Hard Cider and goes great with a cigar.
Cider on beer, never fear; beer upon cider, makes a bad rider. English Proverb
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Thank you, sir!
I like Angry Orchard. Drier than Woodchuck, almost in the spirit of a full-flavored ale. They make a few flavored ones like ginger (not bad) and cinnamon (yuck), but I like the Crisp and the Granny Smith varieties. Very refreshing, and a nice change of pace from beer!
Angry Orchard, Redd's (not sure if you'd count that as a cider), Woodchuck, and good old fashioned Hornsby's.
ever try making your own? really not that hard and you can alter to taste to make it your own. all you need is apple juice/cider, sugar,yeast bakers is fine) and an air lock (which is 3 bucks) and you can make as much as you would like. Just a random suggestion if you like to tinker with new things like I do.
Im not a huge cider fan and can usually only do 1 or 2 because they are so sweet. But sometimes its nice to change things ups. If you can find it Crispin is good.
I also like Hornsby and Magners pear cider.
I also like Hornsby and Magners pear cider.
There are honestly not too many good ciders out there. Most of the commercial ones are back sweetened alco-pop.
Crispin, Samuel Smiths, and JK Scrumpy are all available pretty much everywhere and are a good go to when nothing else is around. Be sure to check out a local Whole Foods or similar store. They all seem to carry a decent selection of more regional products, as well as the ones I mentioned above.
Brewing your own is very possible too. I can go into more detail if you want. I wouldn't recommend brewing your own unless you are looking for real authentic dry cider as its a lot harder to control and stop fermentation. A cider will typically ferment to dryness as all of the sugars are 100% fermentable. It would be possible to backsweeten, let the cider carbonate in the bottle, then heat pastureize the bottles. I know someone who does this, but have never done it myself.
Crispin, Samuel Smiths, and JK Scrumpy are all available pretty much everywhere and are a good go to when nothing else is around. Be sure to check out a local Whole Foods or similar store. They all seem to carry a decent selection of more regional products, as well as the ones I mentioned above.
Brewing your own is very possible too. I can go into more detail if you want. I wouldn't recommend brewing your own unless you are looking for real authentic dry cider as its a lot harder to control and stop fermentation. A cider will typically ferment to dryness as all of the sugars are 100% fermentable. It would be possible to backsweeten, let the cider carbonate in the bottle, then heat pastureize the bottles. I know someone who does this, but have never done it myself.
if it doesn't come straight from a farm in Devon, Cornwall pr Somerset in a big plastic jug, not interested.
Fly Creek Cider Mill eight miles from Cooperstown, NY really great cider!
I went through a cider phase last year and bought one of each available from Total Wine & More. Unfortunately, there are many, many truly revolting ciders out there. The best that I tried were Angry Orchard Traditional Dry (for dry) and Crispin Blue or Angry Orchard Crisp (for sweet). Most of the dry cider offerings taste like pure apple cider vinegar, and many of the sweet ciders were way too sweet. I did like Woodchuck Granny Smith, just not as much as the Orchard.
I don't believe I've ever seen Woodchuck Private Reserve. I'll have to seek it out.
I don't believe I've ever seen Woodchuck Private Reserve. I'll have to seek it out.
Woodchuck is pretty good for a sweet drink. Trader Joe's has a decent store-brand cider. However, the cheaper and tastier way is to make your own. Whole foods sells a great pressed apple juice in a gallon carboy. Just get some brewers yeast or wine yeast (you'll get different results, look up a guide online) and go through the fermentation process right in the carboy. Delicious.
I've tried and enjoyed Angry Orchard and Shock Top Honeycrisp Wheat (which, despite saying it's a wheat beer, tasted entirely of apple and nothing else).
Yesterday I saw Stella Atrois cider in a store and grabbed it. Turned out to be nearly $9 for a pack of four bottles. It better be good!
Yesterday I saw Stella Atrois cider in a store and grabbed it. Turned out to be nearly $9 for a pack of four bottles. It better be good!
Tried a bottle a couple of years ago. Sweet, nasty and chemical tasting! Still, it was far better than the even nastier Koppaberg stuff I tried once! Good luck...
Gareth
Strongbow. If you like drier drinks that's the one.
+1 great stuff. However, can't get it in Wyoming any more. The distributor dropped it.
