Ciders are having a moment, but not all taste like the sugary-sweet stuff you once pulled from that college house-party cooler. Like its beery brethren, the cider industry’s in full bloom, and employing local ingredients, specialty barrels and Newton-like smarts to turn the centuries-old beverage on its head. Pucker up with insanely tart ciders that rival the bite of an IPA ,or get fuzzy with barleywine-strength apple sippers—just forget everything you know about the stuff until you try these game-changing ciders.
Seattle Dry: From its Champagne façade to its sparkling-water mouthfeel and subtly tart apple snap, this effervescent, drying aperitif challenges cider’s sweet-
and-sticky norm. Sip it from a crystal flute—or from the handy, everyman tallboy can.
Tandem Cherry Oh!: Swap out apples for local Michigan cherries and the result is this unlikely concoction: a cherry “cider.” This still, blood-red sipper engulfs the tongue with dark, tart-dry cherries while distant umami and seeds-and-stem notes accent each rich sip with earthiness.
Square Mile Spur & Vine: A dose of trendy Galaxy hops during cold conditioning puts a pale ale spin on this hard cider, lacing it with nuanced peach and gooseberry tones.
2 Towns The Bad Apple: Local meadowfoam honey jacks up this behemoth, oak-barrel-aged cider to 10.5% ABV, making it a natural at cocktail hour. With prickly sour apple, sugary sweetness and warm, drying finish, Bad Apple’s everything you love about an appletini, but with an alpha cider bite.
Sonoma The Pitchfork: Crafted with a blend of apples and pears, this cider-perry hybrid twists and turns on the tongue. Candied apple, caramel and smooth vanilla
sweeten the tongue before snappy, tart pear notes herald a refreshingly dry finish.
Finnriver Appleblueberry: It’s purple! And palatable! Fermented with organic blueberries, this cider remix fuses subtle berry sweetness with delicate orchard apple for an ultrafruity swallow propelled by lively bubbles.
FOR YOUR NOTES: What’s Brix?
Browse enough ciders and you’ll spot the term “Brix.” Named after German mathematician Adolf Brix, Brix represents the amount of sugar in liquid, similar to beer’s original gravity measurement. Juice from a grocery-store MacIntosh has a Brix of about 12, while good cider apples measure from 14 to 20. By gauging apple juice’s sugar content (which yeast converts to alcohol), a cidery can estimate the final product’s ABV and subsequent dryness. The lower the Brix count, the drier the cider.
