Iron Brewer Cider Brewday

Time for the yearly cider. Especially since I need to bottle the second half of the Barrel Cider from last year (the one sitting on a half pound of maltodextrin). As with my last one, I scored my cider at Peifer Orchards in Yellow Springs. Somebody got a new website.

218. Iron Brewer Cider

6 gallons Peifer Orchards cider

Dumped on top of yeast cake from 217. Iron Brewer Saison

Carboy: 10/3/2015

Barrel: 12/26/2015 @ .98; dry hopped w/ 1 ¼ oz. ADHA 529

Bottled: 12/31/15 w/ 3 ¼ oz. table sugar

OG: 1.060

FG: 0.98

Tasting Notes: When you don’t carefully label your carboys, this is what happens: you confuse a table saison and a cider and swap the plans for the secondary for each. Which is why this got dry-hopped with ADHA 529, and 219. Table Saison w/ ADHA 529 got split and dry-hopped with something besides ADHA 529. Yes, the taste should have given it away, but that assumes that I tasted them, doesn’t it? 

Barrel Cider Brewday

It has been a couple of years since I brewed a cider, so I figured that it was time for another run at it. And since there is now a barrel at my house, I figured that I should combine the two projects to try and replicate some of the drier and funkier French and Spanish ciders that I enjoy. I am using the Lactobacillus, bruxellensis Trois, and custersianus blend that has been my house yeast standard for the last year and a half; once the beer comes out of the barrel, I’ll bottle half and bulk-age the other half with a half pound of maltodextrin to see if that contributes any additional complexity via the Brettanomyces. I scored my cider at Peifer Orchards in Yellow Springs. 

185. Barrel Cider

11 gallons Peifer Farms cider

Split in two carboys; pitched LTC blend from mason jars

Carboy: 10/25/2014

Barrel: 11/15/2014 @ .998; bottled remaining half gallon 

Bottled:

OG: 1.058

FG:

Tasting Notes: 

Dayton Brewvet Ride 3: Go Exploring

Since we were in Athens for Ohio Brew Week, we decided to take advantage of our options to fulfill the Go Exploring segment of the Dayton Brewvet. Is this cheating? Quite possibly. But since I am organizing it, isn’t that my prerogative? To pull out some classic Parenting 101, do what I say, not what I do. After all, if it works for parents, it should equally apply to bikes, beer, and brewvets. Stone cold logic.

Our destination was the West End Ciderhouse, which was right down the road from where we were staying. Yes, this ride was even shorter than the last one: two-tenths of a mile roundtrip. Barely a bike ride at all. But since we did have an earlier 58 mile Quilt Barn Cycling ride (we rode the Granny Gear ride, but made a couple tactical changes to avoid main roads), I figured it was acceptable to make this ride nice and short. While our location was quite close, I still made Elli ride her bike, for which there was much grumbling. Walking may be convenient, but there ain’t no walking in brewvet.

West End Ciderhouse had several of their own creations on tap, as well as several offering of both beer and cider for Ohio Brew Week. We ordered a sampler round of the in-house ciders and meads; cider, after all, is the new beer. Our sampling included:

Kelly’s House, which was a dry cider with just a hint of apple. It had an almost brut-like quality (ala champagne) from the dryness and the carbonation, with hints of tannic skin character and soft acidity to balance out the flavors. It was my favorite of the evening.
Them Apples, a semi-sweet cider that featured crisp, sweet apple flavors. It could have used a touch more carbonation to brighten it on the palate, as it was significantly less carbonated than the other three. Still, however, a delicious choice. This was Elli’s favorite, and I can see why.
Creekside Raspberry Mead, a sparkling small mead with raspberries. The balance between honey and raspberry was nice, while the carbonation brightened the mead on the tongue. It was still sweet, even with the carbonation
Zingiber, which was (I believe) a cider with ginger, lemon, and honey added. The ginger flavor was excellent; coupled with the dry body and carbonation, it was bright and delicious, with just a touch of alcohol and ginger candy spiciness to finish.

We also tried Griffin Cider Works Jolly Friar and Lemon Blues (from Cleveland), as well as Brothers Drake Hopped Mead (from Columbus).

I’ve always had a soft-spot for ciders—of the drier French and Spanish variety more than commercial American-made candy bombs—and West End Ciderhouse is certainly following the current craft cider revolution in regards to making ciders like their Old World predecessors. I do, however, wish they were closer to Dayton.

More on the Dayton Brewvet can be found here.

(7/14/2014)

579. TXOPINONDO Sagarnoa

TXOPINONDO is a traditional Basque cidery in Ascain, France. I picked this up because recently I’ve been reminiscing about the dry French ciders I used to buy when I lived in Buffalo, and I was hoping this would live up those memories. It did, and then some. And aged in barrels, too? You had me at French.

Sagarnoa pours a slightly hazy straw with no head (it is not carbonated); the cider in the picture is from the second half of the bottle, so some of the yeast was stirred up, giving it a bit more haze than the initial pour. The nose has quite a bit going on; the initial smell is tart and sharp, followed by an underlying earthy and musty character. Both sides accentuate the apple, albeit in slightly different ways: the initial tartness comes across more as yeast derived, with the crisp, Granny Smith-like apple sour tang coming in underneath that, while the earthy aromatics strike me as apple derived, with the musty dry character reminiscent of classic dry French ciders. Flavors mirror the nose, opening with soft apple before moving into a mineral-ly lactic tartness that brings beads of sweat to my cheeks; this is followed by dry, earthy apple and pear flavors mixed with faint soft kisses of apple sweetness. There is a slight tannic skin bite in the lead into the finish, followed by bright citric tartness combined with a return of the initial mineral tartness and a slight gritty chalkiness on the tongue. The body is dry and clean, with the tartness standing in for the crispness usually provided by carbonation. This is a delightful and nuanced cider. It reminds me of previous French ciders I’ve had—dry, earthy, and crisp—although it does have more yeast presence in the flavor profile than more traditional French ciders, which I’ll admit to liking. This is also certainly nothing like the traditional American ciders of the last decade—think sweet, think cloying, think uninteresting—although this may be something akin to the newest run of Americanciders that Jeff Alworth has been writing about recently. Sadly, Dayton is not on the cutting edge of cider innovation. Anyone want to help me change that?

From the Txopinondo website: “Sagarno (literally apple wine) made in Txopinondo is a fermented beverage made ​​from apples, matured on lees in barrels for a minimum of six months, refreshing and fruity, served cold (approx. 53° F) with grilled fish or meat. We produce it according to an ancient and traditional method from local and elsewhere apples.”

ABV: 6%

(11/11/2013)