New Zealand

The Evil Genius is an imperial style cider from New Zealand’s Scoundrels and Rogues. Imperial, these days seems to be a byword for a very high alcohol beverage and at 11% this could get very evil.  Read More

Orchard Thieves Cider is a mass market cider made in Hereford by Heineken in the former HP Bulmers cider mill and at the plant in Belgium, from apples from around Europe. Except this bottle was made in New Zealand. Read More

My last stop on my cider trip around New Zealand is Wellington on the North Island. This is the home of Steel Press Cider, makers of the Brew Dry. Made with fresh local apples. Read More

I know I’m meant to be talking about Kiwi cider but let’s take a little side step over to Belgium. That’s where The Cider Factorie took inspiration for The Tripel, a bottle conditioned – triple fermented apple cider. You read that right, this is a triple fermented cider. The term Tripel is normally used to describe strong Belgian beers. Going with a bit of wordplay The Cider Factorie has decided to make a strong cider and ferment it 3 times. Read More

Continuing on the trail, hunting for New Zealand’s Craft Ciders, I found a can of Peckham’s Cidery – Alex’s Apple Cider. Whenever I spoke to a Kiwi about their ciders, the name Peckham’s came up again and again. Here’s hoping they live up to the hype.

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Scoundrels And Rogues’ Repeat Offender Cider started off as one of those passion projects. Raiding abandoned orchards for baskets of apples. This cider from Christchurch is part 2 of my Craft Ciders of New Zealand series. Read More

I’ve just got back from a short break in New Zealand. While traveling around the South Island I tried to find a couple of hard to find ciders to write about. I drove through some very scenic parts. Tried some local mass market ciders and a couple of craft ciders. I managed to track down a couple of craft ciders and put them into my suitcase. The first one I managed to try was the Abel Méthode Cider.

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Townshend Brewery is fairly unique as far as breweries go. While beer is their main focus, Townshend Brewery also make 2 ciders, all from apples in their own orchard.  All traditional cider apple varieties from  Europe. All go into the Sitbee Cider. Read More