Cloudy

If you’re into you craft beer you’ve probably heard of Bridge Road Brewers makers if Bridge Road Brewers Strong Scrumpy Cider. Based in country Victorian town of Beechworth, like all good start-ups they start out in dad’s shed. Today they have grown into a brewery producing over 20 different beers and a Cider. Is the Bridge Road Brewers Strong Scrumpy Cider just another beer brewer cashing in on the cider boom or is this a Real Cider?

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The guys down at Willie Smith’s have a new cider. Willie Smith’s Bone Dry Cider, is, as the name suggests, it’s a dry cider. While their first cider I reviewed was based on the French farmhouse style, the Bone dry is based on a traditional Herefordshire style. The big difference between the Herefordshire and this Tassie cloudy is the apples used. Here we have eating apple and not the traditional cider varieties. Sam Reid, the head cider maker at Willie Smith’s told me, the Bone Dry is a favourite among the local farmers when served at The Apple Shed. It’s earned itself the nickname “The Knee Bender” as its easy drink and quite strong. Read More

In this real cider review it’s all about wild yeast, open fermentation and unfiltered cider . This is as raw as cider gets. The guys over on the west coast at Custard & Co have made a Scrumpy. Some say scrumpy cider is the pinnacle of traditional cider making, others get the impression that is gut rot cider and is best avoided, not the case here. The Custard & Co Scrumpy are heavily influenced by the British cider making styles and techniques. The head cider maker trained in the UK where scrumpy is more common than on the Aussie cider market. Read More

“To drink sediment or not to drink sediment that is the question.” – a quote there from William Shakespear’s West Country cousin.
If you speak to enthusiasts about bottle conditioned cider and beers they will tell you its fine to drink sediment and its a source of vitamin B, but doesn’t really add to the taste. Others will say “it will just make one rather windy” and it’s best left in bottle. The Adelaide based Coopers Brewery encourages drinkers to rock the bottle around a bit to mix in the sediment. LOBO Cloudy Cider is unfiltered meaning some of the finer parts of the apples flesh makes it all the way from pressing to the bottle. These along with the dead yeast cells settle at the bottom. In a cunning move LOBO’s website says the following

Pouring LOBO cider, excellent over ice – invert the whole bottle. It can also be rolled gently or poured carefully leaving the sediment in the bottle, each method giving different levels of clarity. The flavour changes, experiment and see which you prefer.

Basically try it a few times in different way see what works for you. I didn’t pour mine over ice, instead I gentle poured the bottle of cloudy cider into the pint glass leaving the sediment in the bottle. I figure the LOBO looks thick and cloudy enough without adding the yeast cells back in. Read More

I’ve been looking forward to reviewing Willie Smiths Organic Apple Cider. To understand this real cider you need to understand its heritage. Back in 1888 Willie Smith planted an apple orchard. Today these apples are hand-picked to make a cloudy French farmhouse style cider.

Willie Smiths orchard is nestled down in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. Where the air is said to be some of the purest air in the world and some of the freshest rain comes direct from the south pole. All this makes for great conditions growing apples. Willie Smiths are doing their best to maintain this environment by becoming fully organic certified. They claim this can improve the nutritional value of the cider. This is the truer to form, to Willie Smiths it is the traditional way. They don’t need anything artificial, in the soil or the cider. They care about their farm, their drinkers, and Tasmania. I love the fact that they’re not letting a multi-nation agribusiness prescribe their newest “Ultra Root Booster” or “Caterpillar Killer 1000” for a short-term gain. Knowing that long-term they will harm the ecosystem of the orchard long-term. Willie Smiths knows that the Huon Valley is a fundamental part of their cider. It is an asset worth preserving .
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Until today I thought that terrior could only come from the soil type, the annual rainfall, the things that make your orchard unique.  Today my perception of Terrior changed, I realised it was more ethereal than what flavours the sunlight hours and soil provide. The extra element is the regionality and Young Henry’s Cloud Cider could be any Newtown if it tried
On what feels like Sydney’s wettest day in 2014, I find myself in a industrial unit, in the back streets of Newtown, where inside is just as wet. They guys were hard at work cleaning out the fermentation tanks ready for the next batch. I sat down with Owen from Young Henry’s to talk about making cider in Sydney’s Inner West. Read More

Cold winters and the bright sunshine in Spring and Summer are the key to growing good apples. A little town of Batlow in southern New South Wales has these two essential conditions in abundance. Batlow is an old company by Australian standards, producing apples since the 1920’s and cider since the 1930’s. Today Batlow produce both a clear cider and a cloudy cider. Today I take a look at the Batlow Cloudy Cider.

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It’s a bloody hot Friday afternoon. It’s been a long week. This is the Reveller, the side of the bottle says its refreshing and I hope its right.  Coming in at 4.5% the Reveller is one of Orchard Pigs lighter offerings. Designed as their “pub product” available in bottles and on tap. Although, it’s only on tap if you lucky enough to be in a quality British pub. My tasting was from the bottle. I paid $8.50 for a 500ml bottle from a specialist bottle shop in the Sydney CBD. It might seem a little dear but is probably a low volume import and its a biggish bottle. Read More