CiderFeast 2021

NYC Cider Week was held on October 2-17. It was a couple of weeks of cider events throughout New York State. To kick things off on October 1, Jimmy Carbone’s Food Karma project held it’s annual (but cancelled last year) CiderFeast event. Food Karma Project is responsible for many foodie events such as Pig Island, Bowl of ‘Zole, Brisket King and 5 Boro PicNYC.

The event was held at Biba of Williamsburg located at 110 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and the event featured several Ciders plus lite eats

According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York State is the 2nd largest producers of apples in the country with 29.5 million bushels produced. It’s not surprising that the State is home to many artisanal cider producers.

The event showcased many NYS producers but there were other regions and countries pouring as well. The amount of vendors at the event was noticeably fewer than at the last event a couple of years ago. That can be blamed on supply issues and skittishness about the virus. Still, they had a great crowd that were enjoying a sunny afternoon of cider and good company.

Something unusual that I tried at the event that I haven’t tried before was fortified cider. Ironbound Cider produced a trio of fortified ciders, Cherry Burdock, Golden Russet Orange and Lemon Beebrush that were very port-like and interesting.

Some of the cider producers that I sampled from, most poured several different versions of their cider:

Ironbound Cider	Hudson Valley Farmhouse
Orchard Hill	Ommegang
Barika Basque Cider	Austin Eastciders
Original Sin	Ferme de Romilly
Aval Cider	Indian Ladder Farmhouse Cider

Rye & Cider

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This past weekend of December 7-8th I was able to attend a couple of Holiday beverage events.

On Saturday afternoon I attended the Brooklyn Whiskey and Spirits Festival which was held at the Brooklyn Expo Center at 72 Noble Street in Greenpoint Brooklyn. The event offered over 100 styles of whiskey and spirits.

I have to admit, that these spirits events are more or less cookie cutter events with many of the same purveyors in attendance, I’m getting to recognize many of the people pouring (and they’re recognize me!). I have to say though that this event had a better selection of spirits than the last whiskey fest I attended a couple of weeks ago.

Most American whiskey producers make several styles of whiskey including Bourbon, Rye and Blends. At this tasting I decided to focus on Rye whiskey for the afternoon and was able to sample a few nice ones. As an outlier I tasted a few aged rums which I enjoy. I particularly enjoyed the X.O. and V.S.O.P. rhum agrigole from Clement Rhum in Martinique. Rhum agricole is made from fresh cane juice instead of from molasses and makes for a more polished drink, the type that you sip on its own.

On Sunday afternoon I attended the Fruit & Grain beer and cider festival. The event was a benefit for Raices, a nonprofit agency and was held at the Second event space at 849 6th Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

The theme of the room was 1960’s “Flower Power” complete with the requisite groovy, psychedelic art poster. They poured mostly local craft beer from 30+ brewers, ciders from 12+ New York State cideries and a handful of spirits. My focus this afternoon was on ciders and they had some familiar labels as well as ciders from small, “mom & pop” cideries. An interesting outlier was a local distillery based in Brooklyn, St. Agrestis that makes amaros and a prepackaged Negroni.

Whiskey Fest Rye

Catoctin Creek Rye 80°, 92°	Pinhook Rye Humor Cask Strength 97°
Taconic Distillery Straight Rye 95°	Uncle Nearest 1856 100°
Deadwood Rye 83°	Minor Case Straight Rye 90°
Coppersea Straight Malt Rye 96°	Koval Single Barrel Rye 80°
Cutwater Whiskey American Rye 90°	Duke Founders Reserve Rye 98°
Sagamore Spirit Double Oaked Straight Rye 112°

Fruit & Grain Cider

Sündtrom Cider: Sauer, Sponti	Wildarc Farms: Blackbird, Kitchen Sink
Eve’s Cidery: Albee hill ’18, Darling Creek ’18, Beckhorn Hollow ’18	Bad Seed: Old Elmer Barrel Aged, Bourbon Barrel Aged
Metal House Cider: Ammir, Arista	Angry Orchard: Magril
Floral Torrantes: Suburban Maraines	Descendant Cider Co.: Succesion
Rootstock Cider Works: Dry, Original, Dry Hopped	Graft Cidery: Farm Flor, Forest & Flor, Amber City
Nine Pin Cider Works: Signature, Ginger	Westwind Orchard: Russety Russet, Classic
Orchard Hill Cider Mill: Verde, Pommeau

CiderFeast Brooklyn 2019

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On Saturday afternoon, November 9th I attended the CiderFeast cider tasting festival which was one of the many cider-centric events held during the New York City Cider Week November 8-17.

The event was hosted by the folks at Food Karma Project and NYC based restauranteur, Jimmy Carbone which hold events throughout the year including the Pig Island BBQ fest in September.

The event which was held at Biba of Williamsburg, a waterfront pub/beer garden serving Polish and American food located at 110 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn.

The tasting showcased over 15 national and international cider producers with many from New York State. Also on hand were small bites including some very tasty “prosciutto” from Kentucky and live music by the JP Bowersock Band.

Hard Cider was once the primary alcoholic beverage and a staple of the early American diet in this country especially during the Colonial period in which according to Rebelseed.com, the early colonists drank about 35 gallons of cider a year. Prohibition brought that all to an end.

There has been a resurgence of cider making in the United States with sales in 2014 at $2 billion and New York State is the 2nd largest grower of apples in the United States with about a billion pounds grown a year. The 2013 Farm Cideries’ Law made it easier to obtain a cidery license and gave tax incentives to cideries that exclusively use New York State crops. This has helped fuel substantial growth in the local industry.

At the event the local hipsters were able to sample a mix of the mass produced ciders alongside small artisanal producers who experiment with different types of yeast, aging vessels, apples and so forth. Even the big time producers such as Angry Orchard have a division that make unusual (and unusually named) small production ciders.

Some of what I sampled:

Angry Orchid: Thick as Thieves, Super Natural, Extra Terrestrial

Wayside Cider: The Catskill, The Skinny, The Half Wild, The Wild Select

Descendant Cider Co.: Dry hopped

Abandoned Cider Co.: Classic, Hopped, Barrel Aged

Downeast Cider House: Original Blend, Winter Blend

Urban Farm Fermentory: Super Dry, Hopped, Blueberry

Ommegang Project Cider: Dry, Rosé

Kings Highway: Singapore Sling, Gingersnap, Guavalicious

Original Sin: McIntosh

Aval: Classic, Rosé

Romilly Cidre: Extra Dry, Demi-Sec, Doux

Asturias Cider: Sparkling

Barrika: Basque Cider

Oysters & Cider

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In the last week of September, I attended a couple of Autumn themed events.

On Saturday September 28th I attended the 8th annual Long Island Pour the Core hard cider festival which was held at Heckscher State Park in East Islip Long Island. That’s about a 45 minute drive East from the Queens border. This is one stop on the Pour the Core tour that included Philadelphia and Brooklyn. This was an outdoor event and it was a beautiful, sunny Autumn afternoon.

Over 100 hard ciders were poured from across the country with many from New York State. Other countries such as England, Ireland, Sweden and Spain were represented as well. There were many of the well know big brands such as Angry Orchid, Magners, and Doc’s to name a few but there were many small producers represented as well.

Many styles of cider were on hand in various degrees of dry to sweet. Many were infused with fruit flavors and it seemed that rosé ciders are very popular this year.

I prefer bone dry ciders and Bad Seed, Merchant’s Daughter and Descendant Cider Co. poured some very dry and crisp versions.

There were food trucks for the hungry and live music to keep everyone entertained on this beautiful Autumn afternoon.

The next day Sunday afternoon, I attended the Oystober Fest oyster party held at The Well at 272 Meserole Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

It was one of the many oyster related events held for the 8th annual New York oyster week from September 17-29. The events are a production of the OysterHood, a global community of oyster consumers, producers, distributers and shuckers.

The Well is a bar housed in a former brewery in a neighborhood that had many in the past and the event was held in their in the outdoor event space, the “graffiti garden”. They served a rotating selection of East and West coast oysters, freshy shucked with a choice of various hot sauces, mignonettes and citrus juices. My favorite of the day were the St. Simon, small and plump with the right mix of sweet and salty.

Oysters that I sampled:

East Beach Blond (Rhode Island)	Miyagi (California)
Fiddler’s Cove (Massechusets)	Kosshi (British Columbia)
Macho Maine (Maine)	Shigoku (Washington)
St. Simon (New Brunswick)	Capital (Washington)
Tuxedo (Prince Edward Island)

Cider On Long Island

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Cider was once a staple of the early American diet. New laws promoting craft beverages is creating a cider renaissance in New York State, the second largest producers of apples in the United States.

On the north fork long island wine country, a couple of wineries bottle cider and a couple of cider houses opened showcasing cider made from local and New York State apples.

Lieb Cellars 13050 Oregon Road, Cutchogue. The tasting room is in a converted barn.

Rumor Mill sparkling cider: Made from east end apples, yellow with tints with green apples and mowed grass on the nose.

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Woodside Orchard 729 Main Road, Aquebogue. Not only do they make hard cider but pies and doughnuts as well.

Traditional Cider: Pale yellow, fizzy when poured with greenish tints, crisp off dry with tart apple and ginger notes.

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Riverhead Cider House 2711 Sound Avenue Calverton. New place that opened recently. On a slow superbowl Sunday they had a good crowd. Large room with entertainment and a deli. Large selection of local beer and cider.

Prickly Pear Rosé Cider: I asked for the driest cider and this is what they poured me, amber in color, cotton candy on the nose, off dry with cherry candy notes on the fruit.

CiderFeast Brooklyn 2017

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Cider Week in New York was on October 20-29. It was a week of cider and cider themed events at various venues and restaurants across the city.

CiderFeast was held on Saturday afternoon on October 28th at The Brooklyn Kitchen, “a radical cooking school on a mission to teach people to cook like grown-ups”. It’s located at 100 Frost Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

CiderFeast was hosted by Edible Brooklyn magazine and presented by Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s Nº 43 restaurant who has run many food and spirit events.

It was a walk-around tasting of over 20 local and international ciders with a live band providing the music and some really excellent cheeses from Bardwell Farms, an artisan cheese producer from Vermont and from Murray’s cheese shop.

Some of what I sampled:

Angry Orchard (NY State). The usual mass-produced cider you get on tap at a bar, they also make small production unique ciders such as the trio that was served here: Understood in Motion 01, EDU and Wooden Sleeper.

Diner Brewing Co. (NY State). This guy brought a tub of bottles with no labels since they were all experimental ciders including one made with Miso. He also brought over some home-grown Sicilian figs.

Descendant Cider Co. (NY State). New York City’s first cider company located in Queens. They poured their limited reserve ciders: Descendant Dry, English Kills and Wilderness.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider (NY State). Some of their offerings included specialty unfiltered and bottled conditioned ciders such as The Last Blacksmith and Northern Spy.

Barrika (Spain). Basque cider, the guy who was pouring made a show of it by pouring the cider from a glass carafe while holding it high above the drinking glass. He was a hit.

Bembel With Care (Germany). In addition to straight cider they served ciders flavored with cola and cherry (kirsh). The German guy pouring liked to crush the empty cans and soon the table was full of crushed cans.

Black Duck Cidery Woody (NY State). This is their barrel fermented cider.

Others I sampled:

EZ Orchards Roman Beauty Cider (Oregon)

Urban Farm Fermentory wild fermented ciders (Maine).

Austin Eastciders (Texas)

Downeast Cider (Massachusetts)

Farnum Hill Cider Extra Dry (New Hampshire)

Aval (France)

Aspall Dry (England)

Craigies Cider Ballyhook Flyer (Ireland)

Cider Feast 2016

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This past Saturday, August 8th, Food Karma Projects and Cook Out NYC presented this years Cider Feast cookout.

Food Karma Projects is a producer of specialty food and craft beverage events throughout the New York area. Created by NYC restaurateur Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy’s N° 43), they throw several bbq/beverage events during the Summer.

This event featured over a dozen regional, national and international cider producers pouring their ciders along with food on the grill including sliders from Schnack Burgers and tacos from Jimmy’s N° 43. It was held at the Solar One event space on the waterfront and under the FDR drive at 24-20 FDR Drive in Manhattan.

It looked like the event might have been a wash-out, at start time a storm hit, but that soon passed and the sun came out and the event went on as scheduled.

Some of the ciders I sampled:

Brooklyn Cider House “Half Sour” (New York). A trio of cider from NY State apples, very light yellow, very crisp with nice apple notes.

Brooklyn Cider House “Kinda Dry” (New York). Light yellow, crisp with champagne like fizz, easy drinking.

Brooklyn Cider House “Bone Dry” (New York). On tap, slightly cloudy, bone dry and tart

Doc’s Draft “Gold Rush” (New York). 100% Goldrush apples, light yellow, light body, crisp with ripe vegetable notes on the finish.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider “Traditional” (New York). On tap, clear light amber, bone dry with funky notes.

Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider “Scrumpy” (New York). On tap, unfiltered, cloudy amber, dry with some chewy fruit.

Big Apple Hard Cider “Brooklyn Brew” (New York). On tap, dark amber, sweet with cotton candy and apple pie spice notes.

Indian Ladder Farmstead Pear Cider (New York). On tap, cloudy light yellow, tart finish with some dried herb notes.

Indian Ladder Farmstead Barrel Aged Cider (New York). Light yellow with very light fruit flavors.

Shacksbury “Semi-Dry” (Vermont). In a can, clear, apply with some funk on the finish.

Shacksbury “Lost and Found” (Vermont). A blend of lost apples foraged in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, clear and dry with some tannin on the finish.

Virtue Cider “Michigan Brut” (Michigan). Light yellow with citrus notes on the finish.

Virtue Cider “The Mitten” (Michigan). Bourbon barrel aged, green apple notes with a very crisp finish.

E.Z. Orchards Cider “Hawks Haus” (Oregon). Floral nose, bone dry, crisp with light apple flavors.

Urban Farm Fermentory “Ol Cranny” (Maine). Cranberried Cidah (their spelling), dark copper color, bone dry and very crisp with pixie stick flavors on the finish.

Urban Farm Fermentory “Baby Jimmy” (Maine). Oak barrel aged Cidah, 100% wild yeast, light yellow, slightly cloudy.

Austin Eastciders Hopped Cider (Texas). Medium amber, dry, tannic with green fruit on the finish, feels unbalance.

Fanjul Sidra Natural (Spain). Cloudy, tight and tart, funky with some tannin on the finish.

Cidre Fermier “Brut” (France). Copper color, fizzy, crisp with green asparagus notes on the finish.

Le Brun Cidre de Bretagne “Brut” (France). Medium yellow, fizzy, crisp, green apple notes, very crisp finish.

Le Brun Cidre “Organic” (France). Medium amber, finishes with some sweetness to it.

Aval Cidre (France). Tight and crisp and very funky.

Aspall English Draft Cider “Demi-Sec” (England). Apply, off dry but not sweet.

Cider Saturday

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This past Saturday I attended the 2015 Summer Ciderfeast event which was held outdoors at the Solar One event space in East River Park at 24-20 FDR Drive in Manhattan. I’ve been to several events at this space and essentially its a parking lot under the highway overlooking the East River.

This event was from the producers of Pig Island NYC, Brisket King NYC and Hot Sauce Expo and co-produced with the United States of Cider and Copenhagen Street Dogs. They had over 12 producers pouring over 30 regional, national and international ciders.

I enjoy a good cider but most bars you walk into have the usual mass-produced suspects that are too sweet for my taste. At this event, even the ciders that were “off dry” were dryer than the mass-produced ones with more character.

It was a young, casual crowd who came out to enjoy a sunny Summer afternoon, with some live music and nibbles from local restaurants. The Danish-style hot dogs, a “pølse” from Copenhagen Street Dogs were tasty, they were served on a mini bun slathered with various sauces and topped with chopped raw onions and pickles.

These are what I sampled in the order I sampled them:

Aval Cidre Artisanal 6% (France) Dark pale, very dry with tasty character.

Moa French Oaked Aged Cider 5.6% (New Zealand) Light pale, very dry.

Aspall English Cider “John Barrinton” 8.4% (England) Light pale, light body.

Aspall English Cider “Perronelle’s Blush” 5.7% (England) Blush pink, dry.

E.Z. Orchards “Poire” 5.9% (Oregon) Cloudy yellow, dry, neutral.

E.Z. Orchards “Hawk Haus” 6.6% (Oregon) Yellow, dry, neutral.

E.Z. Orchards “Roman Beauty” 6.1% (Oregon)

Big Apple Cider “Sour Cherry” 7.3% (New York State) Copper with some oak notes.

Big Apple Cider “Bourbon Maple” 7.3% (New York State) Very dry with cooked fruit notes on the finish.

Big Apple Cider “Hipster” 7.3% (New York State) Cloudy, medium orange, slight fizz, some sweetness but finishes dry.

Descendant Cider Co. “Pom-Pomme” (New York City) With Pomegranate and Hibiscus 6.5% (New York State) Rust color.

Descendant Cider Co. “Dry” Heritage Cider 6.9% (New York City) Pale rust in color, very dry and light bodied with some oak notes on the finish.

Embark Craft Cider Works “American Heirloom” 7.5% (New York State) Made with seven varieties of heirloom apple, pale yellow with crisp acidity.

Emabark Craft Cider Works “The Crab Series Vol. 1” 7.2% (New York State) Made from crabapples, pale rust in color, very dry, with lip smacking tannin.

Emabark Craft Cider Works “The Pippin” 7.8% (New York State) Light yellow, light body, crisp.

Reverend Nat’s “Hallelujah Hopricot” 6.7% (Oregon) Made with Cascade hops, Rust color with crisp orange notes on the fruit.

Shacksbury “Farmhouse” (Vermont) 6.5% Made in Vermont from apples grown in England, sparkling, light rust in color, crisp and earthy.

Shacksbury “Basque” (Vermont) 6.2% Make in collaboration with a Spanish cider house, cloudy, light rust color, tart with sour notes on the finish.

Doc’s Draft Dry Hopped Cider 6% ( New York State) Doc’s is pretty much available in a lot of supermarkets, unfortunately, most times they don’t carry this version. Dry and crisp with hoppy tannin notes on the finish.

Austin’s Eastciders “Original” 5% (Texas) Rust color, dry, drinkable.

Citizen Cider “The Full Nelson” 6.9% (Vermont) A good basic, drinkable cider.

Citizen Cider “Northern Spy” 6.9% (Vermont) A single varietal cider, pale yellow, bone dry with a citrus zing at the end.