Cider Summit N.W.

Last Saturday I attended the first ever Cider Summit N.W. at the South Lake Union Discovery Center. This was organized along the lines of a typical Washington Beer Festival. A set gate charge that got you a tasting cup and a set number of tasting tickets. Each of the samples is then a number of tickets based on the cost of the cider in question. Extra tickets could then be purchased for an additional charge. One nice thing about this one is that I could take the bus there and back so I did not have to worry about parking or how much I drank.

I was really looking forward to this as I really like cider. There was a time in American history when almost everyone drank cider every day. As pioneers pushed west into the virgin land they carried apple seedlings with them to plant on their new farms. The apples were then used for food, preserved, and made into cider. The cider was then drunk and some portion was allowed to go to vinegar to preserve the other produce from the garden as well. Then the Temperance movement convinced many farmer to chop down their trees, or worse yet do unholy things to their cider to keep it from fermenting. Now in America if you say you are drinking cider, most people picture a cloudy, insipid, still, non-alcoholic beverage.

There were cider makers from all around the area and a few from overseas as well. Almar Orchards were there will their JK's Scrumpy organic cider. A nice cider that is widely available and that I quite like. Making it over from England was Aspall Cider, their product line is readily available here and in Kansas City so I decided to use my precious tickets elsewhere. France was represented by Domaine Familial Louis Dupont Etienne Dupont Organic Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie and Domaine Christian Drouhin who brought a Perry. Both of these cider makers are in Normandy. I tried them both, but I have to admit that I was more interested in the Perry because you rarely see those commercially made. The final entry from Europe was Possman from Germany with their Frankfurter Apfelwein. This was very tasty, hopefully I will be able to lay into a supply of this in the future.

One of the cideries that caught my eye was Carlton Cyderworks in Carlton Oregon. What first caught my eye was they have a cider named in honor of Carry Nation, who along with Father Welch did more damage to American Society than the "social ills" they were fighting against. Carlton also has a Citizen line that is a traditional cider made with traditional cider apples including Kingston Black and Dabinett. I think Citizen was one of my favorites of the day.

Crispin Cider came up from California, and I have to admit I was a little indecisive about them. They had a large banner up about putting cider over ice, which I think is a bad idea on general terms. The only things that should be served on the rocks is certain liquors and mixed drinks. But they also had a cider that was fermented with trappest yeast too. I decided that I had to give that a try. It was good, the flavor was interesting, but it was not really good either. It had a little too much funk on it for most people. It was even a bit much for me, and I like funky beer and blue cheese.

There was a Ginger Cider from Eaglemount Wine and Cider over in Port Townsend. This was also one of my favorites of the day. The ginger flavor was not overpowering or hot and the was in balance with the flavor of the apples.

There was a cidery down from British Columbia in the form of Sea Cider from Victoria. They were pouring two ciders, thier Pippins and Rumrunner. If I had to choose I would say that Rumrunner was my favorite of the day. There was plenty of vanilla toasty character from the barrel without the cider being acetic.

The last place that caught my eye was Wandering Aengus from Salem Oregon. They had a couple of interesting ideas. One was thier Anthem Hops a hopped cider. The bitterness was quite low and I could not smell or taste the hops at all. I think you are wasting money if you can't detect them, and I suspect if you could the flavor would clash with with the flavors of the apples. They also had a "single vaietal" cider made with Wickson apples. This was pretty good, but it seemed to lack that jena se qua that you get from the interplay of different varieties of apples, each contributing its own strengths to the whole.

There were many more cider mills present, but I focused on those that I can not get locally, or that I had not tasted at other event.