We have been exploring craft beer breweries, wineries and distilleries for quite a while. These adventures have expanded our horizons covering alcoholic drinks well beyond the local supermarket. We had the opportunity to take a new expedition into the world of Hard Ciders. We really did not know what hard cider was until we met Hammered Dwarf Cider.
Flight of four hard ciders
We found out that yes, hard cider is true cider, made with apples, but with an alcoholic kick similar to beers. The Hammered Dwarf Cider company offered several different versions. Sher and I both had a flight of ciders, four different ones.
The menu board
All of the ciders had a similar feel, ice cold, refreshing and with that little alcoholic kick. Of the four samples we liked #5, Wizard’s Elixer as one of the best. Made with different cider apples, it delivers 6.9% ABV (alcohol by volume). We also enjoyed #7 , a 7% ABV tart cherry known as Purple Hill. In addition to the ones in our flights, we also sampled #1, the rose colored 6.6% ABV Princess Pie. This delightful hard cider that was fermented with whiskey, peach and Marion berries in a whiskey barrel.
This experience was very interesting and informative. We’ll now be looking for other hard cider producers and put them on our future lists of places to visit along with wineries, breweries and distilleries.
Roadtirement 
I’d love to sample the drinks. I like beer with an 8.1% volume, yum! Cider would be an interesting drink.
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Interesting is a good way to describe the cider. You can probably find a cidery somewhere in your area… Thanks, John.
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I stumbled upon a local cidery at a homebrew festival, before they had a full brewery. The hibiscus cider was so amazing that I had FIVE “samples” (only supposed to get 1 but the event was ending so they were liberal with remaining alcohol).
I don’t know the current level of distribution but the brewery is Ficklewood.
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It’s hard to beat extra samples! I looked up the Ficklewood Cidery, what a neat website. Looks like good stuff!
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Ficklewood – what a great name! 😀
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That’s what we thought, too! Great minds think together… 😉
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We are in cider country , Brittany! Part of the local tradition, and all are at 5% or even 8% on some. Cheers
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How interesting! Thanks for sharing.
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Sidra, as it’s called in Spain, is very tasty. Before grafting to get consistently good tasting apples, most apple production went into making hard cider. In the old days, when most applers were spitters, people rarely ate apples, they drank them.
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Interesting history! Thanks for telling. 🙂
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When I lived in Bristol England they had a cider called Scrumpy. It was a bit murky looking and they would only serve half pints to women because it was considered to be so intoxicating!!
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Fun sounding name, bet it’s good. Thanks for sharing.
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My great-grandfather was a farmer and had a large apple orchard, too. He made hard cider.
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Any one in the family still use that skill? Thanks for sharing the history!
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This is a place you found while out of town?
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Yes, we went with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. They had been there before. It is new (est. 2020) so it wasn’t there the last time we were in Seattle.
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