Moonbeam Cafe: for the night owls. We are not afraid of the dark. Pour a drink and stay a while.
Any cider drinkers?

Pictures of ciders I have drunk recently. Some where waaay better than others. Who here drinks ciders? What kind? Or, anyone want cider reccs?



I'm a cider drinker. There's a company out here called Nine Pin that's my favorite
I haven't come across that one yet. Thistly Cross's Whiskey Casked cider is my fave, but my every day cider is likely Spire's Dark and Dry.
Oooh. If I can't get that local I'll make a mental note to look for it on my next New York adventure!
What is it that makes it your favorite? I like cider, but they all seem rather similar.
There are some standard ways of making cider that put them into different basic categories for me. Some people make it like champagne, using champagne yeast, and some make it like beer. The type of beer yeast you use can change the resulting taste quite a bit.
Nine Pin has an Original and a Belgian, and the only difference is the yeast. Ciders made like champagne taste basically like a brut. Too dry for me, but some people dig that.
I like a semi-dry. Some people make them straight up sweet. Badass Hard Cider was like candy. Gross.
There's also a lot of variation in how much actual apple you can taste. I always found Old Rascal from Thatchers in the UK to to be just the perfect amount of apple flavor.
Nine Pin has a Ginger cider that I really love. Enough ginger without too much ginger. And in general I dig that they're constantly making experimental flavors. I only with I lived close enough to go the tasting room to try them.
Rebel Reserve from Standard Cider Company tastes like it's made with vanilla and spices, but it isn't. It's aged in oak barrels.
If you can find a cider festival somewhere, it might make it easier to discern the differences, because you'll have so many to sample. A lot of them DO taste the same, but those ones I file away as making no point to have again in the future.
That is an awesome write-up. I think I've had too much exposure to just the candy variety.
I'm a huge fan of ginger. I'll have to go out of my way to find one of those varietals.
Sea Cider makes ciders using champagne yeast, but they are still appley. The Rev Nat's in my picture uses yeast for Belgian farmhouse saison beers. It's not very appley, but it's very good. It's a different animal from other ciders.
I really need to start keeping one of those tasting notes books or something.
I'm not a brewer, so I don't know all the ins and outs of what produces what. My apologies if I got some wrong.
As I can't stand beer/ale etc, cider is my go to refreshing pub and BBQ drink!
Most bottled ciders come in quite a variety of fruit flavours now, so I try something different almost every time I have some!
Have you had apricot?
I don't think I've seen Apricot - I've tried flavours like strawberry/Lime, and passionfruit!
I just picked up this cider today that I hadn't heard of before, Black Fox Cider!
Sea Cider (pictured top right) is made near me. It's aaamaaazing.
If you can get BC Cider I also have to recommend a couple more for you:
Leftfield Cider Co and Raven's Moon Artisan Cider.
Tod Creek is also good but I have only had theirs a couple times, tends to be a bit less expensive but may be hard to find farther afield. Fraser Valley Cider Company is on my 'to drink' list... yes... I have a 'to drink' list.
So in short, yes I drink cider, yes I have recommendations and YES please post your own suggestions or 'drink o the night' whenever you please hahaha.
I don't know if I have access to BC stuff, I just took a bunch of Sea Cider and Kelp Stout back with me last I was out that way.
That Whisky Casked cider from Thistly Cross is my favorite. Reverend Nat's is also good, but their apricot cider is m favorite of their line-up.
I have a lot of cider bars here. Soon we will have two with 52 taps each and also a place that always has a ridiculous number of bottled ciders available.
Oooh a 52 tap craft cider bar? Is this heaven? it sounds like heaven...
Well if you can get it BC cider is just lovely. Our liquor/beer/wine import/export regulations are due for another overhaul up here, I have heard the word 'draconian' used to describe them. Hah.
I was wondering about that. I was looking at some ciders lists for my local places and we seen to have stuff from New Zealand but not BC.
It's a shame I didn't grab some King and Spies from Sea Cider when I was there. I did a tasting ( https://www.instagram.com/p/BOVtfNsjfME/?taken-by=dorkvania ) there and that seemed to be their best and to most clearly show their take on cider. But I am glad I got Rum Runner because I love cider and I love rum :)
Rum Runner is great. I don't think I've tried King and Spies!
Actually re: liquor laws. Some of the latest changes take effect tomorrow. (See I knew I knew what I was talking about... LOL)
\o/ BC, WA and OR all have thriving beer and cider scenes. Freer flow between them will be nice. Especially since the Portland beer scene has sort of jumped the shark. I'd like to get some BC beer down here.
BC beer yesss you definitely need some. If you're ever up here on a visit let me know and I'll give you a list of the best breweries and beer retailers in the area you're visiting. I'm a bit of a geek that way.
I will! Might be a while until I am back. I was just up in December for about a week, in Victoria and Tofino. Tastings at the Sea Cider Ciderhouse are worth it if you've got the time.
Oh awesome. Victoria is my home town. ❤