This post comes from Matt, the Beer Baron. Find him on Twitter @geekcanuck
Despite not having too much of a taste for craft beer, the
Clockwatching Tart has visited more breweries and craft beer shows across the
continent than most beer geeks, all in the name of adventure (and being good spot about one of my many obsessions).
So, when I saw the chance to repay the favour by trying to win her tickets to
the Toronto Craft Cider Cruise, I couldn’t resist. With a little luck and our
thanks to Thornbury Village Cidery
– who produce the lovely Thornbury Cider – we were off to Toronto to indulge
our love for Ontario craft cider!
The Craft Cider Cruise took place aboard The River Gambler
and before we delved into the wonderful array of Ontario craft ciders, we
needed a bit of food and much to our surprise and delight, it was fresh, well
made and delicious.
We figured we’d
better stop by the Thornbury booth first to thank them for the tickets. Not
only did they have their flagship Thornbury Cider, they also brought King
Brewery’s King Pilsner, which was another surprise and a nice way to start the
night – little did we know that 24 hours later, both the cider and beer would
be newly minted award winners, with Thornbury Cider taking bronze in the New
World Cider category and King Pilsner taking home the gold in the European
Style Lager category at the Canadian
Brewing Awards.
With the weather clearing up after some earlier rain and
some award-winning drinks to start the night, we took a moment to appreciate
the view...
...before getting back to the business at hand of enjoying
awesome Ontario craft cider. Next up was Spirit Tree, which had interesting –
and also soon-to-be-award-winning – options. We both tried the Double Pagan
crabapple cider, which was ridiculously and wonderfully tart, and I enjoyed the
wonderfully aromatic dry-hopped cider, which would go on to win the silver in
the Cider
with Herbs/Spices category.
Next, we headed over to see our
old friends at Twin Pines,
who we’ve been visiting at the London
Food & Wine Show, the Forest
City Beer Fest and their own cider house for years now. Their Hammer Bent
Red has become a staple for us at the ever-hospitable Milos’ Craft Beer Emporium and I was thrilled
to see their funky and wonderful Scrumpy on hand to go with the Hammer Bent Red,
which is now a gold medal winner in New
World Cider.
Speaking of Milos’, we’d had the chance to try Cherriousity
cherry apple cider from West Avenue Cider
there before and were really happy to see it on the craft cider cruise. The
cider itself is as uniquely sweet and sour as you’d expect from cherry cider –
and I admit as a marketing and design geek as well as a beer and cider geek, I
absolutely adore their logo.
After a few rounds of things we already knew we loved, it
was time to discover something new! First up was Revel Cider, whose website claims that they
brew cider with the wildest ingredients they can find and after trying them, I
have no reason to doubt their claim. First up was Hop X, a 6.9% cider
dry-hopped (which adds a big hit of citrus aromatics) with Hop X, a new
varietal of hops grown in Ontario. Even more unique was their cider made with
gin botanicals sourced locally from Dillon’s
Distillery. Strikingly unique, herbaceous and boasting lovely vanilla
notes, this cider took full advantage of the discarded botanicals from Dillon’s
Gin 22.
Finally, we discovered Shiny Apple Cider from the
traditional Ontario wine region of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Light in colour but
crisp, dry and deep in flavour, Shiny also boasted one of the cooler draft
handles I’ve seen – an apple core equal parts 8-bit and cubist – and was just
starting to arrive in London at the LCBO as we
got back home.
Not all blog posts get to end with sailing off into the
sunset, but after a lovely evening filled with old favourites, new discoveries
and some of the best craft cider Ontario has to offer, this one certainly can.
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