It seems the media has been trying to predict Cider’s comeback for a handful of years now. I think good honest traditional craft cider is just starting to get it’s legs now.
Recently I’ve seen 2 different newspaper stories, one from the Seattle Times and one from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on a pair of craft cider makers located on Canada’s Vancouver Island. Lucky for me they are just a few hours North of where I live. Vancouver Island is a picturesque locale and possesses a near perfect climate and micro-climates for terrific cider apple growing.
For those following my personal cider adventures during Cider School we were able to participate in a whirlwind day long tour of both places.
Sea Cider
http://www.seacider.ca/
Having recently just celebrated it’s 1st anniversary, Sea Cider’s facility is a gorgeous revamped Barn. Sea Cider has small but efficient orchard of cider apples organically grown on espalier (trellaced like wine grapes). Just beyond the orchard on the horizon is surreal view of Haro Straight. They have a terrific stories of old time Rum Running that occured across this very straight during Prohibition. These stories inspired one of their more popular ciders “Rum Runner” which unfortunately for me just so happened to be sold out during my last visit. I’m anxiously awaiting a taste of that. We engaged in serious tasting during our visit and all of Sea Cider’s ciders are seriously delectable. One of my new favorites. You gotta check these guys out!
Merridale Estate Cider
http://www.merridalecider.com/
Merridale has created a terrific destination cidery and orchard nestled up in their own little corner of Mill Bay right off the Trans Canada Highway on Vancouver Island. Merridale is on the Vancouver Island Wine Route and features a classy tasting room, first rate Bistro and even Brick Oven Bakery. Merridale has a nice selection of cider varieties and is becoming a popular location for weddings and private events. A self guided tour of their orchard and facility is available using a series of informative signage. An enjoyable and educational stop for any cider lover.
EDIT: I want to thank the owners of Sea Cider and Merridale for showing the cider class around last June. It was really great to check out both of their operations. They were vastly different but in their own unique ways they have raised the bar by turning cider production facilities into a cider destinations, all the while uplifting the craft cider industry by providing an unforgettable cider experience. Thanks guys!
This is good press for cider. No pun intended. Now if we could just get the writers and corporate media to referencing the now cliche “Cider House Rules” in their article titles. It isn’t cute anymore.
Thats all I have… you can check out the real articles now.
Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2008045521_trislandintro13.html
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08208/898678-37.stm






Done deal. 4 years in the waiting and I’m finally going to attend Peter Mitchell’s
So using WordPress enables me to check out my stats and find out how people reached my little corner of the blogoshpere. The title of of this blog was one of the terms used today and I thought it was an excellent topic for an entry. So as a follow up to my bottle rant I am going to keep a running tally right here on which brands do and do not have twist tops. I’ll edit and update this post here with my findings. If you got some suggestion let me know.
Flip Top Bottles (EZ caps).
22’s and their larger cousins seem to make bottling time a whole lot easier and faster. They hold more volume which means less bottles to clean, less bottles to sanitize and less bottles to cap. And let’s the face facts if I’m sitting down to a cold bottle of home brew, 22+ oz bottles are a better size. My all time absolute favorite bottling bottle ever was the now extinct (I think) 1 liter beer bottle. Now those kicked ass. They were huge. And better than that I liked the dimensions of these bottles, they remind me of the Olympia or Lucky Lager”Stubbies” in a way. I don’t recall what happened to the rest of my stash but they are gone and out of my life forever I am afraid.
Unique or Custom Shaped Bottles.








































