'The Saint' - Artisnal Reserve Crispin Natural Hard Apple Cider

We picked up this bomber of Crispin Hard Apple Cider at Costco recently and Nat broke it out for our block party this past weekend.  It was mighty tasty and I wasn't ashamed to be drinking it out amongst the other folks drinking craft beer from all over the place.  (By the way...Costco has really stepped up their game of craft beer with dozens of bomber sizes of various types.  Kinda neat way to spend a few minutes while Nat looks through the book section.)

It is interesting to me that ciders have moved from kind of fringe - almost feminine - beverages (I remember back in the 90's some folks drinking Mike's Hard Cider back in college and me looking down at them while I was shotgunning my Miller High Life Light!) to totally mainstream.

For me, Nat has been leading the way for a few years as she's sought out ciders at bars and restaurants while I was sticking to the draft beer menu.  The first time I had a Crispin was a sip of one of Nat's at dinner one night probably back three or four years.  It was pretty tasty.

Now?  You might find me ordering a cider at dinner all by myself.  I don't love all the super-hop-y IPAs that are all the rage these days and my tastes lean towards lighter/golden session beers.  So, having ciders have their moment is a nice way for me to ride this craft beverage wave.  And..leave it to my wife (who is usually ahead of the curve on most things!) to take me down an interesting path beverage-wise.

This bottle - which contained an naturally fermented cider made with Belgian Trappist beer yeast -  came with a pretty lengthy description and some special instructions on what to do when you're down near the bottom:  "Give a full bottoms-up tilt and swirl to disperse unfiltered apple-wine sediment evenly."