Why I Oughta...

This feels like some sort of cider achievement that I've unlocked.   Back in March, I had some blue Vander Mill Cider and posted a photo here on the blog .  And today, I'm sharing the red version which is just simply called Hard Apple .

Seems to be the week of 'international ciders', eh?   After the Canadian Danish cider earlier this week , here's a look at a Swiss cider called Swizly that I had with Nat, my sister and Equation Boy/Man earlier this summer at one of their favorite restaurants in Schaffhausen.  Same as the Somersby one .  Didn't love it.  But, it was a lovely evening dining outdoors on one of our last nights there. Oddly enough, if you go to the Swizly website , they're advertising the stuff by showing off a pair of underpants and a tramp stamp?  Seriously?  Kind of a weird way to market the stuff, no?

It wasn't just Rockets and poutine up in Toronto , I also had a chance to grab what I thought was a local cider.  Turns out, it is from the Danish brewer Carlsberg Group and sold all over the world .   Didn't love it.  But, kinda liked the whole "Cidre de Pommes Aromatise" on the can.  

I had a few of these Virtue Ciders that are listed here on the menu above at Cindy's inside of the CAA a few weeks back and it struck me funny that they listed the location as "Chicago, IL".  If you go to the Virtue site, it says they're right in the middle of Fennville, Michigan - which we're familiar with being right by Crane's Orchard.  Weird, right? But, if you poke around, you'll see that Virtue sold out to Goose Island last fall .  Which...means, Virtue is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.  Which makes it 'big cider', right?  Doesn't make it bad, but might explain the 'Chicago' address instead of Fennville, Michigan? Also, for the record, I did also have one of the Butterfly Flash Mobs from the fellas at Solemn Oath.  Rootin' for the home team, and all, right?

Well...we don't actually have it on hand, but I've cut a deal and my Dad is picking it up this week while he's in Coloma. That's right, we're the proud owner of that beauty of an apple press.  I found it at a yard sale up in Coloma and after passing on it initially, we went back later in the afternoon only to find it closed.  The woman told me that they bought it from a farmer back in the 1970's but she had no idea how old it was.  It has two parts: a grinder in the box (that's the wheel on the side) and the 22 lb press on top (that's the handle on top). Fortunately, the house was for sale, so I took a shot and emailed the agent with my story about wanting to reach the owner of the house she was selling to try to buy their apple press.  Well...a few days later a lady calls me and....yada, yada, yada....we now have an apple press.  (Or...we will have it this week when my Dad comes home from Michigan!). And...yes...I yada-yada'd over the good p...

 I ordered this Rokerderlig cider off the menu last week and it arrived in this lovely can.   11.1 ounces instead of the usual 12?  That's weird, right?  But...Strawberry-lime hard cider sounds nice, right? And anything that is 'made from pure Swedish Spring Water'?!?  What's not to like.  As I usually do, I ordered my cider with a cup full of ice.  Crack this baby open and pour over the ice. Wait...wha?!?!? Pink! But you know what?  That didn't turn me off.  I loved the stuff.  And the whole dude drinking a pink drink?  Normally, I'd shy away from them.  But at the pool?  No problem at all.

I had one of these tasty cans of Vander Mill Blue Gold Michigan Cider last week and it was a tasty combination of apples and blueberries.  Both from West Michigan.  Vander Mill looks to be from close to Grand Haven on the west coast of Michigan.  Further up the lake than Coloma/St. Joe's is, so I'm not to familiar with them or the place.  I've been drinking more and more ciders and based on the menu expansion, I'm not the only one.  I had this one over ice and that's the way I normally roll with ciders.  Maybe that's why I'm into them?  Can't have a craft beer on ice and not get sideways looks from the waxed mustache'd crowd.  But ciders?  Nobody bats an eye.

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 p...

If you click on the photo of the building above you'll see the new sign above the door of this place that is *now* called "The Bainbridge Beverage Company".   You'll also notice the big dark(er) red Circle above the door that *used* to have the Grandpa's Cider Mill Logo.  You can see the circle Grandpa's logo here on their site . I covered Grandpa's Cider Mill before here on the blog, but we made a stop there yesterday when we were up in Coloma.  The Babe spoke up and said that she wanted to go to the 'Apple Cider Bar' where you can taste different flavors of cider.  We've done that trip a few times and always had a good time sidle'ing up to the bar where we can grab some stools and enjoy the experience. But...with the new name change to Bainbridge, it appears that they've expanded the bottling facility and moved the bar to a new location.  They've appeared to make this a much more professional facility with a lot of machine...