Review of Oregon Gardens 6th Annual Brewfest

Last Saturday, my husband, a friend of his, and a lot of my mother’s family went to The Oregon Garden’s 6th Annual Brewfest in Silverton, OR. There were 43 different brewers represented with 81 beverages, one of which was a root beer. This year, they gave us a pretty sleek 8 oz beer glass as our tasting mug.

There were six ciders there – Wandering Aengus Ciderworks with their new Anthem line up of apple, cherry, and pear, Classic Crispin Cider, Fox Barrel Pear Cider, and Spire Mountain Cider Dark and Dry (this one has “a hint of molasses and brown sugar.”) I took three glasses and filled them with samples of Wandering Aengus Apple Anthem, Classic Crispin Cider, and Spire Mountain Cider Dark and Dry and had people in our party try them. Nobody cared for Crispin, claiming it was watery in taste. Compared to that, the Dark and Dry was much fuller bodied in the mouth and much more pleasant to drink, and thus was preferred out of the two. Wandering Aengus Apple Anthem was very different from the other two, in which people described as sour, but they liked it. I then put the Wandering Aengus Pear Anthem Cider up against the Fox Barrel Pear Cider, and people all agreed that Wanding Aengus was much better, as it had more flavor and was more dynamic. This was a good tasting panel for me to listen to to help me figure out what kind of products I want to be making.

As far as the beer goes, it was the complete opposite of the Winter Brew Fest we attended. At that festival, so many of the beers were brewed for just that event and would be impossible to fine again. At this brewfest, my husband estimated that we could find 70% of them in bottles or on tap, and I remember a good number of them from last year being there last year. My husband indicated that it was sort of a brewfest for the sake of being a brewfest, but that it didn’t inspire brewers to do new things, but to go with what they have.

This would be a good festival for new drinkers and casual drinkers who want to try a whole bunch of beers in little quantities rather than buy a whole bunch of six packs or 22 oz bottles and discover you don’t like it. For that reason, it also allows someone to try a beer style they might normally not drink. However, the serious beer drinker would be disappointed as they would find they have had much of what is available there, but it does allows for tasting them in one sitting or to try beers back to back or head to head. It might be a few years before we return.

Bonus, though, was that touring the Oregon Gardens was free, and we got some ideas for growing things. For instance, they set up some old ladders as bean poles, but I think they would be kind of neat for growing hops.

Cider at the Oregon Spring Beer & Wine Fest

Cider had a decent representation at the 16^th Annual Spring Beer & Wine Fest last weekend at the Oregon Convention Center. Wandering Aengus Ciderworks from Salem, OR was there with their new Anthem cider on tap along with pear and cherry. The Anthem, made only with Newtown Pippin and Winesap apples, is probably my new favorite of theirs, though I would probably have to taste them all to make sure. Last time I saw them at their facility, they had been experimenting with cherries and decided it was best to add to fermented apple cider without fermenting the cherries. The result was something semi-dry with a hint of cherry, but something that didn’t wow me, and I love cherries. It could have been because I had been drinking their pear flavored cider previously. Made the same way the cherry cider was, this drink was sweet and more like something I would expect considering the process.

Part of the problem with the cherry cider also could have been that I drank Milton-Freewater, OR Blue Mountain Cider’s version. I would need to compare the these two side by side. These two cider companies are the largest ones in Oregon, with a few others up and coming.

Six pack ciders were also represented with Crispin Cider and Woodchuck Cider. Crispin Cider likes to have a presence in Oregon, and in fact has its own Twitter account @CrispinOregon. They were there with their Natural Cider along with their newly acquired Fox Barrel Pear Cider. In fact, Concordia Ale House is having a Cider Night tonight, but looking at the ciders they are going to use, they are all Crispin or Fox Barrel. Crispin and Fox Barrel is also having a tasting of their limited release Bonnie & Clyde ciders later this month on Thursday, April 29th from 5-8pm at the Belmont Station in Portland, OR.

As far as Woodchuck Draft Cider goes, it was a bit interesting. In the craft cider world, it is a six pack trash. In the beer making world, people want the recipe and hold this up as what cider should be like. It makes the craft cider makers shutter, trying to explain it is the Budweizer of cider. I had their granny smith cider, which is the first time I ever drank it. I get it now – it is sweet yet has some apple flavor, indicating the presence of apple juice added after fermentation. I can see why so many people like it.

While I was talking to Wandering Aengus Ciderworks, he introduced me to Allen Gould of Carlton Cyderworks, who was there tasting like me. I got to talk to them a bit about attending cider classes and how they are currently selling only out of their tasting room. I hope to get down there someday and try their product out.

Fruit Ciders

Ciders made from pears is called perry, but a lot of stuff out there on the market today are labeled “Pear Cider.” What does that mean?

Due to a loophole in the US, some ciders fall under the FDA requirements to put the ingredients on their labels. Reading the label of Original Sin’s Pear Cider, it reads “hard cider, pear juice, yeast, malic acid and sulfiates.” To me, this means that they fermented apple juice, stopped the fermentation, and then added pear juice to it to give it flavor and sweeten it a bit.

Why would they do that? Pears that make the best perry are not really grown in quantities, so this process would make it easier to produce at a lower cost.

However, this may not be the only reason. On my trip to Wandering Aengus Ciderworks, they showed us some cherry juice that they had. They said that they had attempted to ferment it as a cider, but that it tasted horrible, so they planned on adding the juice to already fermented apple juice in hopes that it would make a cherry cider they found worthy of selling.

In fact, on January 22, 2010, they recently posted this on their facebook page:

“Found a great blend for Pear Cider (Fermented cider from apples with added pear juice). To my knowledge this will be the only Pear Cider in the country made from just apples (about 15 varieties) and pears (2 varieties), no flavors added…

Perry did not make the grade though, not enough acidity and flavor. Next year we will try to find true Perry pears, they have the acidity and sugars required to make a high quality Perry.”

There are many other flavored ciders out there, including peach, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and many more.

A Cidery's Desire to Distill for Pommeau

Wandering Aengus Ciderworks produces a dessert drink Pommeau. Ben Watson’s Cider Hard and Sweet describes Pommeau as a Calvados or clear apple brandy blended with fresh sweet cider to produce a lightly sweet, reddish amber liqueur around 16-18% alcohol by volume. Wandering Aengus Ciderworks describes their Pommeau as:

“Pommeau is a unique apple dessert wine. Select heirloom cider apple varieties were fermented and then distilled. The resulting apple brandy, after aged 5 years in oak, was expertly blended with fresh juice from cider apples that offer diverse character - those with a wealth of tannins and those with plentiful sugars. Pommeau is a delicately sweet, surprisingly smooth, aromatic wine with an incredible brandy essence. Serve chilled or warm and enjoy as an aperitif, a dessert or with a meal. Production of only 100 cases every other year.”

In a way, this is very much like a Port Wine or Sherry, which is wine fortified with, or has added, grape brandy, but in this case, they are using apple juice and apple brandy.

When I was at Wandering Aengus Ciderworks after Thanksgiving, they were almost sold out. I asked them about Clear Creek Distillery, to which they responded that, yes, they did get the brandy from Clear Creek Distillery. However, it was a small custom batch that they requested, so it was quite expensive, which could help explain the $45 a bottle price tag. Wandering Aengus Ciderworks instead expressed interest in obtaining their own distilling and license. They went on to explain that most large wineries blend all their wine from all the barrels together before bottling, but some barrels may have contained a slightly inferior wine. Rather than toss the wine, the makers blend it in with the other wine to keep the volume up believing that such a small amount would not affect the overall quality. What Wandering Aengus Ciderworks hopes to do is take their slightly inferior batches and distill them to make the Pommeau. This allows them to better control cider quality, find a use for slightly inferior cider, keep all of the production at their facility, and lower costs on the Pommeau. I say it sounds like a good idea.

One more thing I should note is that Watson does say it is easy to produce your own Pommeau by taking some fresh sweet cider, and add either cider brandy or clear apple eau-de-vie. He does caution about adding too much brandy, as the higher alcohol content will mask the fruit flavors, while not enough brandy might allow raw sweet cider to start fermenting unless it is treated.