Flag Hill Farm Vermont Sparkling Hard Cyder

Brewed by Flag Hill Farm
Style: Cider
Vershire, Vermont USA

Serve in Bowl, Flute, Lager glass

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750ml cork and caged bottle, pours a crystal clear yellow color and lots of tiny bubbles. Aromas of bubble gum and apples, flavors of dry champagne and apples at the end. Would have rated higher if it wasnt extremly dry, this tasted pretty much like champagne to me.

**WARNING** This is my first cider review other than Strongbow in the UK which is just candy with alcohol. ***WARNING*** Bottle from Zane. Was looking forward to a nice Vermont hard cider for Thanksgiving....too bad this wasn’t it. Pours an effervescent yellow with tons of bubbles. Nose is of white wine with the smallest amount of apple only if you know it is a cider. Taste is of booze and bad white wine. No apple taste until it warms up A LOT. Overall, VERY disappointing. This was a drain pour, even for the guys looking to get drunk on Thanksgiving.

The cork comes off with a loud "pop". A little bit of foaming, but luckily I’ve got a glass nearby. Pours a clear golden yellow with lots of small carbonation bubbles constantly racing to the top. Looks great in a Hill Farmstead tasting glass. The aroma of brett, spice and a touch of alcohol rise up from the glass. Sweet and dry with a nice earthiness to it. Also picking out some barrel notes on nose with a hint of vinegar. The taste follows the nose with some earthy dry brett that balances out the cider sweetness. A hint of spice with dry apple and a bit of peel. Wood tannin and light cider vinegar acidity. Mouthfeel is spritzy, little bit of foam, dry, some warming alcohol and a light sourness/tartness. Great stuff. I’ll definitely be picking up another bottle.

750mL Bottle. Aroma is slight, mineral-laden and a bit yeasty and of MacIntosh skinds. Pours a vibrant clean golden with no head, well sparkling. Flavors are sharp, bitter and of musty wild yeasts. A good bit of booze, some odd earthy off-flavors and odd sweetness. Not my cup of tea. Acrid, just bitter and undrinkable for me. My fiancee enjoyed it, but I found it messy and unbalanced.

Poured from a bottle to a flute glass. Yellow and hazy with a champagne like head to it (i.e. fizzy). Aroma of a mixture of apples, wood, and farm. Taste once again of a variety of apples with a tart but sweet finish. A dry lingering that could be connected to the yeast and apple choice most likely. Overall a very good cider or cyder that is more American then most people think, but either way a delicious choice of drink for the thanksgiving holidays.

Bottle. Pours a pale yellow with a small white fizzy head. Aroma of tart apples, leather, wood and a hint of barnyard. Flavor is tart and funky with crisp sweet apples, wood, yeast and has a semi dry finish.

Poured a clear gold color with a thin white head. Big horse and leather aroma with some tart apple notes. Some aroma of glue (solvents) started to come through as it warmed. The flavor was lightly tart with a fair amount of acidity. Apples with some leather. Semi-dry finish with light warming. Medium bodied. I liked the stankiness of this cider.

750ml. This is the first cider I’ve ever rated. Pours like applejuice with a fizzy head. Funky and yeasty aroma. Apple pie type spices in the nose also. Woody and sour aroma. Tart and really really bubbly. I’ll come back and adjust these numbers after I’ve rated some more cider, but I like it.

Thanks to JoeMcphee for sharing - I kind of like the fact that it’s become a tradition to have at least one cider at our tastings - it really breaks things up - hazy golden, fairly fizzy pour - aroma of funk ’n’ fruit skin, with some phenolic notes and a mild sour/tart (brett?) character - the flavor is more mild than the aroma suggests, with some light acidity, whole apple tartness (with the skins really coming through), and background funkiness - it sure hides that alcohol well though - I’d still take this over champagne.

Wow this was some funky cider. THanks to JoeMcPhee! Pours a sparkling light gold with a fizzy head- carbonation seems to subside after a while as well. Aroma is funky with brett right from the start. Good tart green sour apples in the aroma as well- a bit vegetal as well - plasticy and phenolic from the yeast. More rubber and plastic in the flavor with vanilla phenols, apple cider, tart green granny smith apples, but not much on the wierd acetaldehyde character. Finishes nice and tart- pretty acidic and fairly clean.