This place is heaven for those who enjoy a little adventure in their cider drinking. The fantastic variety of ciders are available on both tap and by the bottle. I soaked up the essence of cider like an old bar mat while I was writing a review then I got a little excited and you know get a triple review.
If you loook around you will notice the french oak barrel on the end of the bar. This should be what you try first. Right now.. If I didn’t risk being banned I would have got my Barney on, like so.
My ideal man. Someone might need to distract me next time the keg is being unloaded.
This little barrel contains an ever evolving delight simply called the Farmhouse cider. Yet it offers so much more. It will be sweet and sugary to a seasoned cider drinker if it is a fresh batch. The longer it sits the dryer and better it gets. The fresh batch will taste like a sweet boozie apple juice, this means that some people will drink it like apple juice, then find that their legs have stopped working a little later. Give it a couple of weeks and you will taste something a little dryer and the beginnings of the natural carbonation. The apple flavour becomes more pronounced at this point and is how I prefer it. But you need to be dedicated and able to time when the barrel is getting low. I think this will become more difficult as the summer progresses. I’m hopeful that one day a barrel will be put aside and left to mature.
Apple juice not for kiddies
The Farmhouse Cider comes in at approximately 4.5% and is $5.50 for a pot $7.50 for a schooner. I’m going to say 7.5/10 depending on how long its lasted in the barrel. Respect this cider, if you don’t it will sneak up on you and you will be going home drunk and happy earlier than you planned.
Next came The Hills Pear Cider.
This is one of the best things to have ever come out of Adelaide. You can’t even tell that it has come from the same city as the Hilltop Hoods. Not an ounce of bogan to be found anywhere.
Dry, but still carrying a sweet pear flavour that sits right in the middle of your mouth. My initial thoughts are that it is a dry cider until midway through that first gulp a pear bomb goes off and your mouth is full of a pear sweetness that is not overbearing or super sugary. Then magically it all levels out and goes back to being dry at the end. It’s not super bubbly like some of the other pear ciders out there, just pleasantly bubbly. Really really easy drinker, so keep track of how many you actually have. On a hot day it goes down like water. You could drink it all afternoon and into the early hours of the morning, just don’t fall off your stool trying.
This is a challenger to the Napoleone & Co Methode Tradittonnelle Pear Cider. Maybe even a contender to take out the top spot.
The Hills Pear Cider is available a few bottle shops and BSCH. Comes in a 5% Alc/Vol, not a light weight by any means. So be careful with such an easy drinker. 8/10 perry pear delights.
Something from a barrels in Adelaide, without any dead bodies in it.
Finally was our British friend. Westons Vintage Organic Apple. Hand pumped old school style.
This was the heavyweight amongst the three. It was also the point in my little adventure where I decided I needed to roll home and have a little nap.
I think I just got in a fight with a troll
Dark. So so dark. When the barman presented this to me I thought something had gone wrong and he had served me a beer instead. Nope, this is a full bodied rich cider, just smell the old boot and wet fur in it. Being a still cider it goes down like a wine. So don’t order a pint unless you are really committed to a vision blurring adventure. The taste is big, dry and a bite at the end. Think old boots, molasses and apple juice that some how has developed a yeast infection. Then somehow it turned into a drinkable cider. It is not going to be to everyones liking but it is drinkable with a bit of bravery. Try it with food. Actually, only drink it with food.
This is a cider for the true enthusiast or someone who is British and enjoys the taste of old boots. Comes in at 7.3% Alc/Vol and I was not able to read the price with my blurred vision. This Weston adventure got a 5/10. Drink it if you want to feel like you just fought a smelly troll.
Not this smelly troll.
If you have a spare sunny arvo, drop into the Brunswick Street Cider House, surprisingly located on Brunswick street. Check out the menu to soak up all that cider. Being the fat kid I am, I recommend the Duck fat chips.
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