Last week, out of the blue I received a direct twitter message asking what the best bars/tap lists/brewpubs in Boise were. The sender was @revnatcider a fairly new hard cider maker from Portland and was headed this way, talking to bars retailers and distributors in his effort to expand a bit. I along with a few others replied with our suggestions on where to visit and who to talk to and as it turned out, he stopped by Eagle’s Brewforia during our home-brewers monthly meeting.
The HB club meeting mostly consisted, as it always does,of everyone bringing 1 or two items they had brewed and talking a bit about how they were made. Including Jim’s 3 year vertical of his hoilday imperial porter that was very tasty and was a great example of how late/fresh/dry hops flavors can fade over time.
The star of the show this moth,however, 
however was Nat and his hard cider he brought from his Portland shop. “Sacrilege Sour Cherry”, a lacto only 8.5% ABV cider with cherry juice. Big pie-cherry aroma and just the right amount of sourness. Quite dry but it somehow kept a lot of that cherry flavor and was very tasty. His website is right… “Expect Kreik Lambic” when you taste this. The “standard” straight up cider he also brought was also very good. Clean, dry and flavorful.
This is clearly top notch stuff. I think the Reverend’s sermon will be well received out here and hope that a cider revival will then soon be upon us. Hopefully soon his flip-top bottles and distinctive newsprint style labels will start showing up on the shelves of area bottle-shops.
Amen
