The simple formula of cider seems basic, but can make an impressively endless amount of different varieties. To change the recipe, usually things are added such as different fruits or spices, but to take cider to the next level, cideries can age their already delicious product in barrels—sometimes from wine, sometimes whiskey, but always overflowing with extra flavor to lend to whatever wants to call the barrel home for a while. These special ciders are typically handcrafted, made in small batches and are highly artisanal in quality with a more complex body and flavor notes you wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain. Here are five barrel-aged ciders to start with.
1) Sietsema Orchards Orange Label Hard Cider (Ada, Michigan)
ABV: 9 percent
Highlights: In a town of about 10,000 people, this small orchard takes its Yellow Label cider and lets it rest in oak bourbon barrels. The aging process transforms a traditional Champagne yeast dry cider and kicks it up a few notches by making it smoother, earthier, more complex and slightly less dry.
2) Stem Ciders Le Chêne (Denver, Colorado)
ABV: 5 percent
Highlights: Located in the downtown Denver area, Stem Ciders offers a few barrel-aged ciders, but its Le Chêne variety is the only one aged in a red-wine barrel. It’s a complex dry cider that, as Stem puts it, “Puts just the right amount of civilized into your debauchery.” How could something with a tag-line like that be anything short of a grand time?
3) Traditions Ciderworks 2011 Bourbon Barrel (Corvallis, Oregon)
ABV: 9 percent
Highlights: 2Towns Ciderhouse’s handmade artisan label Traditions Ciderworks ages the juice from traditional French and English cider apples in rye whiskey and bourbon barrels for four months. The resulting product is fruity and floral cider with wood and caramel notes that round out this sophisticated cider.
4) Virtue Cider The Mitten (Chicago, Illinois)
ABV: 9 percent
Highlights: While some barrel-aged ciders only rest for a few months, Virtue ages their fresh-pressed juice in a charred oak barrel for three seasons, allow it to extract the maximum amount of flavor out of the wood. The Mitten is a winter cider with strong notes of vanilla, caramel and oak with a tart and earthy body.
5) Bad Seed Hard Cider Bourbon Barrel Reserve (Highland, New York)
ABV: 4 percent
Highlights: From the heart of apple country in southern New York state comes Bad Seed’s small batch, hand-crafted cider. Using barrels straight from Kentucky distilleries, this cider is unfiltered and bottle conditioned with strong citrus notes and a very tart body.
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