Few college students immediately enter their field of focus upon graduating, even fewer enter it before they graduate. For Ross Brockman and Tyler Mosher, they launched their cider business during their senior year of college. Theirs was a vocation of practice—from the hours the young entrepreneurs clocked in on a family orchard learning the ways of the apple and fresh-pressed juice to rigorous “study sessions” with “Professor Busch” while in school. Brockman’s older brother Matt quickly jumped on board and in 2011, the Boston-based Downeast Cider House was more than a dream plotted over beers—ahem—studying. (See the whole story here as told by cartoons.)
Inspired by the beach, baseball and boating, the Summer Blend also finds a muse in the summer shandy style of beer—blending lemon juice and ginger into the Red Delicious, McIntosh, Cortland and Gala apple base. Sprightly and citrusy, this lower alcohol sipper (4.5 percent ABV) is summer cider sessionability at its brightest. Piquant lemon curd, a snap of ginger and fruit-forward, tender apple aid in illustrating images of an orchard-side adult lemonade stand and reposeful sunshine.
