So you’re all over super premium, micro-brewed, all-natural, artisan-crafted, organic, real draft ale. What’s next?
Hard cider, perhaps.
Only a handful of Chicago-area spots have the new draft Crispin Cider. This year-old, Minneapolis-based company is making its all-American naturally fermented apple brew in Northern California, using no added malt, color, spirit alcohol, sugar or preservatives. The result is a pure, fresh apple flavor, which stands up to the best European ciders.
You can find it on tap at Jak’s Tap in the West Loop, The Local Option in Lincoln Park and Sam McGuire’s in Orland Park.
Crispin in bottles is starting to be available at wide variety of local bars and retailers. The bottled cider come in four varieties: Original, a crisp, tart, clear drink, with 5 percent alcohol; Light, a refreshing, effervescent beverage with just 3.2 percent alcohol; Brut, extra-dry and, well, crisp, with 5.5 percent alcohol; and Honey Crisp reserve, a less filtered, complex brew with a heady 6.5 percent alcohol. Chicagoist named the last their beer of the week in October. (This cider is not made from ‘Honey Crisp’ apples, as Chicagoist mistakenly reports, though. According to Michael Christensen, Crispin regional manager, the product name is based on the honey used in fermenting the cider and the Crispin brand name.)
Actually, they do make one out of honey crisp apples, it was special release this fall – it’s great. It has a brownish yellow label, as seen in the pic on Chicagoist. The others are great too, we’ve enjoyed the ciders many times.
All our ciders use a proprietary blend of West Coast (primarily Washington State) apples. The blend varies as the season progresses Northwards – but it is primarily Granny Smith (the most acidic of dessert apples), Golden Delicious & Fuji’s. The rest is whatever is in season and available geographically.
We do not use Honeycrisp apples in Crispin Honey Crisp – note difference in spelling. The better the apple is to eat, the worse it is for apple wine fermentation, and Honeycrisp’s “broad” molecular structure (which gives it that superb “crunch” when you bite it), high sugar content and low acid content makes it, in our opinion, unsuitable for alcoholic cider. We did try, and did not believe that the “sour candy” taste profile was appropriate for our product.
Honey Crisp is called Honey Crisp because we smooth with organic honey and still retain a crisp taste profile (hence our Crispin name).
Thanks for validating my reporting and the further explanation. It’s excellent cider.