Cidery Turns 8 + Grafter Blanc

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It’s November which means our Cyser, Honey Thief is back! Cysers are, quite simply, an apple and honey co-ferment. In our case we ferment the apples dry (this year it’s mostly Rome Beauty apples). After aging the cider for 6 months, we double ferment the cider by adding a blend of our very strong bluebonnet-heavy estate honey and local Texas Goodflow honey. I say bluebonnet heavy because our honey tends to have a particularly tannic quality to it, the result of our bees foraging so much on the bluebonnets in the surrounding fields. Once dry (no sugar remains from this second ferment), we balance out the acidity and tannins with more honey from Goodflow. Thus this is actually our sweetest cider yet, but it remains characteristically balanced and very silky, with an ABV of 9%.

And here’s a fun fact! The label for our Honey Thief bottle, designed by the lovely and talented local artist, Elaine Shen, is inspired by an ancient cave drawing (this one over here to the left). There’s evidence to suggest that humans were gathering honey as far back as 15,000 years ago. This would have been before farming or domestication, so these hunters and gatherers would actually have just been stealing the honey. Hence the name, Honey Thief. In this cave drawing from Arana Cave near Valencia, Spain, the figure is removing honey from a natural hive hanging off of a cliff. Can you imagine the kind of guts that would take??? No wonder honey was likely only available for religious ceremonies at this point.