From the great state of Wisconsin comes this cider out of left field. I have never heard of these guys before, and I would have been unlikely to have ever tried their wares were it not for the fact that this was available in growler form at my favorite beer slinger. So, this brings me to a strawberry hard cider. I'll be interested to see if the strawberry makes a dramatic difference in what I can only assume is a good cider, but I have no frame of reference for this particular group.
Like a clear, gold American lager, the body of the beer is very pale and seeming to be watery, were this a beer. The significant lack of head is another good tip off that this is not a beer. The aroma is very, very sweet apple juice. I would like to say that I smell strawberries; I think I only get a little bit of tartness that comes from them, but it could very well be coming from the apple.First sip is sweet, tart, and mostly apples. There may be a hint of strawberry meat that is tainting the Apple a little toward the sweeter side, but the apple itself is rather tart, so the sweetness of the strawberries is helping it out quite a bit. It has a little of the wine-like alcohol afterglow, but it really isn't a hard hit, and it simply reflects the rather low 5.0% alcohol by volume. Still, the first sip was pretty good. I'm going to try it a bit more, and then I'm going to come back for the next paragraph. You readers will not be able to tell that I left.
After drinking a bit more, the impression that I am left with is that of somewhat watery apple juice with a strawberry Spritz and a small bit of alcohol added. It's hard to take that description and spin it to be positive, but I don't mean to speak ill of the beverage. It knows what it is, and it is subtle and rather mellow. When you get away from the bitterness and strident flavor of hops and you move on to something more mainstream like apples, it becomes difficult to compare the two; no idiom about comparing two things comes to mind.
Bottom Line: A refreshing beverage with enough personality to be interesting.
3.25/5