Review of Citizen Cider’s Wit’s Up, a “cider maker’s cider”, fermented with Belgian Wit beer yeast.  It is my first time trying any cider from this cidery.

 

 

reflective cans look cool, but don’t photograph very well…

>>This is a review of a sample provided to Cider Says by Citizen Cider.  Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received it for free.  The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review cue.  I love free stuff, especially cider!  Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here?  Contact me.<<

Cider:  Wit’s Up
Cidery:  Citizen Cider
Cidery Location:  Burlington VT
ABV:  5.9%
How Supplied:  four pack of 16oz cans (and kegs)
Style:  dry American craft beer-style cider from VT apples (sulfite & sorbate free)

Availability:  year-round (this is one of their core ciders) in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont (see here)

Apples:  from Happy Valley Orchard in Middlebury VT

Cider Description:  There are ciders for the people, and there are ciders for the people who make the cider for the people. Wit’s Up is a classic cider maker’s cider. Drawing on the old and new traditions of cider making, it starts like an ale and finishes like the dry, sessionable craft cider that it is. It’s cider for today, it’s cider for what we believe the future of cider to be. Come, enjoy the future with us and drink Wit’s Up.

Starts like an ale and finishes like a cider: that, my friend, is Wit’s Up. This cider is fermented with a Belgian Wit yeast and malolactic cultures. No sugar is added, no sulfites are used, and it’s made with fresh sweet cider pressed at Happy Valley Orchard in Middlebury, Vermont. Wit’s Up is clean and easy-drinking. Welcome to the future of cider

Cidery Description:  Justin Heilenbach, Bryan Holmes and Kris Nelson founded Citizen Cider in 2010 on a hunch and some good old-fashioned hard work. Kris was working as a wine salesmen, Bryan as a chemist and Justin as a small farmer. All discontent for one reason or another, they started pressing sweet cider in Kris’s barn and fermenting test batches of hard cider in Bryan’s basement. As it happens, they discovered that their ideas about hard cider translated into some pretty unique and interesting finished products.

See more about their story here.  Citizen Cider has a tasting room in Burlington Vermont.

Price:  n/a
Where Bought:  n/a
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  the cidery contacted me

First Impression:  Still (no carbonation).  Yellow hue.  Smells of citrus, funk, and yeast.

Tasting Notes:  Fully dry.  Light bodied.  Moderate tartness and acidity.  Low funk, bitterness, and tannins.  Hints of sourness.  Notes of yeast, grapefruit, lemon, hops?, herbal/botanical, and wood/earth.  Long warming finish, yeasty and funky.  Low to moderate apple flavor and flavor intensity.  Moderate to high sessionability.  Moderate complexity.

My Opinion:  Wow, this was really unique.  I couldn’t fully describe some of the flavor notes that this yeast brought out.  It had more complexity than I was expecting too.  I could see this appealing to beer drinkers, as well as those who like a dry sessionable cider and don’t mind a bit of funk and sourness (like those who like rustic Farmhouse-style cider and Spanish Sidra).  It is very food-friendly and great for Spring & Summer.  However, at the end of the day, I wasn’t too big of a fan (although my husband really enjoyed it).  We ended up trading as he opened a cider which wasn’t what he was expecting.

Most Similar to:  Not much.  As far as it being a truly dry sessionable canned cider, maybe Original Sin Extra Dry.  I’ve had a few other ciders fermented with beer yeast, including Grizzly Ciderworks Woodlander Wit, Square Mile Original, and Crispin The Saint.

Closing Notes:  I’m glad I finally got to try a cider from Citizen cider, and look forward to sampling more, especially bRosé (with blueberries) and Mr. Burlington (with orange peel and bitters, Bourbon barrel aged).

Have you tried Citizen Cider?  What did you think?