Do you remember the first time you had alcoholic cider? Commonly called “hard cider,” there’s a good chance the first time you tried this it was in a pint glass, just like the first beer you ever ordered on draft. If you had it from a bottle or can, there’s a good chance it was sweet. Likely very sweet. But did you know it can be dry? And it is often very good when it is very dry. Or so it goes in my humble opinion.
Though small in sales and production compared to beer, cider, I would argue, has an equally important history alongside beer. In DC, the origins of cider apples go back to some of the earliest records I’ve found of hops growing in DC.
But before I nerd out on beer and cider history, it’s important to know that today, Wednesday October 4, some of the best cider-makers in our immediate region will have their ciders at Churchkey. The cause for the gathering and the impetus for the celebration is Beth Demmon and her new book.
Demmon’s book, The Beer Lover’s Guide to Cider, is for sale and a question and answer with the author is happening today. In addition to author Demmon, joining Demmon for the paneling is Andy Hannas of Potter’s Craft Cider, David Glaize of Old Town Cidery, Sam Fritz of ANXO Cider, and Tristan Wright of Lost Boy Cider. Moderating is Greg Engert, of Neighborhood Restaurant Group, owner of Churchkey.
There will be lots of tasty, dry ciders. As I mentioned before, I’m prone to dry cider over sweet cider (though to each your own, don’t wanna yuck your yum). I’m very much looking forward to the raspberry brettanomyces cider Andy Hannas is bringing from Potter’s, and of course the ANXO ciders, hoppy and happy and dry as they are, are wonderful. As a person with diabetes, I often find ciders are superior to beer in a consumed-sugar-sense in that they contain far fewer (if any!) carbohydrates.
The draft list is as follows:
- ANXO Hopped
- ANXO Happy Trees
- Lost Boy Thunderbolt: Coffee
- Lost Boy Hopped Juicy
- Old Town Pearsecco
- Potter’s Raspberries & Brett
- Potter’s Creatures Among Us
Why is Mike talking about hops? You may be asking yourself. As I mentioned hops and apples share a history in that the earliest record of hops grown in DC come from a nursery, Peirce Mill, in Rock Creek, that grew and sold apple trees.
Additionally, as Churchkey will be pouring a cider with hops, it brings me to the question, “In what year were the first hops grown in Washington, DC?” I have found a key date in what we believe to be the first documented mention of planted hops in the District. The year was 1827, a time when lager beer likely didn’t exist in the humid climate of the Washington region.
In 1818, “Transparent Pale Ale and Porter” was bottled from the Georgetown and Philadelphia Breweries on Duke Street in Alexandria.
1827 was six years before the first documented image of a brewery in Washington was painted. To date, the first existing image of a brewery in DC is a painting by George Cook titled “City of Washington from Beyond the Navy Yard.”
A tremendous thanks to the Peirce Mill Catalog(ue) Collector Tim Makepeace, who takes care of apple trees at Peirce Mill. According to Friends of Peirce Mill “[i]n the 19th century, the Peirce family grew and sold fruit trees on their land near Rock Creek. As early as 1814, Isaac Peirce was advertising his nursery business in local newspapers, boasting of 20,000 fruit trees for sale.” We present to you images of the 1827 Peirce Orchard Catalog(ue) of fruit and ornamental trees and plants (and bulbous flower roots, and green-house plants, &c., cultivated at the Linnean Hill, Rock Creek).
In the catalog, hops were mentioned as “Hops, a fine variety” which variety were they? FINE! Listed under “VINES AND CREEPERS” they first appear.
And then again in “HERBACIOUS, MEDICINAL, AND CULINARY PLANTS” which also says they are “common hop, very fine” which seems humorous to the modern reader but it was an actual definition which hop growers, merchants, and brewers went by. A common hop might sell for $0.25 a pound whereas a fine might sell for $0.50 a pound, and a very fine lot of hops could go for $0.75 per pound.
If you cannot make it to Churchkey, seek out fine, dry ciders like Anxo, Lost Boy, Old Town, Potters, at your local beer and wine retailer. And buy Beth Demmon’s book, read her work, and sign up for her newsletter.
