Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight And A Movie: Ad Astra
The film Ad Astra is set in the “near future: a time of both hope and conflict.” Brad Pitt plays Major Roy McBride, an astronaut and scientist working on the international space antenna. After a series of unexplained electrical surges nearly takes his life, top government officials confide in him that similar surges in the future may threaten all life on Earth. The surges seem to be caused by an uncontrolled release of antimatter originating from the remains of a mission to Neptune. That expedition, which was tasked with searching for signs of intelligent life, was presumed lost more than a decade ago. And it was piloted by Roy’s father, Clifford. Pitt travels into space to track down his renegade father, whose experiments may threaten the underpinnings of life itself. The Blue Mouse Theatre screens it at 7 p.m. We suggest you stop by Peaks and Pints for a flight of cider before or after Pitt’s battles with space pirates and daddy issues.
Eric Bordelet Sidre Tendre
3.5% ABV
During the 1980s, Eric Bordelet was considered one of the most influential figures in the Parisian wine scene, as he spent several years at the helm of the wine program at the illustrious Michelin Three Star restaurant of l’Arpège in Paris. However, his native Normandy called him, and he handed over his sommelier duties at l’Arpège and returned to the windswept orchards of Normandy in 1992, desiring to bring his superb palate to bear on the high-powered ciders of the region. Believing that cider and poiré, or perry as it translates to English, should be produced like wine he grew more than 20 varieties of apple and 15 varieties of pear on his family orchard situated in the south of Normandy on the Armorican Massif, extending from Domfrontais to the outermost borders of the Mayenne and the Orne. His Sidre Tendre is an apple cider made in a gently off-dry sparkling style, with racy acidity giving the wine an almost dry impression. Expect notes of concentrated red apple, apple skin, vanilla, honey and a light tartness.
Viuda de Angelon Apple Blossom Buzz
6% ABV
It all starts in the orchard, and there in the orchard each spring’s production begins with the bees. Viuda de Angelon gets the apples and the bees get the honey. Fran Ordonex steals a bit of honey from his hives to give Apple Blossom Buzz a scent of spring blossoms and just a hint of sweetness, adding just enough honey to the sidra for the aroma.
Double Mountain Dry Cider
6.7% ABV
Double Mountain Brewery had long toyed with releasing their own hard cider, occasionally featuring housemade cider on at the taproom made from owner Matt Swihart’s own apples. The brewery finally releases its own Dry Cider in December 2017, blending freshly harvested heirloom apples from Double Mountain Orchards and Hood River Newtowns, Braeburns, and Hanners for old world complexity. Double Mountain gave it plenty of time to dry out and develop the aromas of juicy pear, lychee, green fruit, and chamomile. It finishes tart, crisp, dry and quenching.
Seattle Cider Spiced Peach
6.5% ABV
Joel VandenBrink, the founder of Two Beers Brewing, launched the Seattle Cider Company in August 2013, with the help from his Two Beers sales rep and a former farm hand Eric Willard. VandenBrink didn’t launch with six to 10 products, common with start-up craft breweries. He didn’t launch with experimental pineapple cider or pomegranate cider. No, VandenBrink, Willard, up-and-coming cider savant Brent Miles and the Seattle Cider crew — with natural support from the Two Beers crew too — hit the market with two, solid ciders, Dry and Semi Sweet. Today, of course, Seattle Cider offers all the flavors, including Spiced Peach fermented with cardamom and peach.
Sea Cider Wolf In The Woods
9.9% ABV
Sea Cider is a farm-based cidery located on the Saanich Peninsula just minutes from Victoria, on Vancouver Island. In 2007, Kristen Jordan purchased the property with a vision of creating an organic farm and orchard and producing traditional fermented artisan ciders. Today, the 10-acre farm is home to more than 1,300 apple trees, made up of over 50 varieties of heritage apples. Botanically infused with hops and grand fir needles, Wolf in the Woods is a hard apple cider with a timberland twist. This unique union creates a dry cider that leads with grapefruit aromas and finishes with hopped herbal notes.
