Monday, February 3rd, 2025

Peaks and Pints Monday Incline Cider Flight: Climb For Clean Air

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The American Lung Association’s Climb for Clean Air is an exclusive mountaineering training and fundraising program designed to give you the training, technical support, and guide services you need to summit Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Whitney, and Orizaba & Ixtaccihuatl in Mexico while raising money to fight for cleaner air standards and fund life-saving research. Peaks & Pints will host a Climb for Clean Air 2025 Info Session before the climbing season from 6-7 p.m. tonight in our Events Room. Chances are you know someone who has faced the challenges of asthma, COPD, lung cancer, or air pollution. As a Climb For Clean Air participant, you’ll be helping the American Lung Association provide community-based education programs, fight for cleaner air standards, fund life-saving research — and have an adventure of a lifetime with fun people. Seriously, it’s freakin’ fun. In conjunction, let’s drink an in-house flight of outdoor-themed Incline Cider, a flight we call Peaks and Pints Monday Incline Cider Flight: Climb For Clean Air.

The biggest question in the hard cider world is How the Zehner family finds time to make delicious cider. The social media accounts of Incline co-owners Jordan and Lesley Zehner are filled with mountain hikes and marathon training. Yet, with help from Jordan’s parents and co-owners, Chris and Teresa, Incline continues to make delicious cider and fill their taproom with what seems like a party daily. Since 2015, the Zehner family has made delicious, crushable cider, many from a dry-hopped apple base to pull out citrus aromas. The Auburn-based cidery with a popular Tacoma taproom uses 100 percent fresh pressed apples, no added sugar, and no carbonated water, and the result is balanced ciders, not too sweet and super flavorful.

Peaks and Pints Monday Incline Cider Flight: Climb For Clean Air

Incline Blood Orange

6.5% ABV

“If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing a blood orange, I highly recommend it,” says former Peaks & Pints bartender Nicole Allen. “As the name suggests, blood oranges are red in color, sometimes in splotches on the outside but definitely on the inside. The concentration of red inside depends on the type of orange and its growing conditions. Squeezing them is when you truly understand where the “blood” reference comes from: the juice resembles the ruby red of a cranberry instead of the yellowish tone of orange juice. I’m a fan of Incline Cider. Their Blood Orange cider tastes like juicy blood orange plus citrus notes with a touch of tart.”

Incline White Peach

6.9% ABV

From the outside, yellow and white peaches are distinguished by their skin color — deep yellow with a red or pink blush for the former versus pale and pink for the latter. Inside, the golden flesh of the yellow peach is more acidic, with a tartness that mellows as the peach ripens and softens. White-fleshed peaches are lower in acid and taste sweet, whether firm or soft. White peaches were also more delicate and easily bruised, which kept them from being sold in most stores until the 1980s when hardier varieties were developed. According to Russ Parsons in How to Pick a Peach, older varieties of white peaches (and nectarines) had a bit of tang to balance the sugar, but the ones sold today are more uniformly sweet. Incline’s White Peach is sweet, indeed, but not too sweet. The peach flavor does shine, though.

Incline Prickly Pear

6.9% ABV

Prickly pears are the fruit of the nopalito cactus, whose paddle-shaped stems are also eaten as nopales. These cacti are found throughout the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico. While their protective spines make them quite unpleasant to bare skin, this cactus fruit yields mild, sweet, and refreshing juice. Incline’s Prickly Pear offers tropical aromas and a vibrant fuchsia color accent the unique characteristics of the cactus fruit. It’s earthy, bright, and semi-dry.

Incline Cider Basecamp Proctor

6.9% ABV

Introducing Basecamp Proctor — the new Peaks & Pints house cider crafted by local cidery Incline Cider. We tapped Basecamp Proctor at our 8th Anniversary Party on Nov. 1, and it will remain on Tap #7 for a full year. Made with an iconic blend of their favorite Pacific Northwest-grown apples — Fuji, Gala, Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, and Braeburn — Basecamp Proctor packs layers of bold, juicy apple flavor into every pint. It’s dry, bright, and refreshing.

Incline Imperial The Tropics

8.4% ABV

POG is a drink made up of passionfruit, orange, and guava juices (hence POG). The story goes it was created in 1971 by the now-defunct Haleakalā Dairy on Maui. Passionfruit, known in Hawaii as lilikoi, hails from South America, and yellow passion fruit is thought to have been introduced in the 1920s. Guava likewise comes from Central and South America. Still, it thrives in the Hawaiian islands’ temperate climate, and one variety, strawberry guava, is now recognized as one of the biggest invasive tree species. Native to Asia, oranges were introduced to the islands in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver. Incline’s Imperial The Tropics, ITT, recreates the classic combination of passionfruit, orange, and guava, packing a punch at 8.4 percent.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory