Name – Crispin Artisanal Reserve The Saint
Country – United States
Type – Cider

As promised I’m back with another cider review.  This along with yesterday’s Lansdowne were given to me by good ol Ed Roberts.

This one is The Saint from Crispin’s Artisanal Reserve series.  It states to have maple syrup and a trappist yeast used on it.  Ed tells me for legal purposes they can not disclose which trappist brewery they got the yeast from.  Okay we’ll leave it at that….for now!  Let’s just jump head first in why don’t we.

It pours an extremely cloud pale yellow color.  As I was pouring it looked a lot like lemonade until more particulate came into the glass.  Now it looks a lot like maybe fresh squeezed white grapefruit juice.  Super thin white head is gone quickly.

The nose is for the most part apples and pears.  But I get a bit of lemon in there as well as an ever so slight hint of maple syrup.

The taste is really the same.  Apples, pears, lemon and a bit of maple syrup.  It finishes very crisp and clean.  Extremely easy to drink for a 6.9% cider.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this may very well be my favorite cider I’ve ever had.  And since their arrival I have really enjoyed a lot of Crispin’s line but this is just great.  Before I knew it I was through the entire 22 oz bomber.  Usually doing that is not difficult at all but this was gone way quicker than normal.

Again as I mentioned in my review of Lansdowne this bottle is not available in South Florida, yet.  With that I make a plea out to Gold Coast Beverages.  Please bring in The Saint.  You have done a great job of bringing Crispin down in the first place and you are pushing them pretty good.  I saw Crispin/Fox Barrel products all over Key West.  Now just bring in these Artisanl Reserves, other than Honey Crisp which is here, and I will be a happy man.

So be on the lookout and maybe we will get it soon South Florida.  To those of you that get Crispin in other areas and if you have never tried this one, do yourself a favor and do it.

Grade – A

Name – Crispin Artisanal Reserve Lansdowne
Country – United States
Type – Cider

Here is a little fun fact that many of you may not know.  MikeLovesBeer is also Mike loves ciders.  For quite awhile I have enjoyed a number of ciders but in my over 3 years of blogging I have only review ever reviewed one other cider.  Not exactly sure why I haven’t but it’s not because of a lack of drinking them I can tell you.

So over the weekend my good friend Ed “The Sexiest Man in Craft Beer” Roberts provided me with a couple ciders from Crispin Cider Company that we don’t get down here as of yet.  He really wanted to see what I thought of them so what better time than now to review them for the site.

Today I will be doing the review for their Artisanal Reserve Lansdowne.  The label says that this is made using molasses and and Irish Dry Stout yeast (I wonder who’s).  Ed told me at a recent cider class he taught that this beer was really enjoyed by many.  The label also says server ice cold or over ice.  For picture purposes I opted against the ice, but I’m not opposed to it.

It pours into my nonic pint a very cloudy copper or amber color.  There is absolutely no head at all and that’s kind of to be expected.

The nose is pretty standard in my opinion for a cider.  Lots of scents of apples and freshly peeled skins in there.  I can pick up a bit of molasses but it doesn’t jump out at you.

The taste obviously contains apples with some hints of molasses and brown sugar.  Would seem fit for the fall season if it weren’t still so freaking hot here in Florida.

I wouldn’t say I picked up really any character specific to using the Irish Dry Stout yeast in it.  It seemed like a pretty standard cider with some sweet notes of brown sugar and molasses added to them.  I think Ed built it up a bit in my head and I went in expecting something completely different than I maybe should have.

But tomorrow I will be back reviewing the second bottle that Ed provided me and that is the Artisanal Reserve The Saint from Crispin as well.

Grade – B-