It has been a while since I have posted here, with too much work going on at the day job, taking some of the starch out of my writing impulse. Fortunately, my hard cider journey has fared better than the writing, with continuing production across recent vintages, and with consistent, encouraging, and growing success.

In fact, at the 47^th Annual Upstate New York Homebrew Association (UNYHA) Competition in Rochester, NY this past September, not only did I run the table in the cider category, taking the first, second and third place (!), but I also won Best of Show – Mead/Cider, and took third place overall for Best of Show, making it a top three winner among 248 total (mostly beer) entries! This heady outcome represents a clear crescendo in my now decade-long cider adventure, driven by my “Ida-Hop-Twig” creation, a dry-hopped (hop infused) cider made from a 50/50 blend of Black Twig and Ida Red apples (from Montgomery Place Orchards) that just killed it with the judges, winning the Best of Show accolades. My other two winning entries were not shabby, either: one was a spritely, early harvest blend of 65% of my own Empire apples, 30% Jonathan and 5% Ashmead’s Kernel (“Jonpire”), and the other, a later-harvest mostly (60%) Black Twig bottling, along with 30% Ida Red and 10% Golden Russet (“The Big Twig”). 

I got hops 

Well, not so much on the basketball court, despite having had a mean jump shot back in the day as a (non-dunking) shooting guard. 

But as a keen and long-time observer of the Hudson Valley cider scene, I noticed in 2016 that hopped cider had become a thing among the local cideries – and in the US writ large — which inspired this post (“Hopping up Hudson Valley Cider”), planting a seed that this ingredient option could be a worthy experiment in my own cider-making. Fast forward to the pandemic, during which the main source of my numerous cider awards, the Hudson Valley Homebrew Competition (HVHC), completely shut down. Beyond the colorful ribbons, however, which are certainly nice, entering such competitions gives valuable professional feedback from trained judges on one’s creations, a constructive criticism that can lead to real improvement in the craft. I missed this greatly, and because the HVHC went AWOL for a while, I sought out a new venue in 2023, landing on the UNYHA competition. I submitted two entries, one being from the 2021 vintage, a part of my Hudson Valley Antiques series, which took a third-place ribbon. In addition to the colorful accolade, the UNYHA also provided some sponsor prizes for the winners, like packets of yeast nutrients or, in this case, a small package of hops.

Enter Contessa

A one-ounce packet of Contessa hops (produced by Hopsteiner) was part of my winning swag, a new strain of hops from a cross of Fuggle and a Cascade male. With an aroma profile attractively described as “green tea, floral and light pear”, Contessa did not sound – or smell — like an in-your-face hops of a craft IPA. I took it as a sign from the universe that I should make a dry-hopped cider. 

In the ensuing vintage (2023), I embarked on a one-gallon experiment with the Contessa. It was around Thanksgiving, so I made a base cider of mostly Black Twig, a big-flavored late-harvest apple, along with some tart Ida Red, thinking that such a cider could stand up to and blend well with the hops. I also aimed not to overly hop the cider, choosing to infuse it with a small dose of Contessa after racking the cider into the secondary fermentation vessel, for a short duration (six days). The initial result at bottling was encouraging, a nice balance between the hop aroma and flavors and the apple character of the base. I then added some priming sugar to make the cider sparkling and let it evolve in the cellar until July. The result (“Hop-Twig”) was quite inspiring, a balanced potation, with grapefruit and green tea notes, good energy and Black Twig’s telling apple character. It was an easy decision to send it to the (finally) reconstituted HVHC competition in September 2024, where I duly won a second-place award in the Cider category. Not bad for an experiment!

Hop again

The 2024 vintage kicked off fortuitously with a quality (and copious) September harvest from my own Empire apple trees – a rare occurrence in recent years — putting me in high production mode early on.

Empire Beauty

In fact, over that fall season, I produced seven different cuvees. The seventh one was essentially made from leftover apples, which happened (again) to be the same ones from the 2023 Hop-Twig – Black Twig and Ida Red, this time in equal measure. So, still having some Contessa hops leftover, I repeated the “dry-hopping process”, creating the above-described and highly drinkable “Ida-Hop-Twig”.  By my own estimation, I had done quality work across the seven different bottlings, creating some competition for which ciders would go to the contest. In the end, Ida-Hop-Twig made the cut, and because the HVHC competition again fell through in September 2025, the decision to go to the UNYHA in Rochester was a no-brainer. 

And the rest, as they say, is history. Along with the high numerical scores for my Ida-Hop-Twig (and the other ciders), the notes from the UNYHA judges spoke volumes: “Well balanced hop aroma that mixes well with the apple”; “I have judged hopped cider before, and it can be harsh – this is just right”; “Excellent balance of sweetness, tannins and bitterness”; and “I really enjoyed drinking this – excellent job!”.  

Making interesting, drinkable ciders from antique apple varieties sourced in the Hudson Valley remains the guiding principle for my pomaceous efforts, including the 2025 batches I have fermenting in my cellar right now, a couple of which might bring some additional new hardware to my expanding collection. Salut!