Texas Keeper Cider Sampling at Jester King This Weekend!

This Saturday, January 24th at 1pm at our tasting room, we’re excited to be joined by Nick Doughty, Lindsey Peebles, and Brandon Wilde of Texas Keeper Cider! They will be sampling four of their excellent ciders (descriptions below) next to our bottles to go station. Two of the ciders — 2013 Golden Russet and Ciderweizen — are new releases.

We’ve had Texas Keeper Cider on our menu for several months now, and we’ve been most impressed by its complexity and elegance, as well as its makers’ commitment to subtlety and restraint. Please say hello to them if you’re headed our way Saturday, and enjoy tasting their cider!

The following four ciders from Texas Keeper Cider will be available to sample, purchase by the glass, and/or purchase to go by the bottle:



Texas Keeper No. 1
Texas Keeper No. 1 is a blend of five apples fermented individually and blended to craft a well-balanced, dry cider with notes of peach, pear, tropical fruit, light green apple, and a crisp lingering acidity. We fermented the apple varieties in small lots (~300 gallons) on heavy lees to increase fermentation nutrition and add complexity. We tried our hardest to keep the ferments cool during fermentation with temperatures peaking at 62ºF. This cool, long fermentation helped preserve delicate fruit esters. No oak was used in the 2013 No. 1. – we wanted to present the delicacy of the fruit. The ferments for No.1 were racked off heavy lees following fermentation and aged for four months on light lees with occasional batonnage. We allowed the lots to go through spontaneous malolactic fermentation, which helped soften and broaden the palate of the end blend. The cider is unfiltered in order to keep as much of the complexity intact. We felt a light carbonation best suited Texas Keeper No. 1. It is our example of what we feel great cider should taste like. Residual Sugar: 11.5 g/L

2013 Golden Russet
Golden Russets are one of the classic American cider apples, probably originating in New York before 1800. This single fermenter of Golden Russet was a rarity, in that it produced a perfectly balanced cider when finished completely dry. We used a specific white wine yeast to highlight the lush fruit notes of ripe Golden Russet. We aged the cider for 7 months in tank and another two months in bottle. The cider is unfiltered and finished with a slight effervescence. Our 2013 Golden Russet carries notes of honeysuckle, ripe pear, peach, tamarind, guava, and a hint of passionfruit. Residual Sugar: nil

2013 Gold Rush
Its lemon-lime zing popped when we were tasting the apples as they came through the press. Most of the time fruit character undergoes big transformations during fermentation, but this batch of GoldRush just mellowed into grapefruit and Myer lemon, with a hint of blue cheese. Lingering notes of watermelon and citrus on the finish. We aged the cider on light lees to enhance mouthfeel and add complexity and finished it unfiltered and effervescent. We kept the sugar slightly higher to balance out the GoldRush’s natural acidity. Residual Sugar: 16 g/L

Ciderweizen
Our goal with the Ciderweizen was to marry the underlying pear and green apple notes from the Crispin and lemon-grapefruit of the Goldrush apples to the floral and spicied notes of old world Wit Beers and German style Hefeweizens. We dry hopped and spiced the Ciderweizen with that plan in mind. Ciderweizen is unfiltered, finished with a lively effervescence, and naturally gluten free. Notes of lemon, pear, coriander, cloves, hallertau hops with lingering orange peel on the finish. Residual Sugar: 3.5 g/L.