Furthermore Fallen Apple - Beer of the Week

by Joshua M. Bernstein, Posted Oct 25th 2010 @ 5:00PM

Fresh-pressed, hard apple cider is a seasonal treat as tart and sparkling as Champagne -- it's one of my fall favorites. October becomes a time of tough choices between hard cider and craft beer.

Thanks to Wisconsin's Furthermore Beer, I can sip the best of both worlds. While the brewery is no stranger to strange styles of beer (the Knot Stock pale ale is spiced with black pepper, and the Three Feet Deep stout contains peat-smoked malt), brewer and owner Aran Madden outdoes himself with his autumn specialty, Fallen Apple.

When early harvest apples are plucked, Madden heads to Wisconsin's Kickapoo Orchard and sources fresh-pressed cider. Back at the brewery, he creates a batch of his cream ale, made with lactose (milk sugar) and cream sugar, which adds a smidge of sweetness. Then he blends the two liquids together (40 percent cider, 60 percent ale), ferments them and releases the result as Fallen Apple.

"The response has been great, but it took a while for the response to be great," Madden says, laughing. "I've read reviews where the person's like, 'This tastes like beer with Mott's apple juice in it.' But I think the process we have is so elegant, right down to visiting the orchard."

The first time Madden made Fallen Apple, "it had a laser tartness," he explains. To diffuse that, he adjusted the levels of cream sugar, resulting in this revelation. Fallen pours a clear, effervescent gold, like the offspring of champagne and apple juice. The scent of green apples and biscuits leads to a sweet, rounded tartness on the tongue, before finishing dry and lip-smacking.

This is the Fallen Apple of my eye -- and my tastebuds too.

Joshua M. Bernstein has written about brews, bars and booze for New York Magazine, Time Out New York, Imbibe Magazine and The New York Times. His beer book, Brewed Awakening, will be published by Sterling in 2011. Follow him on Twitter @JoshMBernstein.

Filed Under: Drinks
Tags: beer, cider, hard cider, seasonal beers

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-25-2010 @7:39PM Dan said... sounds delicious.
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10-26-2010 @9:23PM Erin said... It's one of my favorites both from them and in general. We had it at our wedding to everyone's delight. It's something I look forward to every autumn.
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