It was yet another scorcher of a day for a beer festival but this time the focus was on cider and the many, many variants of cider that are being made. Most of which, I simply was not aware of until I wandered through the many booths at the L.A. Cider Fest.
I was really impressed by the Maryland ciders from Millstone. Both the peach cobbler and the Hopvine ciders had really light touches to them that allowed the cider to stay center stage. I also was intrigued by smoked ciders from Alpenfire and Tilted Shed. Neither would rank as a favorite to my palate but they were well made. In my effort to touch upon multiple styles, I also tried a couple cider cocktails. Ginger Cider and gin worked like a charm. The porter and cider, did not which was no fault of the Jackie Tar from MacLeod’s that was excellent.
Overall, the selection was great. I did notice that some ciders that were on the website didn’t seem to be pouring (same went for breweries). There was also a couple issues that can be tweaked to make the next installment better. Starting outside, there needed to be signage telling people where to stand and line-up. Especially since there was another line for Let’s Make a Deal. There was also a bit of a traffic snarl at the entrance because tables were set-up right next to the glass hand-off section which just created a bottleneck that you had to punch through. Other than that, the organizers used the stage space well and made efforts to mitigate the heat. (Great to have an ice cream vendor on site!) I would suggest adding this to your festival year. Just do the night session instead.