Craigie's Ballyhook Flyer Irish Cider - Beer of the Month

KRISTIN JENSEN, co-author of Slainte! The complete Guide To Irish Craft Beers and Ciders, celebrates autumn by introducing us to Craigie’s Ballyhook Flyer Irish Cider

ABOUT THE CIDER MAKER

Faced with a lack of vines in Ireland but an abundance of apples, what’s a specialist with twenty years’ experience in the industry and a diploma in wine-making to do? Making cider was the obvious choice for Simon Tyrrell, who teamed up with Angus Craigie in 2011 to produce their flagship cider, Ballyhook Flyer, on Angus’s farm in Co Wicklow.

Simon concentrates on the fermentation side of things while Angus looks after the processing and logistics end. Ralf Högger, Emma Tyrrell and Alan Garrioch round out the team at Craigies with their different skill sets, from wine tasting to marketing and plenty more.

Simon’s wife, Emma Tyrrell, also set up Cider Ireland, a group of craft cider producers.

Craigies added a second cider, Dalliance, made entirely from dessert apples, in 2014. Their cider is made with 100% Irish apples from five counties around the island.

ABOUT THE CIDER

Cider style: Medium-dry
ABV: 5.8%
Matches well with: Any kind of pork, apple desserts, roasted root vegetables, chicken, seafood

Just as you don’t expect wine to taste like grapes or beer to taste like barley, there is more to cider than just apples. A cider can of course taste appley, but it might only have the merest suggestion of apples.

Cider can also have flavours and aromas of citrus fruit, wine or even the characteristic smoky bacon flavour of a traditional dry English cider. Evaluating cider is very similar to the way you approach beer, with the same factors coming into play: appearance, aroma, taste and texture.

The Ballyhook Flyer is Craigies’s take on a Breton-style, dry sparkling cider. Medium-dry ciders like Ballyhook Flyer have more body and a smoother mouthfeel than a dry cider, with a little sweetness too for balance. This one is crisp and tart with a long finish, which makes it particularly well suited to drinking alongside food.

Like any cider, it matches beautifully with pork – Craigies recommends trying it with a slow-cooked pork belly or duck confit. Apple dessert is another intuitive match. Cider also matches well with chicken dishes, seafood and roasted root vegetables.

Hard cheese and cider are a classic pairing, but there are a lot more options to play with than just the usual Cheddar. Medium-dry ciders like Ballyhook Flyer go nicely with Camembert-style cheese like Cooleeney or Wicklow Baun, while the cider makers themselves recommend trying it with Durrus or Adrahan.

And, despite what certain marketing campaigns might lead you to believe, a good craft cider should not be served with ice. Cold kills flavour and the melting ice will dilute it, so it’s not the best way to appreciate a good drink. Cellar temperature is perfect for cider, though lightly chilled is fine too. Putting a bottle of cider in the fridge half an hour before you want to drink it should do the trick.

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Secretary of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild, Kristin Jensen is a freelance editor specialising in cookery and food books and has worked with many of Ireland's top food writers and chefs.  She writes the Edible Ireland blog and is a co-founder of the Irish Food Bloggers Association and, together with Caroline Hennessy, is joint author of Slainte! The complete Guide To Irish Craft Beers and Ciders .