Austin Weekend Cider Hopping

When people think of hard cider they usually think of New England or the PNW, not Texas! Austin, Texas is home to some great cider and cidery-hopping is a great way to spend a weekend here. 

#austin #cider #cidertasting #wineries #taprooms 

Day 1: Exploring Cideries in Austin 

Moontower Cider Company

The first time I tried Moontower Cider was at Austin Cider Week this in Fall 2019. Moontower was founded in 2017, and recently opened up a tasting room at their production site in late 2019. Moontower is named after Austin's historic moonlight towers, which provided light to neighborhoods across Austin from the 1890s to the 1960s. The few remaining moonlight towers in the world can be found in Austin, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places!

They have four classic favors available on draft (these are sold as cans at stores!):

• Semi Dry

• Pomme Blush

• Perry

• Miel

They also have a few rotating flavors on draft.

Fairweather Cider Company 

Fairweather Cider Company, located on Metric Blvd. near a ton of breweries, is known for their dry ciders packaged in bright, graphic cans.

Fairweather has several regular flavors:

• Common

• Tejano Dreams

• Hoppy Common

• Smell the Van

• Cydersport

Cydersport is a cider with made with grapefruit and electrolytes, which makes it the perfect summer cider. Another bonus: it’s lighter than most other ciders, with only 90 calories. With the temperature here in Austin already dancing between 90 and 100, Cydersport is a great cider to drink in the heat.

Day 2: Need an escape from the city? 

In addition to the great cideries located in the city, there are two worth driving a bit further out to visit. This is a great opportunity to see some of Texas Hill country too!

Texas Keeper Cider

I think Texas Keeper is one of Austin's best kept secrets. They offer a wide variety of small batch ciders, which tend to be a little on the drier side. They're perfect drinks for pairing with a nice cheese board or dinner. 

Hye Cider Company 

Head out about an hour and a half west of Austin to a small town called Hye to find this hidden gem. Hye Cider is one of a handful of cideries in the country to offer cysers, which is honey and apples fermented together to create a mead-like cider.