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Cidermaking Philosphy

At Tall Ship Craft Cider we believe cider should be a refreshing beverage. Many commercial ciders are so packed with sugar, fruit juice, or concentrate that they might be better off served as pancake syrup. At Tall Ship we strive to make ciders that are enjoyable to drink pint after pint, without the cloying effects of sugar or the use of chemical preservatives such as sulfites or sorbates. We rely on the natural acids and tannins of the apples and other fruits to make balanced, nuanced ciders where the apple shines through. Our ciders are always vegan friendly and gluten free. We don’t believe in pasteurizing our ciders, as it can “cook” out the flavours we work so hard to create. As there is little to no residual sugar in our ciders we don’t have to worry about wildly refermenting cans, but do recommend that you store them cold for best character.

Our Apples

We work primarily with the high acid, low sugar dessert and culinary apples grown in Eastern Norway, which produce zesty crisp ciders. Dessert apples have been grown for eating fresh, while culinary apples have been grown for cooking and baking.  Our juice is pressed from apples from small farms and gardens throughout Vestfold and Telemark and Østfold. Varieties like Aroma, bred in Sweden, Summered bred in British Columbia, and even Discovery from Kent in England thrive in the area’s short but intense growing conditions. For variety we work with trusted suppliers in Hereford in the English West Country, a famous cider-apple producing county, to get juice from classic bittersweet cider varieites such as Yarlington Mill, Dabinett, Balls Bittersweet, and Ellis Bitter, as well as the revered bittersharp, Kingston Black. With these tannic cider apples we are able to craft distinctive and characterful ciders in the English cider tradition. If you think of dessert apple ciders as white wine, the English and French bittersweet apple based ciders are the cider world’s answer to red wines, and can be as rich and complex as any Bordeaux.

Our Fermentation Techinques

At Tall Ship we employ a variety of yeast strains, from both beer and wine. Our Flash series is fermented with Scottish Ale yeast for full round mouthfeel, while many of our Original series are fermented with various wine yeasts selected to bring out a certain element of that apple variety’s character. We also employ malolactic refermentation to achieve creamy rich character in some of our ciders. In malolactic refermentation, malic acid is converted into softer, rounder lactic acid. After fermentation in stainless steel, we will cold condition our ciders for several weeks or even months in stainless, or occasionally in barrels.

Cidermaker

Tall Ship Cidermaker Abram Goldman-Armstrong began his cider career planting traditional English bittersweet cider apple trees in his native Oregon at White Oak Cider in the early 1990s while in high school. White Oak was recognized by Slow Food for its traditional English farmhouse style dry ciders. Abram began homebrewing cider and beer at Macalester College in Minnesota in 1995, and has worked in the industry ever since, as a writer, beer judge, brewery tour guide, festival organizer, and cidermaker. He operated Cider Riot! in Portland Oregon from 2013-2019 winning numerous local and international awards for his ciders. Abram and moved to Norway to join the team at Fjordfolk and launch Tall Ship Craft Cider in March of 2020 where his characteristic take on dry refreshing ciders has been gaining fans throughout Norway.

Nautical Tattoos

Sailors wore their tattoos with pride, symbols of luck and as souveniours of visits to far off lands. At Tall Ship Craft Cider our labels celebrate the rich and colourful history of nautical tattooing. On each of our daily drinking ciders we celebrate one of the classic mariner’s tattoos. Each of these ciders tells the story of the tattoos that adorn the bodies of the jack tar sailors. In ports of call around the world tattooers plied their trade for the thirsty sailors ashore for recreation and relaxation, and many nautical tattoos became standards on “Flash” sheets displayed in tattoo shops from Sandefjord to Shanghai, Portland to Portsmouth, Hamburg to Hong Kong.

We believe in a creative approach to making cider in the fermentation cellar and celebrate that with our Original line. For our stronger and limited release ciders in the Original line we partner with different tattoo artists to create label unique art in the tradition of nautical tattooing.