I sure hope you’re a loyal listener to Cincy Brewcast… after all, it’s the easiest way to get your local beer news from the brewers, the owners, and the drinkers of our local breweries straight from their mouths. I certainly also hope that you frequent other beer blogs around town to supplement what you might read here with more information – especially Raging Hop.
I suppose that it might be possible that you don’t do either one of these things though, and have missed out on the big cider news. (We talked about it back on episode 21 and Raging Hop gave it a great write up too) If you did miss out – let’s talk.
The Cider Game
So… why? Well, lucky you – of course we asked Lindsay Roeper that exact question when we cornered her for the Brewcast last time.
Something that’s very important to us is that we really truly have a beer and a beverage for all people, and we have a very diverse portfolio but one thing that was missing was you know… of course we’d love to offer a cider – but put a Rivertown spin on it.
She went on to explain that it wasn’t like they were going to start going crazy and make all sorts of ciders – but they wanted one to fill up an empty hole in their portfolio.
I Think they also didn’t just want to duplicate most of the ciders on the market, they really wanted to give this a distinctive “Rivertown Spin” that made the product all their own.
And Tequilana was born.
All About Tequilana
Tequilana is the name of the cider, and it’s also part of the scientific name of Blue Agave.
When they started working on the cider, they reached out to an artist in Florida that they found online, named Laura Bradford who creates some really fantastic stuff out of wood (look her up here) – she created the design that you see above – this design became Tequilana herself, and the cider has seemingly started to take on the personality of this “person”.
The liquid itself is made from Agave and a proprietary apple blend, giving it (according to the brewery) a refreshing, sparkling body with just a hint of tequila and apples to keep it approachable. It comes in at 6% ABV…and beyond that, you’ll have to wait until I get my hands on some to tell you more. (On that note… you should probably be following me on Periscope @TheGnarlyGnome for first dibs at those tasting notes)
If you’re not happy with just hearing me talk about it – which you shouldn’t be happy with just that, go ahead and mark your calendar for October 18th, that’s a Tuesday. I’ll have more details as they become available, but that’s the date for Rivertown’s Tequilana ‘Tappening’ in their Lockland taproom.
After that… well, this year round release will be making her way to tap handles and shelves of your favorite bottle shops all around town, so you have no excuse not to down a few pints, maybe a six pack or two of this. During the fall weather, I really can’t imagine an Agave Apple cider won’t taste absolutely dreamy.