John J. Kellys Traditional Irish Hard Cider

Brewed by Florida Beer Company
Style: Cider
Melbourne, Florida USA

Paid $1.49 for a 12-oz single at Whole Foods, Charlottesville. Pours clear ywllow gold with a tiny head. Grossly sweet aroma- but not overly strong. Flavor is not entirely bad, not as sweet as I would have thought, but it’s definitely not something I’m enjoying or would ever sample again.

Bottle-It looked like ginger ale to me, with an apple aroma that left quickly. The taste and palate was like an over bubbly, sugary wine. Vics 1.25

12oz bottle from a Beers of the World sampler. Its gotta make you wonder why something as obscure and offbeat as this would find its way into a sampler pack. These sampler packs just get more and more unrepresentative, filled with the cheapest leftovers they can find. A complete ripoff and way overpriced. The cider was an average ok drink. Yep, apple aroma and apple flavor… Soft, mild, fizzy, sweet, a little watery, and not at all offensive. I sure couldn’t drink more than a couple of these. In fact, I couldn’t drink more than a couple of any cider. But its not bad as a single for a change of pace. I have had worse. I have also had this on draft at The Pub, Jacksonville Beach FL. Pretty much the same on draft or in bottle. The brewery’s web page is down so maybe they got some problems.

Prickly Pears Gift Shop - Mexico Beach, Fl. - 12 oz bottle.Faint, pear juice-like appearance, slighlty murky, not much golden to it, no head. Brief artifical apple-like aroma. Has a club soda like taste to it with a touch of golden delicous apples, almost as if it was added later. Nothing else really jumps out, bland and boring. Spritzy mouthfeel. Medicocre at best.

Draft at Penny Lane. Smells like apples, typical appearance, maybe a bit on the lighter side of yellow. Quite sweet, standard apple flavors. Decent, no off flavors, but nothing to get worked up over.

Draft at the Indian River Brewing Company in Melbourne, FL. It had a small sized white head with fine-large sized bubbles that mostly dissipated. The body was softly carbonated and transparent. The nose reminded me of wine and the flavor was sweet, sour and wine tasting. The mouthfeel was bubbly and tingly and this was a light bodied beer with no lacing.

TheDM and Hotstuff vacation brew 63. This draft brew was enjoyed at the brewery in Melbourne Florida and served by Jack Owen the brewmaster. This brew poured a large head of mostly diminishing fine to medium sized white colored bubbles that left behind a transparent softly carbonated very weak uring yellow colored bidy and no lace. The aroma was of apple cider and the mouthfeel was tingly and bitter. It had a weak thin cider flavor.

I think only the second Irish cider I’ve had. This is substantially more sweet than Magners/Bulmers Original, but still leaves a bit to be desired.