What we eat and drink this time of year evokes memories more easily than what we consume in other seasons. This is the time of year we dust off crockpots and Dutch ovens for soups and stews, filled — at least right now — with the remaining harvests of our local farms. This is when we flock to orchards for fresh-picked apples, and when we scoop out globs of pumpkin seeds for roasting. We drop cinnamon sticks in hot cider, and warm up chocolate with piquant spices. We’re heartened that in these divided times, it seems like we can all at least agree on fall. The cool weather, the smell of crabapples on wet leaves redolent of schooldays past, warm spices baking in the oven, and delicious cider … who could argue with any of that? Peaks and Pints has rounded up five delicious hard ciders for this cloudy September day that we call Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: September Clouds.

Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: September Clouds

Portland Cider Pumpkin Spice

6% ABV

Oregonian Jeff and British Lydia launched Portland Cider Company in 2012 with the intent of marrying English cider traditions with the innovative Northwest micro-brewing culture.  It all started from a desire to make the clean, dry cider Lynda grew to love in England, and Jeff yearned to find in Oregon. With their Pumpkin Spice, they take the flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ginger and blend them for pumpkin pie flavor.

2 Towns Hollow Jack

6.4% ABV

In late 2010, Corvallis homebrewers Aaron Sarnoff-Wood and Lee Larsen filled a gap in the college town’s drinking scene — cider. The duo opened 2 Towns Ciderhouse crafting unique ciders brewed with the traditional English and French-style’s tannic apples, Oregon grown, of course. Their Hollow Jack kicks pumpkin-spiced lattes back into the patch. Made from A brew of fresh-pressed apples, caramelized pumpkins, sweet potatoes and finished with a dash of honey and spices, it’s basically fall in a glass. The pumpkin flavor isn’t overwhelming, which is enjoyable and not too sweet.

Seattle Cider Pumpkin Spice

6.9% ABV

We’ll tell you what we want, what we really really want: a cider spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, and a touch of pumpkin. Apple and pumpkin pair well, probably because both are complemented by these same spices and flavors. Seattle Cider’s Pumpkin Spice embodies fall in Washington state. This cider has a mild sweetness and is far less dry than most of Seattle Cider’s other offerings. Pouring it into a glass accentuates the subtle pumpkin aromas and coaxes earthiness out of the apple flavor.

Bauman’s Fresh Hopped Cider

6.9% ABV

In 1895, on the West Coast, between Salem and Portland, Bauman Farms was first homesteaded by Elizabeth Bauman and her teenage sons, Stephen and Leo. Stephen eventually married at the cider apples on their Gervais, Oregon, farm, with the barrels in their barn fermenting the goods into hard cider. When beer production arrived with German immigrants, cider’s popularity diminished. But it was 20th century Prohibition that ended most U.S. cider production, including Stephen Bauman’s operation. The Baumans turned to dessert apple growing. His great granddaughter, Christine Walter, armed with a degree in biochemistry from Lewis & Clark University, revived her great grandfather’s hard cider operation, taking advantage of the family farm history spanning five generations, her work ethic growing up on the farm and modern-day cidermaking methods. She opened Bauman’s Cider Company in 2016, honoring Stephen Bauman on the cider’s branding. Their Fresh Hopped Cider is made with their orchard apples plus fresh Centennial hops from Crosby Hops in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Fierce County Dew The Puyallup

7.4% ABV

Fierce County Cider has made a new cider for the Washington State Fair pouring during September in their South Hill tap house just in time for Puyallup’s oldest tradition and Washington’s biggest fair. Peaks & Pints scored a keg of their Dew the Puyallup, a honeydew-infused hard apple cider. You can dew it at a trot, You can dew it at a gallop, You can dew it real slow so your heart won’t palpitate. Just don’t be late. Dew the Puyallup.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory