Morton Arboretum Cider & Ale Festival 2016 Recap

CiderScene took a trip out to the beautiful Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL for a sunny and abnormally warm October afternoon.  Morton Arboretum, as described in our last event preview, is an expansive with various gardens, including woodlands and Illinois prairie.  I mean, look at those photos and that beautiful sun shining in!

Your typical nice touches were added such as bands, food from the vendors, and those beautiful food trucks, serving 800+ people.  Of course, the main attraction was the cider and ale on pour for all the thirsty guests.  I have to admit the selection was much larger than I first suspected.  I have listed some of the cideries at the bottom of the article. While we’ve been able to taste quite a few of these ciders before, I will pick a few that stood out.

The usual suspects like Citizen Cider had Dirty Mayor and Unified Press, which are always a tasty favorite of ours.  2 Towns Cider had Made Marion which is made with Marion berries and Imperial Hard Apple Cider — always a nice change up from the other sweeter ciders at the event.  Sonoma had a bourbon cider which was very intense and great for a cider drinker not much in love with sugar, warranting and pleading for a depth of flavor.  A nice twist was an infusions tent which featured ciders mixed with peaches and mixed berries, not a typical sampling space of similar events.  After you get your buzz going, you were able to walk around the entire grounds at your leisure — an added bonus as it typically costs money to enter.  All in all, the Cider & Ale Fest is a nice draw for a fall event in the Chicagoland area and I expect it will grow year over year. And, between you & me (shhhhh!), this may be the most premier space we’ve been in thus far.

Cideries that attended:  Ace Cider, Angry Orchard, Anthem Cider, B Nektar, Cider Boys, Crispin, JK Scrumpy’s. McKenzies, Original Sin, Sonoma Cider, Uncle johns, Vander Mill, Virtue, Wanderig Aengus, and Woodchuck.