A Door County hard cider maker wins multiple awards in national competitions

ELLISON BAY - A Door County-based hard cider maker recently won two platinum medals and two gold medals in two cider tasting competitions.

Island Orchard Cider was recognized with two platinum medals and one gold medal in the Cidercraft Awards and a gold medal in the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition, the world’s largest international hard cider competition. Those medals are among 11 awards Island Orchard earned in the 2024 hard cider competition season.

The Cidercraft Awards is a yearly competition where commercial hard cider entries are judged by a blind panel over the course of three days. It's sponsored by Cidercraft Magazine, the only national publication devoted to the industry.

In the Cidercraft competition, Island Orchard’s Pomona Cider won a platinum medal, the highest award given, in the Dessert/Fortified Cider category. To make Pomona, the cidery’s Brut Apple Cider is distilled into a brandy at Hatch Distilling in Egg Harbor. The resulting brandy then is aged for a year in repurposed bourbon barrels, which Island Orchard said in a press release results in "a sweet, still, 17% ABV pommeau featuring notes of apple, vanilla and brandy."

Island Orchard's second platinum in the Cidercraft Awards was in the Hopped Cider category for its Hopped Brut Apple Cider. The company described this cider in their press release as "an effervescent, semi-dry hard cider made from an apple cider base steeped in Door County-grown Cascade hops to add a citrusy, bitter kick to the cider."

Also in the Cidercraft competition, Island Orchard earned a gold medal for its Apple Cherry Cider in the Co-Ferments: Fruit/Stone Fruit category and was one of the Judges' Picks in the Wood Aged category for its Brut in a Barrel cider.

Sponsored by the Michigan Cider Association, the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition, or GLINTCAP, is held annually in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attracts more than 1,400 entries in commercial and noncommercial divisions from around the world.

At GLINTCAP, Island Orchard’s Apple Ginger Cider won a gold medal in the commercial producer division’s Botanical Cider category. Island Orchard produces this cider by pressing and fermenting apples, then steeping the resulting cider in freshly ground ginger root. The company said this produces a 6.9% ABV cider that is "semi-dry, spicy, medium-bodied with light astringency, effervescent."

Island Orchard Cider is a hard cider company with a taproom, bottle shop and production facility in Ellison Bay and the orchard for which the company is named on Washington Island, where they grow apples, pears and hazelnuts. Every fall, fruit is handpicked from the orchard and ferried across Lake Michigan’s Death’s Door to the production facility to be made into their award-winning ciders and cider vinegars. The ciders also are available from Island Orchard's website and in stores, pubs and restaurants across Wisconsin.

The tasting room and bottle shop is at 12040 Garrett Bay Road, Ellison Bay. For more information, call 920-854-3344 or visit islandorchardcider.com.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County cider maker wins multiple awards in national competitions