By Greg B.  After sampling a previous cider, I was still in search of one of those classic crisp, apple ciders that has a nice sharp bite but a distinct apple flavor.  The Wine Source doesn’t have a very large section of ciders, but they exist, so I decided to check out that section while I was looking for some other beer.  Most of the apple ciders there were common or have been tried before, and I didn’t really care to sample them (I spared you, most are boring) but then I saw the Bouche Brut de Normandie… a Normandy cider!  I picked it up, hoping this was going to be the one I was looking for.  Turns out I was expecting too much.I chilled the cider and popped the cork.  Now, mind you this cider had been in my basement at 60F for about a week, then in the fridge for 2 days so it was not really jostled around and was well chilled.  But as I was popping the cork it quickly and easily blew itself out of the bottle and was followed by a large potion of the cider.  I swear the cork almost blew into the ceiling of my kitchen, and I easily lost half of the beer.  The beer pours (when you can pour it) a light orange/honey color with a HUGE head.  Unless you pour extremely carefully and with a ton of patience, this beer will constantly give you a large forthy head, more of a champagne style than a cider and way too much to really be enjoyable.  It recedes quickly, but the beer remains highly carbonated and bubbling furiously… basically, what I’m trying to say is it remains way too carbonated and this is not enjoyable.  However, it smells more authentic than the previous cider, with more of that classic crisp dry cider aroma.  However it also had a more yeasty component, that was more like the homemade cider I tried making every fall, but which frequently tends to suck.  The beer was a nice middle ground between some of the slightly sweeter English ciders and the really dry ciders I made at home, but the yeast, the extreme overcarbonation and the slightly odd, almost gueuze aromas hidden among the apple left me wanting more.  2.3/5, 6% abv.

*side note* While I gave this a rather poor rating, it is entirely possible that, due to improper storage at some point in this cider’s bottled life, the cider got too warm and the yeast got plenty active, munching on the residual sugars and leading to this over carbonation.  One reason the over carb is not welcome here, besides losing half a bottle upon opening it, is that it shakes up the sediment on the bottom of the bottle.  It’s not bad for you, but it alters the flavor and clarity of the beer.  I’d like to try this again, but I’d prefer a ‘fresher’ bottle, maybe something right off the boat and from a distributor, if possible.