Cider Riot! Releases Cidre du F.X. Matthieu

Cider Riot! has released the 2015 edition of Cidre du F.X. Matthieu, a cider that incorporates freshly picked hops from Pat Leavy’s Oregon Hophouse. The Oregon Tilth certified organic hops used in Cidre du F.X. Matthieu are X-17 hops that were kilned directly after the harvest. Cidre du F.X. Matthieu is a draft only release that is currently making its way to local bars.

Here’s more info from Cider Riot!’s press release:

Cidre de François Xavier Matthieu
AKA “the Boss of Butteville”
“The Boss,” F.X. Matthieu is fruity cider made with Leavy’s X-17 experimental hop, which lends its fruity tropical notes to the aroma and flavor. This cider is dedicated to F.X. Matthieu, a Québécois revolutionary, and one of the original founders of the Republic of Oregon at Champoeg in 1843. Matthieu went on to run the Butteville store. In 1979 Cider Riot!’s Izaak Butler was born in Butteville. Raise a glass to Oregon’s revolutionary tradition!

The Champoeg Series
A series of unfiltered dry ciders made with organically grown hops from Pat Leavy’s Oregon Hophouse outside of Butteville, near Champoeg Park in the Willamette Valley.
Pat Leavy’s grandfather began growing hops in the 1920’s near Champoeg, the site of the first organized government in the Oregon Country.

The first certified organic hop grower in Oregon, Pat Leavy began breeding his own hops, in order to develop varieties uniquely suited to organic agriculture in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. This January Cider Riot! featured a blind tasting of ciders made with two of Pat’s experimental hops at Bushwhacker Cider, X-17 was the hands down favorite, and was remade for the Craft Brewers Conference and Rev Nat’s Hopped Cider Fest.

In September, while Pat was harvesting this year’s crop, cidermakers Philip Rohner and Abram Goldman-Armstrong of Cider Riot! paid a call to the hop farm and Pat was kind enough to share some of his freshly kilned X-17 with them. The result is a new batch of Cidre de F.X. Matthieu redolent of tropical fruit notes with an undercurrent of spiciness and quenching finish.

About Cider Riot!:
A revolutionary Northeast Portland cidery dedicated to the production of flavorful dry ciders, Cider Riot! was founded in 2013, the 250th anniversary of the Cider Riots of the English West Country. Ciders from Cider Riot! may be found on draught and in bottle throughout the whole of the Oregon Country (including Washington and British Columbia), in Norway and Japan.

Oregon Hophouse:
The Oregon Hophouse offers certified organic hops grown on the Leavy Farm in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The farm is located 25 miles south of Portland near the historic town of Butteville. The farm has been in the Leavy family since 1912 and hops have been grown on the farm since the 1920s. http://theoregonhophouse.com/