Hills Cider Company recently released its Hop Edition cider in bottles for the first time, following a few small batch releases in keg.

The eight per cent ABV Hop Edition cider is made with 100 per cent fresh Adelaide Hills apples and a blend of Cascade, Chinook, Summer, Citra and Galaxy Hops.

“This creative fusion displays upfront pineapple, citrus and tropical fruit aromatics, with subtle apricot, melon, pink grapefruit and citrus flavours,” Hills Cider’s Steve Dorman told Australian Brews News.

“The astringency of the hops balances the sweetness of the fresh apples, to create a fresh, crisp and fruit driven cider.”

Dorman said Hop Edition’s bottled debut follows an overwhelming response to the keg releases.

“Combined with the ever growing popularity of hopped cider styles in the US, and an increasingly educated craft beer and cider market here in Australia, we thought this would be a very exciting addition to the Australian craft cider category,” he said.

Hills Cider co-founder and cider maker, Steve Dorman

To create Hop Edition, Dorman called on the brewing expertise of Ewan Brereton, co-founder of Adelaide’s Mismatch Brewing, which has investors in common with Hills Cider.

“He’s brilliant at his trade – we were absolutely blown away by what resulted,” said Dorman.

“You get the best of both worlds of experiencing an IPA beer but with the tenderness and rounding out of an apple cider on the back palate.

“The benefit of that is having a gluten free IPA experience,” hesaid.

Hop Edition is available nationally in independent craft liquor stores.