Tap Handle #110: John J. Kelly's - Traditional Irish Hard Cider

I had to get this tap because it shares a name with my best friend Kelly, who was the driving force behind many of the early acquisitions in the collection. In case you were wondering, the tap is made to look like a sheleighle (an Irish walking stick).

John J. Kelly's was founded in 1997 by Brendan Daly from Dublin and John Cronin from Kerry. Hard cider is an ancient drink going back to the time of the Celts. Daly had made cider for several years prior to founding John J. Kelly's. His idea was to produce the cider in bulk and ship it to the U.S. to be bottled. Hard cider at one time was more popular than beer in the U.S. During Prohibition, production of hard cider ended and orchards of the bittersweet apples used for hard cider were chopped down. After Prohibition, beer became more popular thanks to lobbying efforts and the speed at which barley could be grown compared to trying to regrow orchards. In the 1990s, demand in the U.S. was taking off due to thousands of young Irish who immigrated to America in the 1980s. John J. Kelly's is bottled under license by the Florida Beer Company in Melbourne, Florida. A raspberry hard cider is also produced.

John J. Kelly's Traditional Irish Hard Cider is made with 4 different kinds of apples and is a crisp, light, dry cider. It won gold medals from the North America Brewers Association in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007, and a silver medal in 2011. Weighted average on ratebeer.com is 2.61 out of 5.

John J. Kelly's Official Website