Tap Handle #777: Stormalong Cider

May 27, 2021

Tap Handle #777: Stormalong Cider

Tap size: 11"

Rarity: less than 10 seen

Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

Stormalong's incredible tap is a depiction of the character which the brewery is named after, legendary Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. This character is a mythical Massachusetts sea captain who was 30 feet tall and would drink cider out of a barrel in one large swig. The tap shows him wrestling with his lifelong adversary, a Kraken. Both of them battle amidst a spray of water; Captain Stormalong bears a sailor's coat, sailor's cap, and a pipe in his mouth, while the Kraken has enveloped the Captain in its tentacles. Produced by Steel City Tap Company, the detail is exquisite, and the bronze finish gives it the appearance of a statue. The brewery's name appears in raised letters at the base on the front and back. A circular signage area on each side allows a place for a label; by default there is a blue and white image of Captain Stormalong. One of my favorite new taps, it has only recently been produced, and to my knowledge, has not been seen on the secondary market.

Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was an American folk hero and the subject of numerous nautical-themed tall tales originating in Massachusetts. Stormalong was said to be a sailor and a giant, some 30 feet tall; he was the master of a huge clipper ship known in various sources as either the Courser or the Tuscarora, a ship purportedly so tall that it had hinged masts to avoid catching on the Moon. The tall tales about Stormalong first appeared in the 1930 book Here's Audacity! by Frank Shay. More tales appeared in the 1933 pamphlet Old Stormalong Yarns by C.E. Brown. New England was where he was beached as a baby, already three fathoms (18 ft) tall. According to one telling, he outgrew Cape Cod and moved to Boston, where he signed aboard the first ship that would take him at the age of twelve. He had a lifelong rivalry with a Kraken, a huge sea monster from Norse myth; in fact, the Kraken escaped from him in their first encounter, causing a dejected Stormalong to abandon the sea life for life as a farmer somewhere in the Midwest. Some sources say he had a ship so large that a stable of Arabian horses were aboard for his crew to get from one end of the ship to the other. Among Alfred's exploits was drilling the course of the Panama Canal by slamming into the Panamanian coast; also, his ship stuck in the English Channel, which required the crew to grease the ship's hull with soap. The soap combined with the scraping of the hull against the Gray Cliffs of Dover turned them bright white. As Stormalong grew older, he eventually encountered the Kraken again, this time successfully drawing the beast into a whirlpool from which it never escaped. There are 3 different accounts of the Captain's death: winning a race crossing the Atlantic Ocean that proved to be too stressful; lost into a hurricane near Florida; and overeating by having a breakfast of 6 sharks.

Captain Stormalong information courtesy of Wikipedia.

Stormalong Cider was founded in Sherborn, Massachusetts in 2014 by Shannon Edgar. After 16 years in the music industry, Edgar was looking for a simpler life. A new England native, he and his family left Los Angeles and moved to a 5 acre farm in Sherborn. He had intended to continue music industry work remotely from the farm, until he discovered local ciders and found out that he lived next to the ruins of The Holbrook Cider Mill, the country’s largest cider mill prior to Prohibition. He began playing with the apple press that had been left behind by the property’s previous owners, and planted almost 500 young trees on his property. He also reached out to winemakers on the West Coast to talk about yeast strains and malolactic fermentation, and began producing ciders. He started tasting more and more products from all over the world, and started playing with cider apples varieties, concluding that this was something that he might be able to turn into a sustainable business. Edgar began to lease more real estate for further plantings, and scoured the region for the more coveted apple varieties.

He chose the name Stormalong for his new endeavor, in reference to the tall-tale of Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, who was a larger-than-life figure, over 30 feet tall, originating out of New England and heralded as the greatest deep-water sailor to have ever lived. In 2015 Edgar took two ciders - a tart blend and also a dry-hopped variety fermented with whole cone Citra hops - to the Great Lakes Cider & Perry Competition (GLINTCAP), where he won a silver medal. After returning home, Edgar decided not to go through the often painful process of applying for a pouring permit; instead, he partnered with the owners of The Sherborn Inn, which had a gastropub and fine dining restaurant called Heritage of Sherborn. The Heritage kept at least four Stormalong ciders on tap, several of which were limited-run offerings, like its whiskey barrel-aged cider, as well as a number of single-varietal selections. The 16th century building also housed a retail area where customers were able to purchase sample flights, bottled ciders, and Stormalong swag.

By 2017 Stormalong had expanded its production to nearby Leominster, opening a manufacturing facility inside the New England Apple Products building. Before expanding to Leominster, Stormalong produced about 500 barrels a year; after the expansion, they had the capability to brew up to 5,000 barrels per year. They were producing 3 core ciders year round. In 2019, Stormalong partnered with Blue Hills Orchard of Wallingford, Connecticut on an unfiltered hard cider as part of Stormalong’s new Farmstand Series. Featuring the quintessential McIntosh variety blended with other New England favorites, this unfiltered hard cider is reminiscent of Blue Hills Orchard’s farmstand cider, which is pressed and sold at harvest. That same year, Stormalong partnered with Hartford Distributors and Dichello Distributors to make their core ciders available to bars, restaurants and retailers throughout Connecticut, as well as in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, California and Connecticut.

In 2020, Stormalong launched the Rare Apple Club, which focused on creating unique ciders based on (often rare) heirloom apple varieties. Club members received two shipments each year of new products and limited small-batch ciders as well as exclusive access to special offerings. Six ciders are currently part of Stormalong’s Rare Apple Series. Currently they produce 4 core varieties and 10 limited varieties. Stormalong has racked up several more awards over the years, including 10 medals at GLINTCAP, while their Red Skies at Night and Light of the Sun varieties both won Good Food Awards in 2019 and 2020.

Legendary Dry is Stormalong's flagship cider, an homage to America’s hard cider history and the larger-than-life Captain Stormalong. It is made with a unique blend of 15 different ‘bittersweet’ cider apples which impart a crisp and complex flavor, a tannic finish and ‘champagne-like’ character. Legendary Dry is a British-inspired cider with an American take and has less than 3 grams of sugar per can. It won a silver medal in the 2015 GLINTCAP competition, as well as bronze medals at the competition in 2016 and 2017.