The Appley line is a series of cysers, which are meads made from apple cider and honey. Maniacal is proud to source its cider from an Emmet County, MI orchard. The apple trees of this orchard were planted in 1942 by Stanley Vorce and include some familiar varieties as well as some that have been phased out over the last century, including Northern Spy, Kirby Delicious, Russet, Baldwin, and Red Delicious. 

Patrick has been working on bringing back the apple trees from some decades of being left to the wild, including pruning a few that were over 70 feet tall. Each year we have gotten more cider from these trees, which has enabled Maniacal to increase Appley production. 2023 was an excellent apple crop year across Michigan, so you’ll see at least 8 Appley cysers in our 2024 releases.

Maple Appley 

Release fall 2024

13.5%

Mead Details-

This cider was pressed in the 3rd week of October 2023. This was a 50gal batch. 

We added local maple syrup from H&H Sugarbush. We use local Dexter Wildflower honey as well. 

The yeast used was D47. 

This mead was almost a year old before bottling. 

Tasting notes from Karl- 

Joining this year’s lineup of Appley’s is a new take on an old friend: Appley with local maple syrup from Michigan! We just couldn’t get enough of H&H Sugarbush’s maple syrup, using it in other brews like “Serpent’s Deed” and “Sugar Tree”, now it’s time to keep it ‘simple’ and see how Appley can shoulder this fantastic acerglyn treatment.

Starting off with the nose and it’s just two words: Apple Pancakes. A well attuned nose can pick up the lovely honey-apple scents, but that maple steals the show! Sweet smells of maple intertwined with near caramel apple notes. Autumn in a glass

Tasting it and, yeah, Autumn in your mouth too! Smooth maple and subtle woodsmoke overturn a profile of baked caramel apple goodness. There’s a lightness and an almost semi-dry smoothed over apple crisp, but overall it’s all about that maple. Toasty sweet apple maple deliciousness is about all I can say with this one!