Drink: Big Hill Ciderworks Little Round Hop

Hard cider has continued surging, and new local producers such as Big Hill Ciderworks are making some of the best. In the heart of Pennsylvania's apple country in Adams County just north of Gettysburg, farmers Troy Lehman and Ben Kishbaugh began in 2014 crushing estate-grown heirloom cider apples, from Dabinetts and Kingston Blacks to Esopus Spitzenbergs.

Big Hill will make a stronger push into the Philadelphia market toward the new year with some funky new wild-yeast farmhouse-style ciders, but two other varieties are already featured prominently at the Whip Tavern (as well as at U-Bahn, in Center City). And I've been impressed with all of these refreshingly dry Euro-style ciders, which are approachably balanced despite having no added sugar.

The Standard is a good entry-level sipper. The large-format reserve bottle will appeal to those who crave the wood of barrel aging and funky sour notes from Manchurian crab apples. The most distinctive, though, was Little Round Hop, which (aside from the wry Gettysburg reference) borrows a move from beer culture to frame the cider's already bright sweet fruit with the delicate bitterness of three classic American I.P.A. hops, plus an exotic citrus hit of lemongrass. In cider's continuous battle to win beer drinkers' attention, Little Round Hop tastes like a decisive victory.

- Craig LaBan
Big Hill Ciderworks Little Round Hop, $10 for 22-ounce bottle at the Whip Tavern (1383 N. Chatham Rd., Coatesville); $8.50 retail at Local 44 Bottle Shop (4333 Spruce St.); Pinocchio's Beer Garden (131 E. Baltimore Ave., Media); $5.50 for pint on draft.