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A Dry Rabbit original · Thanksgiving

Hearth Apple Highball

Fresh cider cooked down with thyme and black pepper into a savory gastrique, then finished dry and tall with hop water.

Alcohol-free. Nothing in it has alcohol.

Make it

You’ll need

  • 1 oz (30 ml) cider gastrique
  • 1 oz (30 ml) fresh apple cider, pasteurized
  • ½ oz (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
  • 3 oz (90 ml) hop water, such as Partake Hop Twist or Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher, or soda water, chilled

Garnish: A dried apple ring brushed with maple syrup, and a sprig of thyme.

Method

  1. Stand an ice spear, or two big cubes, in a tall glass.
  2. Pour in the gastrique, cider and lemon juice, top with the hop water and stir just once.

Make ahead. The gastrique takes about 25 minutes and keeps a week, so make it on the weekend and each drink takes a minute on the day.

Allergens and caffeine

  • No major allergens, and no caffeine.
  • Partake Hop Twist and Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher say they're gluten-free; check the can of any other hop water if gluten matters to you.

Every brand we name is optional. Partake Hop Twist says “0.0% ABV” on its own site, and “Yes! Our Hop Twist is gluten-free”. Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher says “ABV 0.0 %” on its own site, “without the alcohol, carbs, cals, or gluten”. (Read Oct 17, 2026.)

Get everything for it

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The bottles

The tools

The pantry

Make ahead

  • Cider gastrique. Simmer 2 cups of fresh apple cider with 3 thyme sprigs and 6 black peppercorns until it's down to 1 cup, 20 to 25 minutes. Off the heat, stir in 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, then strain. Keeps about a week in the fridge (our estimate).

From the store

Fresh apple cider, Fresh lemon juice.

Buying in person? See where to shop zero-proof around Boston.

The Weekly Hop. Every Thursday, the alcohol-free picks worth leaving the house for. Free.

How we checked it

Dry Rabbit originals are developed and checked with AI, against the 42 tested recipes in The Dry Rabbit Cocktail Guide: sweetness and acidity per ounce, sweet to sour, dilution and the drink’s size against drinks made the same way, every ingredient’s alcohol, and whether you can buy it. One that falls outside the book’s range is reworked before it’s published.

The check’s notes on Hearth Apple Highball

Passed as approved. A built highball, but savory: cider reduced with thyme and pepper and sharpened with vinegar (a gastrique) does the work a syrup and bitters would. Sweetness 0.12 and acidity 0.16 a finished ounce, sweet to sour 0.76, all inside the book's built drinks, and 5.75 oz over an ice spear. The gastrique's numbers are our estimate (2 cups of cider reduced to 1, with 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and 1 of maple). Hop water finishes it dry and bitter with no alcohol: Partake Hop Twist and Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher both say 0.0% and gluten-free on their own sites, and soda water works too. Cider, thyme and peppercorns are at every supermarket in November. 0.0%.

Made it? Tell us how it was: the best originals come back next season.

More to make

From our book, free on the site: The Burrow, Rabbit Punch, Harvey, Crepuscular, Winter Coat, Bog Hopper.