Gold Rush

Snow Capped Cider Gold Rush

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Review of Snow Capped Gold Rush, made from English and French cider apples.  It is my first time trying this, but I had their 6130′ Dry in 2016.

<This is a review of a sample can provided to Cider Says by Snow Capped.  Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received this for free.  The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review que, considering it is a new release and the info may be helpful for folks deciding to purchase it.  I love free stuff, especially cider!  Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here?  Contact me.>

Cider:  Gold Rush
Cidery:  Snow Capped
Cidery Location:  Austin CO
ABV:  6.9%
How Supplied:  four pack of 12oz cans
Style:  American craft canned cider from English & French cider apples from the cidery’s own orchard

Photo Sep 26, 5 06 50 PM Photo Sep 26, 5 07 31 PM

Availability:  in Colorado, plus online sales

Cider Description:  The Colorado Gold Rush is back. Coveted cider apples deliver with brilliant golden hue, tantalizing ripe fruit character. Clean quintessential medium tannin’s only produced from English and French varietals. Panning with complexity and a striking rich mouth feel, Sweetness is found upfront leading to off dry semi sparkling finish. Colorado grown cider apples bring a whole new meaning to cider in a can. Crafted with a century old fruit growing family’s perspective, pressed and slow fermented with no added sugar.

Cidery Description:  We craft our ciders using stone fruit, heritage and cider specific apples grown in our 6,130 ft. elevation Colorado orchards.  At the core of our ciders is a long history in fruit growing.  For over a century and five generations our family has respected and developed the land entrusted to us. Today we are one of the largest apple producers in Colorado Growing fruit is both a passion and a privilege.  Through generations we have succeeded in a high elevation environment, this is one of the most labor intensive, riskiest and extreme environments to grow apples, with fewer successful outcomes.

Price:  ~ $10.49 / four cans
Where Bought:  N/A
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  it showed up

Photo Sep 26, 5 06 31 PM

First Impression:  Light gold hue.  Low carbonation.  Smells of rich sweet bittersweet cider apple juice with some barnyard funk.

Tasting Notes:  On the sweeter side of semi-dry.  Light bodied.  Moderate tartness.  Moderate to high acidity.  Low tannins.  Low bitterness.  No sourness.  No funk (interesting, as it was very apparent by nose).  Notes of rich bittersweet apples with hints of orange and leather.  Moderate length tart slightly tannic finish.  Moderate apple flavor, sessionability, overall flavor intensity, and complexity.

My Opinion:  I really enjoyed it.  Reminiscent of English cider, but more friendly (to people who haven’t drank English cider, to pair with food, as a more sessionable option, etc).

Most Similar to:  2 Towns Cider Bouche Brut (except reminiscent of English not French cider) and Schilling Excelsior (except not Imperial style, but that one is also sold in cans)

Closing Notes:  I’d love to see this available in WA.  Looks like their online shop is currently sold out, although I imagine they just haven’t had a chance to re-stock it.  Luckily they sent me some extra cans.  Cheers!

Have you tried Snow Capped Cider?  What did you think?

Oliver’s Gold Rush Cider

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Review of Oliver’s Gold Rush Cider, batch #2.  This was a collaboration between Tom Oliver (of Oliver’s Cider and Perry in the UK) and Gregory Hall (of Virtue Cider in Chicago).  I’ve previously tried Oliver’s Herefordshire Perry and Desire.

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Cider:  Gold Rush
Cidery:  Oliver’s Cider and Perry
Cidery Location:  Herefordshire United Kingdom
ABV:  6.2%
How Supplied:  750ml twist-top bottle
Style:  English still cider from cider apples, wild yeast fermented, oak aged, secondary fermentation

Photo Dec 28, 4 41 21 PM Photo Dec 28, 4 41 40 PM

Availability:  limited, although in general Oliver’s can at least be found in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, and USA (see here).

Cider Description:  Have you noticed similarities between Tom Oliver’s wild yeast- fermented ciders and traditional lambics?  You aren’t the only one.  During a visit to Oliver’s farm in 2011, Greg Hall – former brewmaster at Goose Island, and current cidermaker at Virtue Cider in Chicago – proposed a collaborative cider made in the traditional way, but with a lambic yeast thrown in for further complexity.  The result is the Gold Rush: a…sparkling, medium dry cider with a deep, burnished color made from 100% bittersweet and sharp vintage cider apples from traditional Herefordshire farms. The juice was slow fermented by wild yeasts in old oak barrels through a cold winter and underwent malolactic fermentation in the warm spring.  Oliver then added fruit sugar and lambic yeasts for a second alcoholic fermentation, adding a touch more alcohol and complexity. It was finished in oak, for maturity, before final blending and bottling.  The first transatlantic cider that is everything a bittersweet cider should be.

Cidery Description:  Oliver’s strives to produce premium products, while valuing the health and well being of its consumers, its employees, the earth’s natural resources, and the environment. In fact, Oliver’s have created a charter that they hope all cider makers will follow. Its tenets are these:

  • To help secure the future of UK orchards and their ecosystems
  • Preserve the integrity of cider and perry as valuable products of recognized quality using only UK fruit
  • Declare ingredients (with traceability), based on a minimum juice content of 85%, control and minimize additives and use only natural products.”

Price:  $14.99
Where Bought:  The Jug Shop in San Francisco CA
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  Browsing during a cruise port stop.

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First Impression:  Moderate amber hue.  Still (no carbonation) with some froth.  Smells amazingly complex, of bittersweet apple juice, caramel, and a hint of funk.

Tasting Notes:  On the sweeter side of semi-dry.  Light bodied.  Low tartness, acidity, and bitterness.  High tannins.  Hints of funk.  No sourness.  Notes of bittersweet apple, caramel, leather, orange, brown sugar, must, and spice.  Long finish.  Moderate to high apple flavor and complexity.  Low sessionability.  Moderate flavor intensity.

My Opinion:  Amazing!  This was crazy rich and complex.  I love the color too – it is so rare to find such a naturally dark cider.  I was surprised to not find more funk or any sourness, which is rare for a wild fermented cider.  This is now one of my favorite English ciders.  Best drank at cellar temperature (in between fridge and room temperature).

Most Similar to:  Henney’s Vintage, Rocquette XC Exceptional Cider, and Finnegan Harvest Blend

Closing Notes:  I hope I get the opportunity to try more varieties from Oliver’s!  I liked this one just slightly more than Desire (as Gold Rush was more tannic and complex).

Have you tried Oliver’s Gold Rush?  What did you think?