COMPARATIVE LIT ESSAY:
For over three decades the Mountain West has been best known for craft beer, but more recently distilleries and cideries from the region have been racking up medals. Combining the two newer traditions of the Mountain West today are two barrel-aged ciders: one from Utah, Mountain West’s Stillwater, and one from Colorado, Clear Fork’s Oak Barrel.
When comparing the two, the Clear Fork has a better nose and more glass appeal. Its cloudy pale gold color is quite handsome with a smell of warm applesauce. Stillwater has a straightforward straw color and smells more like a gentleman’s drink. While both have clear flavor notes from the barreling, Clear Fork is definitely more balanced with enough sweetness to make it drinkable even though it is quite dry. Stillwater on the other hand is a weird mix of tangy and smoky and uses tart apples that don’t seem to mix well with the whiskeyesque features. It is only good for sipping and seems to have a bit of an identity crisis as it is not really a tart apple cider and its light body means it doesn’t really work as a mock spirit.
Choosing a winner in this case is straight forward as Oak Barrel is really good whereas even though Stillwater is fine, it seems a misfire. I have no issue with them going all in on a definite whiskey flavor and higher ABV, I’m just not sure it worked in this case. I think the varietal (or maybe the apple juice?) selection was wrong. An intense tangy sweetness was totally out of character for this drink and the mouthfeel wasn’t quite right. They just didn’t pull it off. If you are looking for a heavy whiskey-like cider, I’d recommend Stem’s 5-String Banjo or Western’s Whiskey Peach instead. While the Clear Fork option doesn’t have the whiskey-like essence you may be after, it is a very good cider with enough oakiness to feel like a barrel-aged drink, but it is still pleasurable to drink. So, this round has to go to the cidermaker that looks west to the mountains instead of the one that looks east.