Reidsdale Gold

Reidsdale Gold (9.6% abv) is a sparkling cider made in the Southern Tablelands at the Old Cheese Factory. Made from apples sourced from local orchards and trees found on the roadside in the Braidwood region it reeks of provenance and terroir. The cider itself is complicated, semi-sweet and slightly sharp but is well balanced. Being brewed from both cider and non-cider variety apples it tastes similar to Westons Old Rosie but with the mouth feel and slight carbonation prickle of an Irish style cider such as Magners or Bulmers. Over all its a decent drink and more of a sipper than a hot summer afternoon quaffer.
The sample we had at the cellar door tasted a lot sharper than the bottle I am writing about here. This could be either oxidation of the sample we had at the cellar door which may have been opened a few days before hand, or it could be inconsistencies in production from batch to batch. We are talking about cottage industry style production here after all.
Sully's Cider have a number of other varieties becoming available such as Monga Mist, which is a cloudy cider made from apples scrumped from the Monga State Forest region of NSW and an apple and blackberry wine. I'll investigate these further and post in due course.

In other news, yesterday I planted three new hop rhizomes. The varieties are Chinook, Victoria and Pride of Ringwood. The planting is a little late, but hopefully they will establish themselves quickly. I'll propagate them and run a few new rows in my hop garden when they are ready.

BTW - I have decided to expand the scope a little to discuss cider as well due to my latest apple related adventures. Also I guess tickers may be frustrated as I will be clocking up a few beverages which they will not have access to . Boo Hoo

Spring is near

Whilst walking to the tube station this morning, I noticed that the bulb flowers have started to bloom and all the trees have new buds starting to form. The tree outside my office window which I watched die back only a few months ago is now covered with the white buds of the new bloom. I am not a green thumb by any means, but for some strange reason I get excited (and no not sexually) by all this. I think there are a number of reasons. The first being that I like that things get bigger and better over time. Spring brings a feeling of renewal which leads to anticipation of good times and warmer weather. Of course this is an illusion as come mid-September everything dies and it gets cold and miserable again. One type of plant interests me more than others. This is the hop plant, the all important grass which seasons and preserves beer. I can visualize it now, thousands of rhizomes awakening all over Kent, Europe and North America with their buds preparing to break the ground an reach for the sun. Will this year see the end of the 'world wide hop shortage'? Will there be a new variety discovered that will transform brewing forever....... You can see why I get off on this stuff.

On a sadder note though, 11000 miles away in New South Wales my own modest hop garden is reaching maturity and the bines are starting to die back. I have tasked my Dad to pick this years harvest, dry them and place them in the freezer so I can use them upon my return - whenever that may be. My hop garden currently consists of 18 bines, but this will most likely be doubled next year. As our family farm is in the Monaro region of NSW it is far from ideal/commercial growing conditions, but perfectly acceptable for my requirements. The picture above was taken by my Dad on New Years day last year and these particular cones are from a Columbus bine.

Whilst it is not ideal for hop growing, It is a very good apple growing area though, and I plan to commercially grow cider apples in the future, but that's another story. Plus, I don't really like cider!

Tonight I am off to the launch of BrewDog's new black lager - Zeitgeist. I have not had a beer since Sunday, so I am frothing for a pint. I hope it's all it is cracked up to be.