Climb Cider

The Johnny Appleseed of Northern Colorado

Thanks to Johnny Appleseed, Americans have been enjoying pomaceous fruit and fruit juices for many years. Folklore paints a picture of Johnny, traveling by foot, with sacks full of seeds, planting orchards and educating folks on the apple tree and all the wonderful products that that can be made from its’ fruit. The apple industry grew quickly and early Americans embraced hard cider, for example, prior to prohibition, Americans consumed more hard cider per capita than any other alcoholic drink.
The post prohibition era was not so good for apple cider. Orchards and cider making facilities were abandoned or displaced. A whole generation of hard cider drinkers was lost.
We want to reintroduce hard cider and educate people about hard cider as Johnny did back in the day. Our goal is to teach people about the different styles and varieties of hard ciders as well as providing those who are health conscious and gluten intolerant, an alternative to beer.

The Past
Our journey began not quite as long ago as Johnny’s, but some time has passed since our first encounter with fermented juices.  While living in Europe, Peter, our cider maker, frequently visited local drinking establishments, and took a liking to the wide variety of hard cider and enjoyed how Europeans mixed their cider with beer.  Peter began brewing his own beer and fermenting cider once he returned to America.

20 years later, Peter’s passion for crafting alcoholic beverages is still going strong.  With an established microbrewery under his belt, he is now looking to spread the word about hard ciders.  And so, the Climb Hard Cider Co. was founded.

The Future

Currently, we are sourcing pasteurized juices from various companies to make the majority of our clear hard ciders. We are making a traditional hard cider from cold pressed organic apples that were grown on the western slope. This juice is not filtered or pasteurized so produces a hard cider that is not clear (traditional hard cider).

We do not currently have the equipment to mill and press our own apple juice. Eventually, we will purchase our own processing equipment and make our own juice in-house.

Our goal is to produce artisan hard cider with freshly pressed apple juice from apples grown entirely in Colorado with our own equipment. This might involve buying some property and planting the crab apple varieties that are not grown here, and are necessary for the production of traditional tart hard cider.

We are eager to travel the paths our customers’ ideas and insight will lead us down. Our future will be sculpted by our customers—it’s exciting because you can never predict where they will take you.  Join us in this journey, and we promise the experience will be worth it.