Brookview Station Jo-Daddy's Hard Cider

OK, so I'm a little late. But this is still an important post. Brookview Station, easily one of the most decorated and highly awarded of the fruit wine makers in the valley has stretched a little in order to join the cider world. In the past, Brookview contented itself with apple wine, where is won many gold medals for their Whistle Stop White.

But now they have added a cider to their list - Jo-Daddy's Hard Cider It's available in Growlers (64oz) produced with fresh pressed Apple Cider by Goold Orchards. Master Cider Maker "Joe Daddy" Ciccolella worked with Ed Miller to make this "Gluten Free" Beverage.

Here's an excerpt from JOANNE E. MCFADDEN For The Daily Gazette:

Goold Orchards in Castleton is the only Capital Region hard cider maker on the Cider Route. The orchard has been making apple wine since 2006 under the label Brookview Station Winery, but it just began producing hard cider in August in response to customers’ requests.

Co-owner Sue Goold said that they experimented with different combinations in order to find just the right one. When yeast is added to unpasteurized soft cider and fermented, hard cider is the result.

"We tried different combinations of different cider with different yeast,” she said, noting that they experimented with three yeasts. It’s the byproduct given off during the process of the yeast eating the sugar to make alcohol that lends the hard cider its flavor.

"We chose three yeasts, tried them all, and then let people taste test them,” Goold said. The third weekend in November, the orchard introduced a new flavor, an apple-cranberry hard cider called

“Joe-Daddy’s.” Hard cider is only 6 percent alcohol, which is one of the reasons it has become popular, according to Goold. “People like to be drinking lower alcohol,” she said.

Economically, hard cider is a good value-added product for orchards because the fermentation time required is similar to beer, much shorter than the four to six months required for wine.

It's fantastic! Go to Brookview and try some! And pair it with their cassis to make a Hudson Valley Cider Cassis Royale!

Read the DailyGazette article:
http://www.dailygazette.net/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=SCH/2012/11/23&ID=Ar02500&Section=Life_and_Arts