Field Trips: Brooklyn Cider House

Cider from Basque country to Bushwick

When people declare they don’t like hard cider, there’s a good chance they’ve never tasted one made with fresh, native apples before. Peter Yi, a luxury wine buyer, was on a trip to Basque country, and was brought to a sagardotegi, which is a cider house that also serves traditional regional cuisine. He caught his first fresh cider from the barrel (freshly tapped, or “caught”, cider allowed to aerate in a long stream into the glass is called “txotx” in Basque country), and tasted its expressive, dry, cloudy, funkiness alongside a fine spread of food. And then more cider and more food, all in rustic, casual and comfortable settings. It was a far cry from the stiff fine dining situations that permeated his work travels with wine. That burst of wild, pure apple flavor was life-changing.

He returned to New York City and related the farmhouse cider experience to his sister Susan. She must have been a very trusting sibling, because soon he walked away from PJ Wine, a successful business he had grown over 25 years and sold most of his private collection (this was a serious collection, mind) and she quit her teaching job to become his business partner. In 2014, they invested in Twin Star Orchards in New Paltz, NY and learned everything they could about cultivating “ugly” apples for cider (their motto is “ugly apples taste better”). They hoped to make the kind of natural ciders that would recreate that epiphanic cider moment Yi experienced in Spain for the local masses.

It also made sense to offer the experience of drinking them with the right food. In 2017, the Brooklyn Cider House, a combination urban cidery, tasting room and restaurant, opened in Bushwick, and it’s the first of its kind. It’s a sprawling, 12,000 square foot former warehouse venue that caters to everyone from those wanting to learn more about natural cider, to seasoned tasters, beer nerds, and guests seeking a happy hour with really good food. The fare is a combo of casual Basque dishes like tortilla de baccalao cod omelet, cheeses, charcuterie, and Korean style snacks—including some fabulous fried wings—to honor the Yi siblings’ cultural background. (Well, also, tangy-spicy wings go exceptionally well with cider.) There’s also a Taco Tuesday.

“Wine is up here,” Yi said to me on a recent visit, raising his arm above his head. “Cider is down here,” he lowered his hand to waist level. “But if you let the apples do their thing, and pair cider with the right food, it can really elevate the experience of drinking it.” This being Bushwick, naked Edison bulbs hang above the tank room and strings of white lights drift like snowflakes around the cider barrels, which can be tapped to experience cider catching to taste it fresh, just as Yi did in decidedly un-hipster Spain.

catching cider with Peter Yi, photo by Amanda Schuster

The orchard and its ciders can be visited in the country, but Yi wanted to bring as much of that sagardotegi feeling to the city. The bar offers selections from Twin Star Orchards which range in sweetness levels—Bone Dry, Still Bone Dry, Half Sour, Kinda Dry, Rosé. Their natural Raw is made right in Bushwick. Plus there are limited release seasonal ciders such as the wintry Solstice. These can be ordered in various tasting sizes as well as tasting flights, and purchased in take-home bottles. In addition, the bar offers a curated, seasonal range of releases from other cideries to try, such as those from Blackduck, South Hill, Eve’s, Aaron Burr, Farnum Hill, Eric Bordelet and also a couple of large format Basque ciders.

Yi hasn’t abandoned his wine background. Naturally, there is a banging list of wines that match well with Basque cuisine and spice, as well as great beers and a variety of spirits for cocktails—made with cider or otherwise (I really liked the Winter Solstice, an Old Fashioned variation with orange and vanilla infused Amaro, the Solstice cider and bitters).

Diners can also order a tasting menu that includes 2 (supervised by trained staff and often Yi himself) cider catches from the back barrel room between courses. By now, Yi and his sister are well versed in which combination of apple varieties contribute bitter, sweet, fruity and spicy characteristics to the ciders (though most of the fruit in BCH cider is from its own orchard, some of it consists of heirloom varietals sourced from other upstate NY orchards). However, the raw ciders at the Brooklyn cidery can still surprise a little in their levels of intensity and yeasty funkiness, and sometimes even color. One of the ciders we tried together, called “BK Funk”, was tapped for the first time during my visit. Out streamed a pale, straw yellow liquid that looked fairly benign, but on the nose—hellooooo, 6 week old dish sponges! The palate, however, told another story, one of complex citric tartness, dewy floral aromatics and even a hint of clove.