Apple Of Their Eye

First, craft breweries swept the nation as the alcoholic craze du jour. Then, it was artisanal distilleries, putting a small-batch spin on all your favorite spirits.

Now, the next big thing in the adult beverage world is hard apple cider.

A year ago, there were 800 craft cider makers in the country, says Michelle McGrath, executive director of the United States Association of Cider Makers. Today, there are 900. 

“They are growing like gangbusters,” she says.

Cider sales are 10 times higher than they were 10 years ago – and grew faster than beer, wine or spirit sales last year, according to Nielsen.

“People are starting to get excited about cider. Consumers are driving toward refreshing and crisp beverages,” McGrath says. “Cider is easy on the palate, goes well with food and is ‘sessionable’ – mellow enough that you can drink it throughout your day and not feel inebriated.”

Of course, hard apple cider is anything but new. Colonial Americans, like Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman, cultivated apple orchards soon after arriving in the New World to create their favorite alcoholic beverage. For years, hard cider reigned supreme. But Prohibition caused many orchards to be destroyed, and the drink’s popularity declined.

Until now. Luckily for us, there are three craft cideries in the area well worth a visit. But be warned: This is not your great-great-grandfather’s apple cider. Today’s cider crafters are reimagining the traditional beverage by adding fruits, herbs and spices – resulting in creative concoctions sure to make you raise a glass.

Pierced Ciderworks

Nestled in a 117-year-old building in Fort Pierce’s historic Edgartown section is the newest cidery in the area, Pierced Ciderworks. Since Jon Nolli opened it in February 2018, the business has been creating and serving fine ciders to an ever-growing fan club of customers.

Pierced releases a new flavor every two weeks and has brewed up 31 different varieties, like Grapefruit Rosemary, Banana Hazelnut, Peach Habanero, Pumpkin Pie and Smoked Apricot. Most have 5.7 percent alcohol by volume. Ten taps at Jojo’s Raw Bar and Grill in Wellington, which Nolli also owns, dispense Pierced ciders, too.

When the Vermont native learned that Sailfish Brewery, which was previously housed in the venue, was planning to move, he jumped on it, took it over and completely remodeled the interior. He doubled the seating space and now serves 120 to 140 people on a busy Saturday, noting that his customer base keeps growing. He installed strong footers and joists so that the floor of the historic building could take the weight of the new custom-built tanks he was installing.

“It was a new adventure,” Nolli says. 

Plus, he made sure to dedicate a couple taps at Pierced to locally brewed beers – a decision driven by his personal tastes.

“I love craft beer and cider,” he notes.

But he knew from the beginning that the business would quickly outgrow the original space, he says.

He plans to keep it operating but aims to open a second, larger production facility outside of Fort Pierce. While Pierced turns out 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of cider per month, Nolli plans to increase that in his new facility, which will produce cider to be distributed to bars from Sebastian to the Keys.

“Our business is growing, and the category of cider is definitely growing,” he says.

Broski Ciderworks

No, they’re not Polish. But Danny and David Verdugo, who operate Broski Ciderworks in Pompano Beach, get that question all the time.

“It’s the name,” Danny laughs. “We’re brothers, so we decided to name the place Broski, as a slang term for brothers. It means family and brotherhood, and that’s how we want people to feel when they come in here – warm, like they’re at home.” 

The brothers hail from Ecuador but came to Florida as children. While David was in college in Tallahassee, he began making craft beers and ciders as a hobby, sending samples back home to his brother, who was working at Total Wine, for him and his friends to try. They liked them – a lot – and the duo’s future was born.

They opened the cidery in January 2017, serving cider that’s “English style, with a Florida twist,” according to David, who is master brewer. They currently pour from 14 taps in the tasting room, which has copper pipe decorations on the walls, a giant brass chandelier overhead and framed national awards won by some of the 70 cider flavors they’ve created so far. Choices range from traditional Dry and Crisp to Strawberry Lemonade and Apple Pie.

Sourcing apple juice mostly from upstate New York, the Verdugos age their ciders for four to six weeks, resulting in varieties that run from 4.5 percent to 8 percent alcohol by volume.

An average of 50 people fill the cozy taproom on weekend nights, but upwards of 300 may stop by in the course of the night. And business is picking up.

“On Sundays, we get a lot more families with kids,” Danny says. “It’s a pretty entertaining place, a good all-ages place, and we never had to kick anybody out for getting too drunk.”

The brothers just installed a bottling machine, and, “by the end of the year, you should see six-packs of Broski from central Florida down to the Keys,” Danny predicts.

Their hard work is clearly paying off: Broski was recently named one of the top 75 bars in the country by Yelp.

Accomplice Brewery & Ciderworks

The first cidery to open in South Florida was Accomplice Brewery & Ciderworks in West Palm Beach, which started making and pouring cider in a plethora of flavors in November 2015. 

The cidery has grown in popularity over the past four years, but it has experienced some bumps in the road. Matt Stetson and girlfriend Felonice Merriman were the original “accomplices” who created the business. However, the romance sadly foundered, and Stetson now captains the ship solo.

His German grandfather started teaching him to make cider when he was a mere 9 years old. Today, Accomplice has 21 taps pouring cider in a dizzying array of flavors with names like Pool Cide (a sweet cranberry-lemon) and Sweet Child of Rind (peach and mango). The Spanish word for pineapples, pinas, resulted in a pineapple-flavored cider named Pinas Envy. 

“We want to create very natural, very clean fruit tones that are easy to drink and very refreshing,” Stetson says. “The heavier, more syrupy styles are not really what people want.”

In all, there are 371 recipes, and Stetson notes that experimentation is a big part of cider-making’s appeal. Now sourcing apple juice from Hungary, the cidery turns out ciders ranging from 5.5 percent to 14.5 percent alcohol by volume. Accomplice also creates mead, an ancient honey-based drink, and craft beers.

“We give people what they want,” Stetson says, noting that he hopes to keep his tasting room – stocked with board games and frequented by food trucks – family-friendly. “It’s that yin-yang of meeting commercial demands, making money or really creating something that’s complex and balanced and stylistically delicious.”

He has expansion in mind, marketing his cider to South Florida bars and planning to open a cider bar in downtown West Palm Beach.

 Like any new business, Accomplice struggled in the beginning, but Stetson is starting to see his labors paying off.

“We’re on a recovery turn,” he says. “We are growing exponentially. People are spending money. We actually had the best July we’ve ever had, and that’s off-season.”

He admits that the cidery, located in a warehouse district, can be difficult to find but is worth the effort.

“It’s this magical place back in the back end of an industrial area,” he says. “Everything we do, first and foremost, is in the idea of playfulness.” O