Artifact Cider marks first anniversaryDate: 9/17/2015 SPRINGFIELD – At his Gasoline Alley business incubator space Jake Mazar is preparing for two events: a new cider season and a celebration of the first year Artifact Cider has been in business.
Mazar and his partner Sodam Bhatt will host a block party on Sept. 19 from noon to 7 p.m. at 270 Albany St. The party will feature tastings of their hard cider and food offerings by Wheelhouse Farm Truck, Holyoke Hummus Company and Velma’s Wicked delicious Kettle Corn. There will be four local bands providing entertainment by Great Smokey, Carinae, The No No’s and the Manfort Mansion Band. A second venue at Perfect Sound Stage at 300 Albany St. will feature other entertainers.
Mazar explained the company’s space at Gasoline Alley would soon be ready for a new batch of Western Massachusetts apple juice that he and Bhatt will ferment into cider. The two partners spent two years experimenting with different apple juice, yeast and aging times to develop the three signature ciders they produced for sale last year.
Standing in an almost empty room, Mazar said it would soon be filled from floor to ceiling with fermenting vats full of apple juice. The production cycle takes from five to six months, he said.
Although hard cider is getting some attention in the United States, Mazar said sales total less than 1 percent of the alcoholic beverages sold here. By contrast, in the United Kingdom, cider sales are 20 percent.
He hopes that how craft beer has grown in reaction to mass produced beers, small scale cider operations such as his will benefit from the mass produced ciders that are now being marketed.
He said the company has grown from making 400 gallons of cider to 4,000 gallons of cider with the goal of producing 10,000 gallons. While Mazar said the pair had plans for a “cider pub,” that is long off in the future.
He explained the strategy is to “go slow and never sell outside the region.”
He would like Artifact to be the “regional craft cider of New England.”
The apples are pressed at the Pine Hill Orchard in Colrain and then transported to Springfield.
The two friends approach cider from different ways. Bhatt is a scientist, a discipline that comes in handy for the fermenting process, while Mazar is a farmer. Mazar explained he discovered cider when he was diagnosed with celiac disease. He is intolerant of gluten, something present in beer but not in cider.
The company makes three ciders that vary in taste and sweetness: “New World,” “Colrain,” and “Buzzworthy.” Mazar said commercial cider is often sweet and these are less sweet with Buzzworthy, the driest. Colrain is made with some spice and local maple syrup.
Mazar compared cider making with wine production. He explained the juice of different apple varieties make for different tasting ciders. Generally domestic craft cider production is areas where apples are plentiful, such as New England and the Pacific Northwest.
He added an advantage for Artifact is that Western Massachusetts is home to many varieties of apples including some very old ones. He called the region “the Apple Corridor” and believes it can be compared to the Napa Valley in California for grapes.
On the Artifact website (www.artifactcider.com) there is a map of the places the cider is available, including local taverns such as Smith’s Billiards in Springfield and retail outlets such as Table and Vine in West Springfield.
Mazar said if people are “willing to try new things, they love it.”
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