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Date: 1/24/2023
EASTHAMPTON — The Easthampton Cider Project, with a goal of bringing awareness to the Western Massachusetts craft cider scene, recently won a silver medal in the U.S. Open Cider Championships for their 2021 Vintage Blend.
The cider was entered into the eighth annual U.S. Open Cider Championships, where cideries, wineries and breweries from Washington state to France entered over 290 ciders representing 25 different styles. The judges were from Niagara College Teaching Winery, Niagara College Teaching Brewery and cideries in the Niagara area, and all judging was conducted blindly.
The 2021 Vintage Blend from the Easthampton Cider Project won the silver medal in the “Heritage Cider” category.
“It definitely felt really cool to get the award,” said Josh Bromage, the founder and operator of the Easthampton Cider Project. “A friend was talking me into it over the summer, so this year I decided to enter it in.”
Before opening his own production site on 25 Bourne St. in Palmer, Bromage — who has lived in the Western Massachusetts region for most of his life — began as a home brewer back in college where he built himself an all-grain brewing setup by 2005.
His interests broadened to hard cider while studying abroad in Ireland for six months in 2008. According to Bromage, the sweet Irish ciders were different from any beer or wine he tried, so when he returned home, he decided to try making his own. But the quality in the commercial market at home was not as good.
“I was going to the supermarkets, buying apples and pressing them, but all of my ciders were not coming out the way I expected them to,” said Bromage. “It just tasted a little weak … it was watery.”
After researching more about the history of cider making, Bromage realized that a lot of the apples European countries used for hard cider are not the same apples that are in commercial stores back in the U.S.
According to Bromage, cider apples are different from the standard eating variety because most eating apples have delicate skins with high sugar content. Unlike cider apples, though, they do not have other characteristics like tanning and bitterness.
“By using those [cider] apples in your blend, when you strip away all those sugars in the fermentation process, you’re left with other characteristics that add flavor,” said Bromage. “They make the cider a little bit different.”
So, Bromage and his friends began foraging for apples with cider properties along the side of the road in places like Vermont and Western Mass., and then they would go back and press them.
“That’s what really got me into the hard cider making aspect of home brewing,” said Bromage. “The pursuit of finding these apples and turning them into a really good hard cider.”
Bromage officially began the Easthampton Cider Project as a hobbyist and enthusiast in 2018. He was grafting trees, planting his own varieties, and documenting that aspect of his project along with his home-making cider experience near his house in Easthampton. He began planting different varieties of apples like bittersweets, bitter-sharps, and some French and early American varieties.
“My goal was to try and raise awareness for cider apples in Western Mass. and raise awareness for small craft cider makers in Western Mass.,” said Bromage. “At that point in time, I had an ambition, but I didn’t have a goal of starting a commercial cidery.”
That all changed in 2020, when Bromage started seeking his license to produce cider commercially, but he needed a space for fermenting and bottling, so he found the one in Three Rivers. By 2021, he was making his first batches at this location.
Initially, Bromage used the location to bottle his cider to sell it at farmers’ markets, restaurants, and stores like Provisions in Northampton, and while he still does this, Bromage has also used the Three Rivers location for retail and weekly tastings on Sundays from 12 to 4 p.m.
“I’m trying to derive my flavors from the apple varieties themselves and showcase how different apple varieties might taste and how certain blends can change those flavors,” said Bromage.
So far, Bromage said he has created two or three Vintage Blends, but it was the 2021 batch that took the silver.
Once a year, Bromage will visit orchards in the Western Massachusetts and greater New England area, like Park Hill Orchards in Easthampton and Bashista Orchards in Southampton. During these visits, Bromage will look for apples for the Vintage Blend that are at least 100 years old and historically part of the cider-making tradition.
“I try to use a traditional method,” said Bromage, of the Vintage Blend process. “I will usually age it out for at least six months before I start to sell it. It was one of my flagship blends I started out with.”
While Bromage appreciates the achievement, he told Reminder Publishing that his goal is to continue to enhance his cider flavors every year. “I’m always looking for new sources of apples in this area that meet the criteria that I’m looking for,” said Bromage. “I think the cider that’s in the tanks now is some of my best yet.”
People can learn more about the Easthampton Cider Project by visiting the website: http://easthamptoncider.com/.