Graft Cider finds a new home

By CLOEY CALLAHAN
Posted 9/30/20

Graft Cider, a brewery who pays its respects to the old-world style of cider making while experimenting with modern brewing techniques, originally located at 218 Ann Street, is moving to a new …

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Graft Cider finds a new home

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Graft Cider pays its respects to the old-world style of cider making while experimenting with modern brewing techniques, originally located at 218 Ann Street, is moving to a new location on Little Britain Road.

The former brick and mortar has been used solely for brewery production. However, most exciting about its new location is the introduction of the taproom.

Graft Cider first started back in 2016. Owners (and siblings!) Kyle and Sara Sherrer are Baltimore, Maryland natives, where they began down the road of cider production.

After four years, they were looking to relocate to New York and originally they looked in Beacon after talking to other distributors.

“It doesn’t have a lot of industrial space,” said Kyle. “They told us right across the River is Newburgh, a great spot to look.”

Newburgh became the perfect fit, and they’ve been making sour cider in the area ever since, with over 40 different kinds every year.

The Sherrer’s wanted to take what they were doing in Maryland – cider in a large format bottle, aged in oak, the slow and expensive process – but make it more affordable and accessible.

“We wanted to put it in cans,” explained Kyle. “We wanted to provide great artwork and fun concepts for flavors.”

The new location will be a step up from the former. It is a 16,000 square-foot production facility with 35 foot high ceilings.

“We wanted to do a large production space,” said Kyle. “We wanted it to be pretty modern and energy efficient.”

The new location will have a long awaited tasting room, with views of the Quassaick Creek that will run underneath the entire space.

The tasting room will be a 4,000 square-foot space that includes a courtyard and seating on top of the stream.

“It will be a cool indoor outdoor space,” said Kyle. “The new facility will give us an opportunity to do a lot more innovation and do small batches with local grapes and fruits. We are also going to offer a lot of Backpack Brands products.”

Graft Cider is a part of Backpack Brands, also created by the Sherrer siblings. Backpack Brands is the parent company of two other alcohol labels: Hudson North Cider Co., which is home to a hazy dry cider, and Flora Wines, which is a guilt free alternative wine spritzer.

Hudson North Cider Co. donates ten cents of every gallon sold to the NY-NY Trail Conference to protect and preserve Hudson Valley’s hiking trails.

You can find all three Backpack Brand products at Wholefoods, Wegmans and DeCicco’s in the Hudson Valley. However, they can also all be purchased online while we wait for the tasting room’s opening.

They ship to 40 states.

Construction for the main production building began in early September and is hoping to be completed by the end of 2020. Graft Cider is hoping to make the official transition between locations by March of 2021.

The tasting room is hoping to be open for the summer of 2021, however, it might be delayed depending on how everything progresses.

The new space will open a few jobs for Newburgh residents, as they will need additional staff for the tasting room and bigger space.

“We will look first to hire Newburgh residents,” said Kyle. “We are going to have entry-level production jobs and will need to hire a general manager for the tasting room.”

For more information on Graft Cider, visit graftcidery.com.