W.Va.’s 1st hard cidery presses forward

By DAWN NOLAN

Charleston Gazette

LEWISBURG, W.Va.

West Virginia soon will get a taste of hard cider from the state’s only cidery, thanks to two former college friends turned business partners.

Josh Bennett and Will Lewis have started Hawk Knob Hard Cider and Mead in the former Watt’s Roost Vineyard in Lewisburg, after receiving federal and state licenses.

The two met while studying horticulture at West Virginia University in 2006. Lewis was interested in brewing his own beer, but a Belgian professor suggested, and later taught him, to make mead – honey wine.

“He said it was a little easier, and you don’t need as much equipment,” Lewis explained. “Being a poor college student, that sounded like a more ideal situation.”

Bennett was also interested in the idea and they began working on their own beverages together and thinking about the future.

“Even back then we kind of talked about starting a cidery or meadery one day,” Lewis said. “It’s always been a dream of ours.”

Bennett was the one responsible for bringing cider into the picture.

“I’ve been making it since I was 12 years old,” Bennett said.

“Where I lived [in Highland County, Va.], it was a really traditional thing. Everybody had a cider barrel in the cellar, and we’d make between five to eight barrels a year.”

Unlike what he makes now, Bennett said that cider was “pretty unrefined,” but definitely still drinkable.

“We didn’t use a lot of science, but it was still a pretty tasty beverage,” he said.

Bennett and Lewis pulled inspiration from Bennett’s experience and came up with Hark Knob Wild Fermented Barrel Aged Still Cider.

“We wanted one that was truly traditional,” Bennett said. “It is not carbonated because people weren’t drinking carbonated cider 100 years ago.”

Besides its lack of carbonation, Bennett said this particular cider is exclusive to Hawk Knob, probably because of its risky fermentation process.

“Nobody in the commercial market is doing this right now that we’ve found anywhere,” Bennett said.

“There’s a little leeway in there to lose a batch, and wild fermentation lacks consistency,” he added.

But that doesn’t bother them.

“We feel that this product should be seasonally different, just like wine is,” Bennett said. “That’s why wine has vintages. This is just as complex and as variant from season to season as wine should be.”

Bennett and Lewis are also planning to release three other styles of ciders: a “straightforward” cider made from a blend of heirloom and heritage variety apples called Appalachian Standard; a carbonated, elderberry-infused cider; and a dry, hopped cider.

“A lot of these ciders that are out on the market right now are being marketed to the craft-brew drinkers,” Bennett said.

“A hopped cider is kind of a nice segue into cider from beer.”

Bennett said the cider business itself is hopping, and he’s surprised that other people haven’t gotten in on the action.

“Right now, all of the states around us are taking advantage of the cider market,” he said.

“It kind of shocked us that we’re the first one in the West Virginia. We checked with the [Alcohol Beverage Control Administration], and I looked around online.”

Hawks Knob is being promoted as a cidery, but Bennett and Lewis are also working on five different types of dry meads including a straight mead; a Cyser, made with apple juice; a rose petal-infused mead; a blueberry mead; and an elderberry mead.

“We’re definitely wanting to get the mead out there since it’s not as well known,” Bennett said.

“It is experiencing its largest resurgence in brewing in reported history and was man’s first fermented beverage.”

Bennett describes their meads as much drier than others in the market, and not as sweet.

“We feel they could even stand up to other styles of wine,” Bennett said.

“You could have some of our meads with dinner.”

Each of the ciders will have an alcohol content between 7 and 9 percent, and the meads will range between 12 and 14 percent.

“We are much higher than a lot out there,” Bennett said.

“We’re also not adding sulfite as of yet or not adding natural flavoring. It is straight product.”

The cider is made from apples grown at Morgan Orchard in Morgan County, and as well as Bennett’s farm in Pocahontas County. Some of the honey is currently coming from out of state, but Bennett and Lewis hope to change that.

“We’re trying to use nothing but West Virginia-grown products,” Bennett said.

“And we’re willing to work with any size producer to get it that way,” he added.

Hawk Knob is operating under a farm winery license, which will allows them to self-distribute. The two friends are hopeful that they’ll be able to start distributing their products to restaurants and local pubs within the next two to three months.

“We’ll self-distribute for the first year or two,” Bennett said. “We’re pretty small-scale now.”

That doesn’t mean that they plan to stay that way.

“We do have visions of scaling up considerably from where we’re at, but at the same time, we don’t want to, 10 years from now, be making something that’s just in a six-pack out there the same every year,” Bennett said. “We want it to remain a small-batch craft product.”