RICHMOND, Va. — The guys behind Hardywood Park Craft Brewery are getting into the cider business. Patrick Murtaugh and Eric McKay, co-owners, have begun the process of starting West Creek Cider.
“Honestly, [we are] just working on licensing and may start making some [cider] later this fall.,” Murtaugh said.
In addition to expanding to a brand new facility in Goochland, they began Suncrush, a spin-off brand from Hardywood, now available in both of the brewery’s taprooms. The first of the series, Tangerine Suncrush, a session ale, was released on July 20 with other brews coming like ginger lime and grapefruit.
The expansion to West Creek gave the team behind Hardywood more space to experiment with new ideas and these guys aren’t standing still.
Where will you be able to find Hardywood’s new West Creek Ciders?
“Just in our taprooms to start. A lot of our visitors have asked for a gluten free option. We do use an enzyme to remove the gluten in Suncrush, but that still leaves trace amounts of gluten and for some people with severe gluten allergies that might still be too much,” Murtaugh said.
In additional Hardywood news, their Family Tree lottery opened yesterday with new expanded options like:
* ALL beers received by members will be exclusive brews to the Family Tree
* Members will be guaranteed first access to pre-purchase Hardywood’s GBS: The Complete Set this year
* A second tier of membership has been added
If you aren’t familiar with Hardywood’s membership program, you can read more about it here https://hardywood.com/beer-club/ but hurry the lottery closes October 2nd, at 9pm.
You can get Suncrush at Hardywood’s Richmond, West Creek and Charlottesville taprooms by the can and in six-packs to go for $9.99.
