We’re taking a break from craft beer this episode, and focusing on a local, grass roots cider maker in St. Charles, IL. Many of you home-brewers will already know Ed Seaman’s Home Brew Store at the corner of Rt 64 and 3rd Street, which has undergone a transformation to a combination cidery and winery, home brew store, and tap room now called Broken Brix Home Brew Shop.

Joining The Brit, Phil Clark, is co-hosts Chuck Fort from Church Street, and all the way from Boise ID., Mark Naski. Ed is joined by his son, Mike Seaman who runs the taproom side of the business.

We sample the current three cider offerings from Ed, and bookend their offerings with a couple of bottles arbitrarily selected by The Brit. We taste and talk about cider, which is fast becoming the secondary offering in many brewery tap rooms as an alternative for those who don’t want the hops, or can’t have the hops for medical reasons.

And Ed also cracked open a classic farmhouse cider from France, just to show us that ciders can be as good as Belgian farmhouse beers!

So just bear in mind, that 2 Fools is NOT the only local creator of good ciders despite being on tap at many of our breweries, and we encourage you to head out and visit St. Charles and Broken Brix Tap Room.

Stick around for the bonus beer review!

Ciders Sampled:

• Aspall’s Dry English Cider
• Broken Brix, Social Cider
• Broken Brix, Scrumpy Cider
• Broken Brix, Barrel-aged Cider with Cherry
• Crispin Artisanal Reserve, The Saint
• Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie, 2016

 

Bonus Beer Review:
Goldwater Brewing, Hundred Dollar Pilsner, 4.6%