Brooklyn Cider House is owned and operated by Peter and Susan Yi. The story began in 2014 when Peter, previously the owner of PJs Wine and Spirits in New York City, got a taste of the traditional ciders from the Basque region during a wine trip to Spain. Up until that point, Peter had been a passionate wine lover with little interest in cider but he returned from the trip a changed man. He convinced his sister, Susan to quit her job as a teacher and within a year they had purchased a 200-acre apple orchard in New Paltz, NY. And so began their journey into cider production with the first releases in the fall of 2015.

Their sustainably farmed orchard has 110 acres of trees planted to 40 different heirloom varieties such as Kingston Black and Tremlett’s Bitter. Since a number of the trees are still quite young and not yet producing, Peter and Susan have been purchasing some fruit from nearby apple growers and cider producers.

The process for making the ciders is simple: The apples are harvested, pressed upstate and then brought down to the cidery in Bushwick for "ciderfication". The juice is fermented in stainless steel where it also undergoes malolactic for 6-9 months. It is then transferred to 80-year-old chestnut barrels (imported from Spain) and aged on the lees for about a year. Nothing is added during the process except for a little bit of SO2 at bottling.