We only use native yeast and take a hands-off, minimalist approach to fermentation.  We never add sugar, fine, or filter our cider or perry.  Instead, we let the fruit speak for itself creating unique variation from season to season in our finished beverages.

Our ciders come from blends of apples grown here in our two orchards, 3 miles apart in the Finger Lakes and from a few select feral or wild seedling trees in southern Seneca County NY. Some of our apples are modern types such as Crimson Crisp, Goldrush and Spigold.  Old American apple varieties like Newtown Pippin, Roxbury Russet, Northern Spy, Baldwin, King David, R.I. Greenings, Grimes Golden and many others. International varieties like Collaos, Major, Kingston Black, Harry Masters Jersey, Reinette Franche, Holstein Pippin, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Ashmead’s Kernel, St. Edmunds Russet, Ribston Pippin, Blenheim Orange, Karmine and others.  We continue to harvest and scout the surrounding area for useful wild apples to ferment and propagate.  Please visit our farm website to learn more about our apples.

Perry is the noblest of the pome fruit beverages, delicate in flavor and a bit rare due to the horticultural traits of pears.  Our perry comes from blends of pears grown here in our two Finger Lakes orchards and a few select wild trees in the Finger Lakes. We use a small amount of old American varieties like Seckel, Dana Hovey and Honey Sweet in the final blend.  A significant part of the blend were “once wild/feral” pears that we harvested, evaluated and eventually grafted trees from within an 8 mile radius of the cidery.  Some of the wild discoveries that we’ve named like Lemon, Corral and Cheese are taking up a significant amount of trees in our newer pear plantings. The other varieties that we add are a mix of strangely named fruit from European origins; Barnet, Butt, Yellow Huffcap, Hendriks Huffcap, Gin, Brandy and others.   We have planted many species pears and several interesting selections of subsp. pyraster and subsp. caucasica. The unique blend of pears from year to year create a changing array of flavors, acidity and tannins, while maintaining our “signature style” perry.  Please visit our farm site at Daring Drake Farm for more information on some of our pears.