Our Approach
We specialize in hand-crafted hard cider, cider-style fruit wine, and mead. The trees we planted in our orchard were selected especially for hard cider. This includes apple varieties like Roxbury Russet, Kingston Black, St. Martins, Hewes Crab, Harrison, Bulman’s Norman, and Dabinett. These cultivars, add a tremendous amount of complexity and richness to the ciders. We have taken over the management of an older orchard, which has allowed us to add other apples to our hard ciders. These apple varieties include Winesap, Cameo, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, and Macintosh.
Our Story
Brother Monk Ciderworks came into existence in February 2017 by Dan and Joe Holoubek, after years of experimenting with home-brewed beer, cider, and meads. Joe and Dan had the idea of starting a winery that would specialize in craft hard cider, cider-style fruit wines, and mead. So we spent two years looking for a location to start the new cidery. In the fall of 2016, we found a 24-acre farm on the eastern border of Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The land looked to be great for growing apple trees; so we acquired it. In the spring of 2017, with the help of family and friends, over 1,000 apple trees were planted. Then in the summer of 2018, we produced our first ciders. Over the next few years, we have added over 1000 additional apple trees. We have also planted a few pear and quinces trees. We have started the planning for a tasting room at the farm, so stop by the website and we will update you as we can.