Old Mine Cidery's Grand Opening

The Old Mine Cidery and Tap House has been open for a few months but March 29 marked their grand opening. Mike Yeager, owner/brewer and John Jacquet, cidery partner have a really nice place that is located in downtown Erie, Colorado.

Grand Opening Day!

Mike Yeager, owner/brewer.

March 29 was the officially grand opening of the Cidery/Tap House. On this special occasion there was four ciders on tap, Handlebar (batch 2) which is a typical hard apple cider, Funky Apple is a sweet tart unfiltered hard cider that during fermentation went wild, Fresh-hopped Handlebar cider that was dry hopped with Citra hops for a crisp and citrusy finish, Chocolate Caramel Apple, this was my favorite cider that was made with cocoa nibs and Monin caramel syrup, and the Black Lung, an imperial cider with blackberries, it was another favorite of mine with an apple front end then a blackberry finish.

Black Lung and Funky Apple hard ciders.

Chocolate Caramel Apple hard cider.

There were also plenty of beer on tap with special releases. The Bruery's Bottleworks XII (slightly sour beer that was fermented with raspberries in wine barrels for a month), and White Chocolate (White Oak based that is aged in bourbon barrels for a year then cocoa niibs and vanilla beans are added to make this beer), then Dry Dock Brewing, Bligh's Barleywine (A barleywine that was aged in bourbon barrels). Each beer was release at a specific time as to be available for everyone.

White Chocolate from The Bruery.

Food is made in-house through  Jurassic Pork, dry rubbed pork that is injected with Handlebar Hard Cider the slow cooked then made for pulled pork sandwiches and Old Mine Pizza which is a 14" pie that is thin crust and made to order.

The ciders are made on the premises from Colorado or Washington apple juice. Mike has been a homebrewer for 4 years and making hard cider for 3 years. He is trying to think outside the box with fermenting apple juice right into whiskey barrels. It will be fun seeing how this process will develope.

Mike stocks a good cellar of bottle beers  from all over the country. The bottles are comparable to other tap houses in the county.

We meet so many people at the grand opening who live in Erie and were excited about having Old Mine so close that many walked there that day.

My only negative comment was that some of the beers were expensive for the amount poured. I know that the cost of kegs of rare beers is not cheap but it can add up on your bill. But I had a great time nether the less.