Albemarle CiderWorks - Brut d'Albemarle Hewes Crab
Albemarle CiderWorks - Brut d'Albemarle Hewes Crab
Albemarle Ciderworks' Brut d'Albemarle Hewes Crab is a bottle conditioned cider made in the Champagne style. A single varietal cider of the Virginia Hewes Crab was fermented in stainless steel and bottled with a small dose of yeast and sugar. The resulting cider is more carbonated than Albemarle's usual offerings, making it a great bubbly beverage for special occasions, dinner parties, and celebrations.
This rare, old Virginia cider apple produces a rich, viscous juice that ferments into a complex and well-balanced cider. These apples are tiny, yet mightly: they are about 1.5" thick on average, but packed with flavor. Its high sugar content continually results in an alcohol level of 9-10%. Virginia Hewes Crab was a staple among colonial and early American cider orchards. Thomas Jefferson grew it in Monticello’s cider orchard. It was a favored cider of George Washington. He even had Hewes Crab cider shipped to him from Mount Vernon during the Revolutionary War. It is a true American treasure.
Virginia's Albemarle Ciderworks is one of the premier American cider makers. The Shelton family founded Vintage Virginia Apples in 2000, developing an orchard with a focus on older apple varieties that had fallen into obscurity. They now grow more than 200 varieties, including many American Heirloom apple varieties that were popular for cider making during the Colonial era - when cider was the beverage of choice. The family launched their cidery in 2009, with a focus on reviving the popularity of cider apple varieties, especially those with a history rooted in their region of the U.S.
About Virginia Hewes apples, from Albemarle: VIRGINIA CRAB is also known as Hewe's Crab, Hugh's Crab and Hughes Crab. There is also a Red Hewes Crab, a seedling of the Virginia Crab, grown by a Colonel Blackburn in Paris, Illinois, before 1869. It is redder in color and larger in size. It was well described by Coxe in A View of Fruit Trees, 1817, as: "The apple is of small size; the form nearly round, the stem long and thin, the skin a dull red mixed with faint streaks of greenish yellow, and numerous small white spots. The flesh is singularly fibrous and astringent: in pressing, it separates from the liquor, which runs through the finest flannel like spring water;…my own practice is to mix the crab pomace in the vat with that of strong rich cider apples, which makes an improved liquor…The tree is of small size, the leaves though small, are of luxuriant growth…the wood hard and tough, never breaking with the load of fruit, usually produced every second year. The origin of this apple is satisfactorily traced to Virginia, where trees nearly one hundred years old, are now standing…" This means that the variety was known in 1717. Coxe continues…" The apple called Hewe's Virginia Crab differs so much from all others that the liquor extracted from it requires a system of management adapted to the peculiar qualities of the fruit." Before the development of hybrid rootstocks, the Virginia Crab was often used as an under stock because of its hardiness, compatibility to many varieties, and vigorous growth. The Virginia Crab was one of the major cider varieties that Thomas Jefferson planted in the north orchard at Monticello. It makes a very high-flavored dry cider, which maintains its quality for a long time and ferments very slowly. In Central Virginia, it ripens in September.
This cider is featured in the Press Then Press Cider Club's recent release (Winter 2026) and is reserved for club members. Join now to get this delicious cider along with a mix of other single-varietal ciders.
- Dry-to-Sweet Scale: Dry
- Tannins:
- Acidity:
- 🍎🍐 Varieties: Hewes Crabapple and Virginia Crabapple
- Features: Single-Varietal Cider
- ABV: 9.5%
- Format: 750 mL Bottle
- Shipping available across U.S.
- In stock, ready to ship
- Inventory on the way
