Pour the Core fills North Brooklyn with high-end apple ciders
Greenpoint’s Expo Center is cider Ground Zero for a traditional, yet much-varied beverage
For the third year in a row, Pour the Core schooled Brooklyn residents and aficionados of all things apple about cider. More than 40 vendors filled Greenpoint’s Brooklyn Expo Center to challenge taste buds with varieties of cider ranging from hard, fermented varieties — the consumption of which required the presence of state-issued I.D. and a designated driver — to more playful, flavored ciders. Some versions were carbonated enough to create delightful, foamy heads, while others were far denser, bottled with minimal processing and leaving fine sediment in the bottom of each glass.
“Cider’s a great anti-oxidant,” said organizer Lynda Calimano. “And it’s great for people with gluten intolerance, too.”
Not surprisingly, most of the brands on hand were craft-type ciders from small-scale bottlers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and, of course, upstate New York. One of the best-known European labels, Stella Artois, was on hand filling a third of the Expo Center with a sleek Airstream-style trailer from which samples of Stella Cidre were handed out by friendly reps.