Same same but different: Castelo Branco

Have you heard the story about a Texan making cider in southern Portugal.....

I’ve had the privilege to consume cider is some spectacular, enchanting and sensorially stimulating settings – the Fjords of Norway, the flowing folds of the Moutere Valley in New Zealand and the heart of The Shire in the UK immediately spring to mind.  Well, I can now add a cramped balcony of an apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Southern Portugal. 

Now, this is not cider country.  It’s not even apple country - it’s orange country.  And sipping intense cider in the sweltering Algarve heat whilst being lulled by the hypnotic rhythms of some kind of Peruvian shamanic music is not standard fare, either. But then nothing about Castelo Branco Cider and its owner, Joe Barfield, is standard.  But it is rather magical.

Joe’s story begins in San Antonio, Texas.  A passion for homebrewing turned into a profession, graduating to Kellermeister at Tabernash Brewing in Denver, before heading back to the Lone Star state to work for The Laboratory Brewing Co.