Stone & Key Cellars: Sharing the Art of Creating Wine and Hard Cider

When Keystone Homebrew Supply founder Jason Harris started his company right out of college in 1992, he thought it would lead him to opening his own brewpub. Instead, Harris found his passion helping homebrewers like himself. 26 years later, Keystone Homebrew Supply is a premier provider of brewing and winemaking supplies for Mid-Atlantic homebrewers and winemakers with locations in Montgomeryville and Bethlehem.

But Harris could only keep himself from making his own products for so long. Stone & Key Cellars was started five years ago in a space designed and built for the purpose next to Keystone Homebrew’s store in Montgomeryville. The space would become the base for his new enterprise, where Harris used his 21 years of homebrewing knowledge to create his own wine and cider, educating the surrounding community about the art of fermentation along the way.

Kate Coots, events manager at Stone & Key Cellars says a major part of Stone & Key’s  mission is building a community—one very dedicated to wine and its creation.

“It’s really about how this process brings people together,” said Coots. “It’s part of a history—of families often, and friendships. There’s a lot of camaraderie around not just drinking, but making these products together.”

Stone & Key Cellars offers its customers the opportunity to create their own wine alongside its winemaker. Winemaking is for anyone interested in the process, from the experienced connoisseur to the new wine-drinker. The whole process is customized and takes 9 to 10 months to complete. It begins by selecting grapes from vineyards in Washington and California—the same as those used by Stone & Key—and ends with bottling complete with custom labels. There are also taste tests at key points in the process.

“Education is really central to what we want to be doing,” said Coots. “We want to be inviting people into the process, teaching them about it and developing a love of not just the product, but the process.”

Participants have the option of taking home a quarter, half or full barrel’s worth of their own wine.

Winemakers just starting to explore the process can also join Stone & Key’s Quarter Barrel Club to make their own wine alongside others who love the art. The club makes six barrels together and each of the 24 shares includes one case from each. In the end, each share takes home six cases, one of each varietal (72 bottles in total) at a discounted price and accompanied by a wealth of new friends and experiences.

“It’s a good way to meet other wine-enthusiasts and people excited to learn about the process. They learn a lot from each other,” said Coots.

In addition to its goal of community involvement, Stone & Key’s creations have also seen success in various competitions around the country. Its wines regularly score silver and bronze in competitions, but its best achievement is a double gold distinction for its 2014 Cabarnet Sauvignon at the 2017 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.

“Everyone heard me scream like a 12-year old girl when we won that double gold,” said Matt Check, the head winemaker.

Stone & Key also offers an impressive and ever-changing line of hard ciders, which have also won multiple Pennsylvania cider awards. It’s most popular is a Cherry Pie Hard Cider with the tartness and color of a very popular type of wine.

“We like to say we were a rosé cider, before rosé ciders were cool,” said Coots.

Stone & Key’s tasting room in Montgomeryville opens at 10AM Monday through Saturday. It closes at 7PM on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, while staying open until 9PM on Fridays. On Sundays it is open 11AM to 5PM. The tasting room also hosts many public and private events for the community throughout the year and invite live music and food trucks to complement the amazing drinks.

In the future, Stone & Key hopes to expand to more tasterooms in and around Montgomery County, while maintaining its community approach to winemaking

Whether you’re old or new to wine, there’s always something to explore at Stone & Key Cellars!