Cowgirl Creamery releases first new cheese since 2011

FILe-- Beloved Bay Area cheesemaker Cowgirl Creamery has debuted a new cheese to their line-up: Hop Along. FILe-- Beloved Bay Area cheesemaker Cowgirl Creamery has debuted a new cheese to their line-up: Hop Along. Photo: Photo Credit: Ted Thomas Photo: Photo Credit: Ted Thomas Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Cowgirl Creamery releases first new cheese since 2011 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

Here’s a bit of news for all you cheese lovers out there.

Beloved Bay Area cheesemaker Cowgirl Creamery has a new cheese on the market — the first cheese added to its roster since 2011. The new cheese, named Hop Along, joins a lineup that includes familiar Cowgirl brands like Mount Tam, Wagon Wheel and Red Hawk. (Note: Peggy Smith and Sue Conley’s Point Reyes-based business was sold to Swiss dairy company Emmi in 2016, but the founders remained as company president and vice president, respectively.)

Hop Along is an aged, semi-firm, pressed cheese. Like its cheese sibling, Red Hawk, it has a washed rind, but whereas Red Hawk is washed with a brine solution, Hop Along is washed with French cider that the makers get from a co-op in France’s Brittany region.

The cheese, which retails for $22.95/pound, is slowly being rolled out at handful of Bay Area shops and is expected to be more widely available on a local and national level in the spring. In addition to Cowgirl Creamery outposts, look for the cheese at local shops like Bi-Rite Markets (both locations), Market Hall Foods, Rainbow Grocery, Other Avenues Grocery Coop. and Petaluma Market.

Sarah Fritsche is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sfritsche@sfchronicle.com. Twitter/Instagram: @foodcentric