Seattle Cider Co.

Seattle Cider Co. was founded in August of 2013 by Joel Vandenbrink, and holds the distinction of being Seattle’s first cidery since prohibition!

 

After founding Two Beers Brewing in 2007, Vandenbrink decided to expand into cider making a few years later after being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease – the high gluten content of beer tends to exacerbate the symptoms of the illness, making cider a welcome alternative option. Seattle Cider Co. uses a blend of Washington grown apples and a strain of white wine yeast, and no artificial flavorings to produce their craft ciders. Seattle Cider’s ciders are also sold in cans in an effort to make craft ciders more accessible to cider newcomers. Since their debut in 2013, Seattle Cider Co. has expanded their distribution to 10 states and has quadrupled in capacity.

 

Seattle Cider produces three year-round ciders, four seasonal flavors, two limited releases, and three harvest ciders. Their tasting room, charmingly named The Woods, is located in SoDo and shares space with Two Beers Brewing.

 

Ciders at City Fruit 2015 Cider Taste:

2014 Washington Heirloom – Made with Newtown Pippin, Gravenstein, Esopus Spitzenburg, and 10 other varieties of French and English cider apples.  

Oaked Maple – Made with a blend of Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Gala apples. ermented with raisins and oak chips and back-sweetened with pure Vermont maple syrup.

Cold Brew

 

Taste these ciders and more at City Fruit’s 5th Annual Cider Taste Fundraiser on November 12th at the Pike Place Atrium! Buy tickets here.

 

 

This year, City Fruit and Seattle Cider Co. have launched a new partnership in order to put more city-grown fruit to use. Throughout the harvest season, City Fruit’s harvesters have been setting aside apples that are unfit to donate to food banks, but are ideal for cider making – while many apples have blemishes or pest damage that render them less than ideal for donation, these apples can still be used for cider. In previous years, we have composted these apples to clean up city sidewalks, prevent pests from over-wintering, and prevent them from ending up in the garbage. Converting these apples to cider goes one step further to prevent apples from going to waste entirely and supplying local fruit to a local producer.  

One harvest season and over 5,300 pounds of apples later, the City Fruit/Seattle Cider Co. cider is set to be released in late May of 2016. A portion of the proceeds from cider sales will go towards City Fruit’s 2016 harvest!

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Seattle Cider Co.

At a little over a year old, Seattle Cider Co is just a babe compared to some of the more established Washington craft cideries. But despite being the newcomer, it’s the first cidery to open in the City of Seattle since Prohibition, which thankfully ended long ago.

Joel Vandenbrink got the idea for starting Seattle Cider a few years ago when he discovered he had Crohn’s Disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. He had already founded Two Beers Brewery in 2007, but now could not consume as much beer, which is high in gluten and exacerbates Crohn’s symptoms. Drinking gluten-free cider offered a welcome reprieve.

But Joel found that buying all that craft cider was getting expensive, since much of it was only offered in wine-sized bottles. Thus, he began to view cider through the lens of beer. Why not offer cider in a smaller, more accessible can instead? He saw cider as a natural bridge between beer and wine and an opportunity to appeal to a wide demographic. Along with partners Brent Miles (who is gluten-free) and Eric Willard (whose wife is gluten-free), Joel launched Seattle Cider in August 2013.

The cidery produces two year-round ciders, the Dry and the Semi-Sweet, made from a blend of Yakima Valley dessert apples. The Dry has zero residual sugar and is one of the driest on the market, making it an appealing choice for beer drinkers. The Semi-Sweet, their top seller, is light and crisp with a touch of sweetness. Both are offered in 16-ounce cans sold in 4-packs, which make them more accessible to folks eager to dive into cider. The way Joel & Co. see it, if someone wants to try cider out, they’d rather buy a 4-pack than spend $16 on a large bottle they might not like. Even if they don’t like the 4-pack, they can share the rest with friends.

The group’s focus on branding and marketing has helped Seattle Cider grow exponentially in the last year. The website is clean and accessible, and features an educational graphic on the cider making process. Their reach is growing, with current distribution in WA, OR, AK, CA, IL, and TX, and expansion planned for WI and MN next year. Best of all, you can enjoy all of Seattle Cider’s offerings right here in the Emerald City at The Woods, a sizable tasting room in SoDo shared with Two Beers Brewing. It’s here you’ll find Seattle Cider’s unique seasonal blends like PNW Berry (a berry cider aged in red wine barrels) in addition to their regular offerings.

Of course, you can also discover Seattle Cider at City Fruit’s 4th Annual Hard Cider Taste fundraiser November 6th. They’ll be featuring the Dry and the Semi-Sweet, as well as the Pumpkin Spice seasonal and, we hope, a few limited editions like Three Pepper, which is fermented with poblano, habanero, and jalapeno peppers. Grab your Cider Taste tickets now!

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