In Seattle, we love cider.
Did you know that Seattleites consume more cider per capita than almost any other city in the country (Portland is #1)? At City Fruit Celebrates, our annual harvest celebration on October 17, our beverage of choice is hard cider, fruit trees’ favorite beverage!
So why do we love cider so much?
- Apples, duh! Cider’s primary ingredient is our state’s official fruit, apples, and Washington state grows about 60% of all apples grown in the U.S.. And, Washington is also home to so many varieties of apples, from heirlooms to modern varieties, giving cider makers a lot of choices to experiment with.
- Traditions live on Around here, we not only have an abundance of fruit but also rich history of apple pressing. People have been pressing apples and turning them into delicious hard or fresh cider for generations. And it is often a collaborative effort that brings family members and neighbors together and gives us fond memories to share.
- Talented cider makers Quality local ingredients + entrepreneur spirits = a burgeoning cider industry. In fact did you know Washington state ranks 4th nationally in the number of cideries? And lucky you, there will be over a dozen of them at City Fruit Celebrates on October 17 and you’ll get to taste their fine, fruit-forward creations.
Here are the cider makers who will be helping us celebrate with their delicious ciders at this year’s City Fruit Celebrates:
Bainbridge Island Hard Ciders
Bainbridge Island Hard Ciders was founded in 2015 by an avid cidermaker who had been making cider at home for over 15 years on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle. Bainbridge Island Hard Ciders specializes in small-batch, high ABV ciders.
Brownrigg Hard Cider
Brownrigg Hard Cider is a small batch urban cidery located in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle. The owner and cidermaker Chris Brownrigg used to make cider as a hobby for 10 years before he opened Brownrigg Hard Cider in 2017. He only uses fresh pressed juice from Washington State apples, including some that he grows in his orchard in West Seattle. He is a fruit enthusiast and has over 40 fruit trees that include apples, grapes, figs, currants and hops, and many of them are used in his cider creations to offer unique flavor profiles.
Channel Marker Cider
Channel Marker Cider’s recipes are inspired by the maritime climate and adventurous spirit of Seattle. They source, forage and grow many of their ingredients from around the Sound (and their own backyard). Channel Marker Cider blends fresh apples from east of the Cascade Mountains with innovative, natural ingredients from the west to produce small-batch, handcrafted ciders.
Chatter Creek Ciders
Chatter Creek was originally founded as a winery in 1996 in Woodinville by a wine industry veteran Gordon Rawson. In 2015, based on the belief that cider is essentially a wine made from apples, Gordon decided to return to his roots and apply his considerable winemaking experience to making fine ciders using Washington State apples.
Eaglemount Wine and Cider
Eaglemount Wine and Cider’s journey began on the Olympic Peninsula where they the original 1883 Homestead Farm on Eaglemount. They started making hard cider and using 22 varieties of apples from their homestead orchard in 1996, and official started a small artisan winery and cidery in 2006.
Finnriver Farm & Cidery
Finnriver Farm & Cidery was founded in 2008, right on the heels of the craft cider resurgence in the PNW. It was built based on the founders’ belief in organic agriculture, rural economy and ecological restoration, and it is now an award-winning cidery, thriving orchard, and tourist destination in the Chimacum Valley on the Olympic Peninsula.
Greenwood Cider
At Greenwood Cider, they make cider the hard way. Hand-pressed, hand-picked, and left to mature longer, their cider is dry, distinct, and designed with the discerning drinker in mind. Greenwood Cider sources apples and pears from large and small producers alike, and forage heirloom and wild apples from homesteads and abandoned orchards for complexity and flavor only found in their ciders.
Idun Cider
Idun Cider is a relative newcomer who is focused on using heirloom fruit from the Pacific Northwest. Their flagship offering is a dry New World styled cider using a blend of gravenstein, winesap, and newtown pippin heirloom apples, for a tart apple forward cider.
Idun Cider is named after Idun, the Norse goddess of apples, springtime, and youthfulness. They believe in a product that is 100% local, 100% fresh, with all premium cider apples from the start!
Republic of Cider
Republic of Cider is built on bridging communities and cultures by offering products that appeal to the specific tastes of many of the diverse cultures on The Pacific Coast. Republic of Cider promotes diversity in their people and develop their product lines with their ideas. Their first wave of offerings are inspired by the Cultures of Taiwan, Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest. Republic of Cider is majority women/minority owned, and their chief cider maker is a talented woman who is an award winning cider maker who has worked for cideries in Oregon and Washington, and brings a high level of technical expertise.
Schilling Hard Cider
Schilling Hard Cider was founded by cidermaker Colin Schilling in 2012. Colin began making cider at the tender age of 14 on his family’s Idaho farm, and cider making has been a family tradition since the 70’s. Today, Schilling Cider focuses on creating innovative, bold flavors while using 100% fresh-pressed apples, locally sourced ingredients, and hand-selected yeast strains to create a cider experience that is truly unique. Colin is also passionate about educating consumers about craft cider – and what’s not craft cider. To further support that effort, Schilling Hard Cider also offers cider-making classes, generally on the second Saturday of each month (September – February).
Seattle Cider Company
When Seattle Cider Company opened in 2013, it was lauded as the first cidery to produce cider in the city limits since prohibition. Challenging the notion that cider has to be overly sweet, Seattle Cider Company focuses on creating flavorful ciders with limited sweetness using all natural ingredients and fresh pressed Washington apples. In 2015 City Fruit and Seattle Cider Company forged a partnership in an effort to find a new use for slightly damaged apples. With the mutual desire to add value to otherwise unutilized apples, Seattle Cider Company started making City Fruit Cider using the apples harvested by City Fruit.
Snowdrift Cider Company
Snowdrift Cider Company crafts their ciders from great cider apples that they grow on their orchard in sunny East Wenatchee, WA. The incredible region gives their trees the ideal conditions to grow apples packed with the flavors necessary to produce fine ciders. Hot sunny summers and cold snowy winters result in apples that mature with incredible aromatics and delicious flavors. When ripened to perfection, they pick these apples and craft them with the utmost care into fine cider blends, resulting in rich ciders full of delicious complexity.
Tieton Cider Works 
From branch to bottle, Tieton Cider Works controls every aspect of the growing and cidermaking process. It boasts the largest orchard of cider varieties in Washington State and the largest Perry pear orchard in the United States. Tieton Cider Works blends their cider fruit with all Washington apples. They have been growing apples, apricots, cherries, and pears on Harmony Orchards – their family farm – since the 1930’s, and are thrilled to be involved in reinterpreting the tradition of cider making.
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City Fruit Celebrates
Thursday, October 17, 6:00-9:00pm
415 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
This is a 21-and-over-only event.