From community drives to trail preservation and bear conservation, many cideries are doing a little more than just serving up alcohol to their community. If you’ve been looking to get behind a cause, start in the western part of the country and find out which of these cideries gives back. It’ll give you all the more reason to keep on sipping.
The Cider: Oregon Wild
The Cidery: Portland Cider Co.
The Feel-Good Details: What goes around comes back around with this Portland, Oregon, cidery. The Oregon Wild cider is made with 100 percent donated apples from drinkers in the Portland area. As part of the cidery’s PDX Apple Recycling program, the team collects and presses donated apples to make a classically scrumped cider. All of the proceeds go to Oregon Wild, the cider’s namesake and an organization determined to protect and restore the state’s wildlands, wildlife and waters.
The Cider: Desolation Prickly Pear
The Cidery: Mountain West Cider
The Feel-Good Details: Mountain West Hard Cider, a cidery out of Southern Utah wants to keep those red rock canyons breathtaking, including the land of the cider’s namesake Desolation Canyon. The company partnered with The Southern Utah Alliance, an organization that works to protect Utah’s desert wildlands, donating a portion of their proceeds from sales of Desolation. The cider that has a very subtle pink hue and melon and citrus notes from the prickly pear infusion.
The Cider: Community Cider
The Cidery: WildCraft Cider Works
The Feel-Good Details: Whether they’re fallen apples in your backyard or found in a wild spaces, WildCraft will take them. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the cidery holds an annual Community Apple Drive for their Community Cider series — ciders made by and for the community. This year’s cider is a Perennial Perry and five percent of proceeds go to the McKenzie River Trust. This organization works to protect and care for the rivers and land in Western Oregon.
The Cider: The Great Bear
The Cidery: Western Cider Co.
The Feel-Good Details: Last year, Western Cider held The Great Bear Apple Drive to collect apples from their Missoula, Montana community. The Great Bear Foundation, a bear conservation organization out of Missoula, has a very active Bear and Apple program, which helps keep bears out of your backyards by promoting the clean-up of fallen apples. Western Cider Co. collects the apples — all 15,000 pounds this last year — and just finished its very first batch of Great Bear Community Cider.
The Cider: Discovery Trail
The Cidery: Alpenfire Cider
The Feel-Good Details: Have you ever wanted to cheers with a cold cider to celebrate finishing an afternoon hike, but a six-pack of glass bottles clamoring around in your backpack is not only annoying, but heavy? Alpenfire Cider recently released its “Cider on the Go” which comes in a light 1.5-liter recyclable bag. A portion of proceeds from the still cider will go toward the completion of the Olympic Discovery Trail, a 130-mile trail open to bikers, walkers and hikers from Port Townsend, Washington, to the Pacific Coast.
The Cider: Spokane Scrumpy Cider
The Cidery: Liberty Ciderworks
The Feel-Good Details: Scrumpy ciders have the ability to masterfully create cider out of those under-appreciated and abandoned apples, including the ones you’ve been meaning to clean out of your backyard. Look no further for a place to dump them, Liberty Ciderworks saves discarded apples and turns them into a cider that benefits Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane, Washington. Collecting apples from their community to give back to the community.
