In honor of International Women’s Day this Sunday and March being Women’s History Month, here’s a list of cideries with female owners and cidermakers that you can support the next time you go out or are perusing the drink aisles. (Read our conversations with makers from last year’s IWD here.)
Chatham Cider Works
Maureen Ahmad | Co-founder, Co-owner and Cidermaker | Pittsboro, NC
Located in the Chatham beverage district of Pittsboro, North Carolina, Chatham Cider Works is a small-batch cidery that uses Southern apples grown locally. The cider is available in keg and bottles and can be found on the shelves and on tap around the area.
Eris Brewery & Cider House
Michelle Foik and Katy Pizza, Co-owners; Hayley Shine, Head Brewer | Chicago
Foik and Pizza restored a historic Masonic Temple in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago to open the first female-owned and managed beer-making operation in the city, Eris. Their business is not only a brewery but a pub and cider house. Their head brewer, Shine hadn’t made cider prior to coming on board to Eris but that hasn’t proven a problem at all.
Eve’s Cidery
Autumn Stoscheck | Founder, Owner and Cidermaker | Van Etten, NY
Stoscheck has been doing this for a while, considering she started Eve’s Cidery at the age of 21. Her love of art and working on sustainable farms led her down the career path of cidermaker. Now Eve’s ships to 41 states and is available in stores and on tap across the New England region.
Eden Specialty Ciders
Eleanor Léger | Co-founder and Co-owner | Newport, VT
Eden is most known for its ice ciders — cider made from the juice of frozen apples. To make one 375-milliliter bottle of ice cider, it takes over eight pounds of apples to get that concentrated juice. Together, Léger and her husband purchased a farmstead in Vermont and decided they would set their sights on producing cider. Eden has since become a respected leader in the heritage cider world.
Blue Bee Cider
Courtney Mailey | Founder, Owner and Cidermaker | Richmond, VA
Mailey left the corporate world after 12 years and attended cider school at Cornell University before starting Blue Bee Cider. Richmond’s first urban cidery has become known for its artisanal ciders and resides in the old Richmond city stables in Scott’s Addition.
Naramata Cider
Miranda Halladay | Co-owner | Naramata, BC
Halladay got into the wine industry before getting into cider and co-owns Elephant Island Winery with her husband, Del. They started Naramata Cider in 2015 after a cider boom in BC and lots of testing. The move from wine to cider seemed only natural to the husband-wife team.
Urban Orchard Cider Co.
Josie Mielke | Co-owner and Cidermaker | Asheville, NC
Prior to the craft cider boom, Mielke and her husband Shiloh were making their own cider at home. Eventually, this side hobby became a family business with Mielke’s parents and brothers getting involved. Since then they opened up Urban Orchard, a craft cider brewpub a rarity in a world full of brewpubs pouring pints of beer.
Two Broads Ciderworks
Morgan Murphy and Maggie Przybylski | Co-founders, Co-owners and Cidermakers | San Luis Obispo, CA
Murphy and Przybylski are life and business partners who combined their interests in homebrewing and biology to start a cider business. Inspired by the ciders they tried in Europe they set out to make cider as Two Broads, using apples local to them like See Canyon apples. While they don’t have a tasting room right now, it’s something they hope for in the future.
Tilted Shed Ciderworks
Ellen Cavalli | Co-founder and Co-owner | Windsor, CA
Cavalli is a self-proclaimed “cider evangelist” who, besides helping with the cidermaking and managing the farm, also works for Sonoma County Farm Trails and publishes cider zine Malus. Cavalli and her husband Scott lived on a small farm in New Mexico while perfecting the art of organic market farming and growing apples for cider production. Eventually, they moved to Sonoma County to launch Tilted Shed. Cavalli was named “one of seven women moving American cider forward” by Wine Enthusiast.
Metal House Cider
Kimberly Kae | Co-founder and Co-owner | Esopus, NY
Kae and her husband do most of the picking for Metal House themselves and then sort the apples and eventually press them on a homemade rack and cloth press. It’s the definition of a boutique cidery that offers sparkling cider made from untreated Hudson Valley apples. Their cider is carried by an assortment of restaurants and bars and shops in the valley.
