In the heart of the city, and farther afield, tour some of Philadelphia’s top-notch cideries
Philadelphia has a handful of cideries, creating a small, but vibrant, cider scene in the city where the food and beverage landscape is on fire with creativity and quality.
Let’s look at the cideries in Philly where you can get your cider fix — plus more. Because of the way Pennsylvania handles licensing, most of the cideries, wineries, distilleries and breweries in the state can also carry other alcoholic beverages, provided they are made within the state. This makes it possible for cideries to offer creative cider cocktails mixed with Pennsylvania spirits, or serve beer and wine alongside their offerings.
A city Cider Crawl
Three of the city’s cideries are close enough to one another that, if you’re ambitious, it’s possible to take a day and visit them all.
Commonwealth Ciders
Commonwealth Ciders (2440 Frankford Avenue) – Located in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, Commonwealth Ciders shares a space with Philadelphia Brewing Co. Built in 1885 as the Weisbrod & Hess Oriental Brewing Co., the original brewery made it through Prohibition by brewing “soda.” It’s now the production facility and tasting room for the beer and cider brands. Cozy is the best word to describe Commonwealth’s tasting room, courtyard and patio. It is colorful and full of eclectic, second-hand decor that creates the feeling of a living room inside, and a friend’s backyard outside.
Commonwealth sources its apples from a local company that imports organic Turkish apple juice, choosing to work with juice from the region of the world where apples most likely originated. The cidery regularly makes four ciders that are put only in 12-ounce bottles: traditional, ginger (their most popular), razzberet (raspberry) and cherry. Locals will recognize the flavor in the cherry cider as similar to that of the Philly regional Black Cherry Wishniak soda. The flavoring comes from the same local company, and the cider is a tasty throwback to childhood memories. A hopped cider on draft rounds out their offerings.
All of Commonwealth’s ciders are dry and make great ingredients for cocktails. For instance, the “It’s Always Stormy,” is a combination of local rum, lime, ginger cider and ginger brandy. It’s a riff on a Dark and Stormy and takes its name from the classic cocktail and the TV show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
Open seven days a week, the weekdays are generally the quieter times in the tasting room. Commonwealth hosts a weekly open mic night, a Quizzo night and food trucks on Friday. Customers are welcome to bring food into the cozy space, and there are two excellent pizza places nearby: OG Pizza and Pizza Brain.
Original 13 Ciderworks
Original 13 Ciderworks (1526 North American Street) – Located about a mile south of Commonwealth Ciders, it’s an easy walk with no busy streets to cross to get to Original 13 Ciderworks.
You won’t find Original 13 on the cidery’s packaging. Original 13 is the name of the taproom, the first to open in the city in 2013. Original 13 makes Sir Charles Cider, the label you’ll find on the packaging.
Original 13 has a bar feeling, complete with a kitchen that serves wings, chicken sandwiches, burgers, hand cut fries, and a variety of vegetarian and vegan options like Brussels sprouts, a customer favorite. The in-house food options mean customers can’t bring in any outside food.
The cidery’s core ciders include the flagship Original Semi-Dry, semi-dry Deep Blueberry Sea, Atacama Bone Dry, and semi-sweet Strawberry Valkyrie. Seasonal offerings can include the semi-dry peach in spring/summer, pumpkin in the fall and cranberry in the winter. They also make mead, apple wine and a dry cyser.
Open six days a week, Original 13 hosts plenty of events. The first Friday of the month, they bring in work from local artists and a DJ. They hold immensely popular weekly Quizzo nights. When Covid-19 kept people socially distant, they hosted it online to keep the community in touch. The tasting room has a definite community vibe, partially because it’s off the beaten path and is a big draw for its immediate neighbors.
In May, the cidery is planning a “Made on American Street” festival, hosting about 20 other establishments, including cideries, breweries and distilleries. There will be live music, too.
Hale & True
Hale & True (613 South Seventh Street) – Hop in a car or call a rideshare and head three miles south to the third cidery in the cider walk, located in Philadelphia’s Bella Vista neighborhood.
Hale & True sources apples from nearby Weaver’s Orchard, and the cidery’s offerings are a showcase of the diversity cider can be. The Standard is a blend of six varieties of Pennsylvania apples made with wine yeast. Hale to Hop is a cider dry hopped for five days with Citra hops. Those two are always on tap.
A rotation of other regular ciders, plus experimental batches, completes the offerings. The Bee Sting is sweetened with local alfalfa honey and ginger. Hit ’Em High adds ginger and hibiscus after fermentation to keep the flavors bright. And the Basement Series, experimental batches released every once in a while, currently has a cider made with coffee and cocoa nibs, Belgian rock candy, syrup, Willamette hops, and a bit of lactose. It’s a flavor roller coaster.
Open five days a week, customers can bring in food. Along with their selection of cider, cocktails, wine and beer, Hale & True has also added zero-proof cocktails to their menu. On Fridays, they invite local food vendors to pop up in the space. And, they’re the only cidery in the city to offer a cidermaking course, teaching the process from apple to glass. Students leave with all the resources needed to make cider at home.
A Cidery worth the Drive
Young American
Young American (6350 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia) – The fourth cidery in Philadelphia is in the northwest Germantown neighborhood. It can take a half hour by car from the center of Philadelphia to get there, but it’s worth the drive. The cidery’s name is inspired by David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” as well as a nod to the fact that Germantown is older than most of the city.
Opened in November 2020, Young American prides itself on including everyone in its space. A neighborhood watering hole, the staff greets regulars by name. The establishment’s kitchen cooks up flaky crust hand pies, quiches, soft sourdough pretzels and other delicious “elevated comfort foods.”
They craft small batch, unfiltered ciders from fresh-pressed Pennsylvania apples grown at Solebury Orchards. Most of the offerings are dry; any cider that isn’t dry has “sweet” in its name. Traditional, Tart Cherry and Very Ginger are the flagships of the tasting room. Seasonal offerings change regularly, and they also make a non-alcoholic, kid-friendly Cider Fizz.
The community-minded, queer-friendly and family-friendly space hosts game nights on Wednesdays, with no electronics involved. When they host live music, it’s always local musicians. The building — built before 1840 — is close to the street, but its outdoor space is secluded from the sidewalk and street by a fence.
It’s worth sticking around the neighborhood to visit some of its historical sites, like the Johnson Historic Site, an Underground Railroad Station and Center for Social Advocacy, and the Wick House and Garden, an ancestral home to one Philadelphia family for nine generations.
Cider to Keep On Your Radar
Ploughman Farm Cider – Located in Adams County, where many of Pennsylvania’s orchards are planted, Ploughman is about two-and-a-half hours outside Philadelphia. Their ciders are beloved in the city and Ploughman sells at the year-round Headhouse Farmers Market in Philadelphia on Saturdays and Sundays.
Dressler Estate – This family-owned cidery in Chester County does not have a tasting room, but it makes fine, food-friendly ciders and sells at the Rittenhouse Farmers Market in Philadelphia on the fourth Sunday of every month.
Cider Belly – This small batch craft cidery is opening a taproom in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill community soon.
Philly Cider Week – This annual weeklong series of events held in the fall celebrates orchard-driven cider, with a focus on Pennsylvania cideries that highlight locally grown apples.
