Meet 5 Award-Winning Cidermakers Using Poly Tanks

Salt Creek Cider House

Voted 2023 Best Cidery in Willamette Valley!

Carter and Lindy Rickert started Salt Creek Cider House, a second-generation hard cider orchard and business in Dallas, OR, in 2016 with the belief in reviving the American tradition of making hard Cider right on the farm.

“When water was scarce or scary to drink, cider was the original beverage of choice of Americans and was even used as currency. Many of us are looking for ways to reconnect to our heritage, our traditions, our community and our food. We believe in getting back to the land by growing our roots in fruit.

We began with just one Apollo Flextank and have grown our production facility to many more Apollo style Flextanks.” Lindy states.

“We really love the Flextank Apollo tank. It has made producing the Salt Creek Hard Cider much more effective and efficient!”

Runcible Cider

2023 Northwest Cider Cup ‘Specialty Fortified’ Gold Medal Winner!

Runcible Cider is the family orchard and cidery of Kelly McCune and Rob Miller, located on the rocky prairie above Mosier, Oregon. They grow over 1000 traditional cider apple trees and ferment them, sometimes along with other locally grown fruit, to make their award-winning ciders.

“The 80-Gal Dexter seemed manageable to me to start with, so those were our very first tanks!” says Kelly. “I have a lot of control because I can look into the top. And when I use Flextanks I feel really confident that I’m not going to add any ‘off’ flavor and will encounter few difficulties with production. We’ve certainly made a lot of our award winning cider in Flextanks,”

Rob adds “The main advantage of Flextanks over both stainless steel and oak barrels is their convenience. Even when they’re full, you can move them around easily within the cidery on a pallet jack. And no one every asks if our cider has been aged in oak or steel or plastic, they just like the cider! We’ll take them into our cellar and show them exactly what’s going on with our operation. If it works, it works!

The Cider Jawns

American Cider Association Cider Drinkers of the Month!

Newcomers to the industry, The Cider Jawns, is a duo of cider influencers from Philadelphia, Jasmine Mason and Ashley Johnson… and they are making quite a splash in cidermaking!

Bringing a fun and youthful energy wherever they go, The Cider Jawns recently released their first cider, labeled Monarch, in partnership with Ploughman Cider. This zesty cider was made in Flextank 300 gal Dexter tanks and is infused with Pennsylvania yellow plums and ginger.

Bringing a dedicated social media following, the Cider Jawns have been guests on multiple podcasts.

With plenty of home cider making experience, Ashley said “I had too much of our cider in my fridge. So I invited my family over and let them try some. Everyone’s feedback was really good!”

As to how they got started, Jasmine says “There are some people who look like us who drink cider, but not many that are making the cider, We wanted to change that.”

Alpenfire Cider

2023 Northwest Cider Cup Best of Show!

After years of hobby cider making and a trip to Europe to study cidermaking, in 2006 Bear and Nancy Bishop opened Alpenfire Cider, making the decision to certify both their orchard and processing organic with the USDA.

According to Nancy “Because we are certified organic, we knew that ease of cleaning and sanitation would be critical to our success and searched for tanks that would fit the bill, and that were also affordable. We found out about Flextanks back in 2008 and bought our first set!”

Nancy says “While we had planned to buy more barrels and stainless tanks, the Flextanks were so convenient and fit our needs so well that we continued to buy them over the years which allowed us to expand our operation and stay within our limited budget. We find the 300 gallon Stackers to be perfect for us, they are easy to stack away when not in use. They work equally well for small batch fermentation and for cider storage. We appreciate the micro-oxygenation that happens with the heavy wall and the fact that they can be cleaned just like our stainless tanks and barrels with hot water and sanitizers. We also love now easy it is to treat tanks with oak staves, chip or cubes, and the built in sample taps make it easy to monitor the cider.

“We have been using some of these tanks for 12 years and have never had a problem!”

Tilted Shed Ciderworks

Sonoma Magazine’s ‘Favorite Cider’ 2021

Ellen Cavalli and Scott Heathare the husband-wife team behind Sonoma county-based Tilted Shed Ciderworks; one of the finest small batch artisan cideries in California. 

“We started Tilted Shed Ciderworks in Sonoma County in 2011 in a mission to elevate the apple to greatness and show what beauty comes from our local orchards. Since then, we’ve been focusing on ciders, coferments, and distillation projects all sourced from our foodshed—supporting local organic and sustainable apple farmers and gleaning from the bounty of fruit that nature gives us here in west county. We press everything in season and practice low-intervention production, specializing in all wild fermentations, no fining or filtering, and very minimal sulfites, to allow the true expression of the fruit. At our Sebastopol farm, we also grow over 100 varieties of apples and pears, which form the basis of our estate cider called Farm Reserve, and have an experimental apple seedling nursery to foster biodiversity and hopefully result in new cider varieties. 

Ellen and Scott created Ellie’s Non-Alcoholic Cider this year after she was told to reduce her alcohol intake after a breast cancer diagnosis. 

“Not drinking cider was very disorienting. It was hard to feel connected to the business. How was I supposed to run a cider business and not drink alcohol? So Scott and I decided to figure out how to make a nonalcoholic cider that still tastes like hard cider. ” Ellie said.