Cider Summit Seattle kicks off Friday
Published 10:40 am Friday, September 5, 2014
For Alan Shapiro, producer of the Summit Cider Seattle, the idea for a city-wide cider festival came from a friend.
Sitting and chatting about the burgeoning cider industry with Pete’s Wicked co-founder Mark Bronder in 2008, Shapiro was reminded what it was like for the early craft brewers.
“Mark is very insightful and he said ‘You know this sounds a lot like the craft beer industry when we got Pete’s going,’” said Shapiro. “He reminded me that beer was a mystery; people didn’t know it came in brown color. He said ‘I think what you need for cider is a festival to remove the mystery.’”
Two years later Shapiro held the first Summit Cider Seattle, drawing around 400 attendees to enjoy 43 different ciders. Now celebrating its fifth anniversary, Summit Cider Seattle will have more cideries this year than they had ciders in its first incarnation and is expecting more than 4,000 attendees this weekend. Cider Summit Seattle takes place Friday from 3 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from noon-6 p.m. at South Lake Union Discovery Center in Seattle.
Herald writer Aaron Swaney (@swaney_aaron79) will be tweeting today from Cider Summit Seattle.
The Cider Summit’s growth mirrors the industry’s growth as a whole. At local pubs, cider taps are nudging into space usually vacated by craft beer, while stores are making more and more shelf space for ciders in their beer coolers.
“We’ve seen massive growth over the past few years,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro points to the mass appeal of Samuel Adams-owned Angry Orchard as a gateway for those curious about cider. “The bigger companies like Angry Orchard have made people more accepting of the cider category,” Shapiro said.
The Cider Summit has grown to three other cities: Portland in 2011, Chicago in 2013 and Berkeley this past April.
One of the biggest Seattle cideries, Seattle Cider Company, will be in attendance. SCC Founder Joel VandenBrink opened the cidery a little over a year ago in response to the growth of the industry.
“You have a generation of young professionals who are spending more time out and they want better choices when it comes to drinking something,” said VandenBrink, who opened Two Beers Brewing five years ago after moving to Seattle from Michigan for graduate school. “If they’re going to spend money, they want to do it on something they enjoy.”
VandenBrink said he’s going to miss the upcoming Cider Summit Seattle because he’s taking a three-week vacation. “It’s the first vacation I’ve had in my life,” VandenBrink said, laughing.
For more information on Northwest cider, visit www.nwcider.com.
Cider Summit Seattle
The fifth anniversary of the Cider Summit Seattle takes place on Friday, Sept. 5 from 3 to 8 p.m. at South Lake Union Discovery Center in Seattle. There will be 32 different cidermakers on hand to guide guests through samplings (4-ounce tasters). Tickets are $25 for general admission in advance and $35 for VIP, which includes four extra tasting tokens and early admission on Friday for the VIP hour. General admission tickets are $30 at the door (cash only). They can be purchased via Stranger Tickets, at all Seattle metro area Whole Foods locations, Umpqua Bank South Lake Union, and at select bottleshops. VIP tickets are $35, available online via the event website.
