Cider House Rules!
Looking for local apple cider? We’ve listed some of Pittsburgh’s best.
‘Tis the season… to drink apple cider. Carve out a spot for one of these ciders – some hard, some not – in your happy hour!
Threadbare Cider
Inspired by Johnny Chapman – better known as Johnny Appleseed – who walked from Pittsburgh to Massachusetts wearing threadbare clothing and collecting apple seeds, Threadbare Cider conjures up “a new American cider frontier.” The sibling to Wigle Whiskey bottles farmhouse, bottle-conditioned, hopped, wild-fermented, and barrel-aged varieties, featuring everything from the classic apple cider to pineapple and rhubarb. Try their ciders in a cocktail! Find recipes here.
Arsenal Cider
Ciders come in every flavor at Arsenal Cider, a 13-year-old, award-winning maker of small-batch ciders, meads, and cider-style fruit wines. Fill up your growler with something spicy, sweet, or fruity (the ginger cider, one of their core bottles, will hook you on the first sip). A must-have: their spiked sorbet.
Apis Mead & Winery
Apis Mead & Winery celebrates one of the world’s oldest boozy beverages: mead. The Carnegie spot turns the simple, age-old mix of honey, yeast, and water into something adventurous. Find flavors like peach apricot, raspberry blackberry, goldenrod, and clover, all made with Pennsylvania honey.
East End Brewing Company
Known for their top-notch beers, East End Brewing Company – one of the first breweries in Pittsburgh – has an all-Pennsylvania apple cider on their can list: Along Came A Cider. The drink, pressed and fermented with the brewery’s ale yeast, is “light, sparkling, tart, and mildly sweet,” drinking more like a beer than a wine.
Soergel Orchards
In the zero-alcohol category, traditional pressed apple cider from Soergel Orchards has you covered. The family-owned, over-a-century-old farm churns out fresh apple cider from a mixture of Soergel-grown apples. The fruit, first turned into applesauce, is juiced and flash-pasteurized. Drink it straight from the carton or make an easy cocktail by adding a splash of bourbon, whiskey, or caramel vodka.