BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Apple trees on the Front Range have produced more fruit this year than many people can handle, and a Colorado hard cider brewery wants to use that surplus in a community collaboration brew.
Stem Ciders put the call out on Instagram a few weeks ago and has been busy collecting apples from homeowners ever since.
People can either pick and deliver their apple donation, or they can have a team from Stem Ciders come out and do the work for them. In exchange, the donor gets free drinks, Stem Ciders gift cards and the satisfaction of knowing their apples didn't go to waste.
"We're gonna make a cider together with all the folks around the community that are willing to offer up some of their fruit for this project," Stem Ciders CEO Eric Foster said. "Once that's done we're gonna have a party for all the people who donated to the project."
A production slowdown due to less frequent shipments of apple juice from the Pacific Northwest and Michigan has allowed Stem Ciders workers time to go out and pick apples.
"The trucks and the shipping are not as reliable as they used to be," Stem Ciders Head Cider Maker Ian Capps said. "Normally, we would be gettin' shipments so regular that fun projects like this weren't really in our wheelhouse -- we really didn't have the time to do it -- so we've kinda actually benefited from our logistics problems."
The community cider project was Stem Cider co-founder Phil Kao's idea.
"On my way to work everyday I kinda see these apples -- apple trees from the side of the road -- and I was like, 'Man, all these apple trees are like ripening right now and they're really full,'" Kao said. "I grew up in Michigan. Apple picking is like a thing in Michigan."
The first few weeks of picking has yielded a wide variety of apples, and the finished product will be unique.
"We have no idea what the fruit is that we're getting," Foster said. "So, it's trying to build, you know like a building without having any idea what the materials are that you're using."
"It's going to make it a very unique cider," Capps said. "Different apples have different tannin levels and sugar levels and acid levels -- so, we really don't know what we're gonna get when we make the cider. But, that's part of the fun."
Foster says this isn't a money saver for them. Based on the labor involved, It might actually be the costliest cider they've ever produced.
It should be ready by March or April.
Earlier this year, Stem Ciders relocated their headquarters from Denver's RiNo neighborhood (where they still have a tasting room) to Lafayette (where they also have a farm-to-table style restaurant called Acreage).
