The hard cider business is growing fast nationwide as some consumers search for a beer alternative.
Big B’s Organic Cider in Hotchkiss has begun adding value to its organic juices, and thanks to a $30,000 Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) grant, it’s expanding production.
Shawn Larson started working at Big B’s in its Orchard Store, but now, the growing demand for cider has shifted his focus.
“I’m just doing hard cider, just producing, bottling, labeling; we’re out there selling, you know, all of those things. Hard cider is, like, the fastest-growing segment in the alcohol industry right now. Each year, it just keeps doubling and doubling and doubling. We also are one of four places in the United States that makes organic hard cider,” said head cider maker Shawn Larson.
“We’re apple growers primarily; we have all the juicing equipment, installing the fermentation tanks and the carbonation tanks was a very easy step for us to take and really putting us in a whole new business,” said Big B’s owner Jeff Schwartz. “We are going to be adding a labeling–an automatic labeling station. Those people that are labeling now will be able to go help us in the manufacturing of the hard cider.”
In addition to a labeling machine, the REDI grant has also enabled Big B’s to purchase a new bottling machine to make production more efficient and allow more workers to focus on the growing cider industry.
“Big B’s has really given a lot of jobs to the agricultural world. It has given a lot of value to fruit that otherwise would go to waste, and it’s given people in the area a sense of pride,” said Schwartz.
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