Mountain West Hard Cider started with a dream. A trip to Ireland revealed to founders Jeff and Jennifer Carleton the age old tradition of dry ciders. Upon their return to the states, they found locating high-quality, dry ciders to be a challenge. After extensive research, Jeff and Jennifer took the plunge and started Utah’s first dedicated cidery, located in Salt Lake City.

In the past five years, Mountain West has grown to be the most popular cidery in the state by cider sales, solid reputation and in our efforts to give back. We have partnered with several Utah-based nonprofits to help the community by donating a portion of sales revenue, hosting donation drives and raising funds for these organizations. We support local artists by hosting various events where artists and artisans alike can sell their goods, musicians can perform and creative communities can come together. As a result, Mountain West  has developed a loyal fan following. Many cider drinkers gravitate toward local, small and independent producers. Local and sustainable, high-quality products are in high demand amongst consumers, further fueling hard ciders’ popularity.

Mountain West Hard Cider opened its doors for sales in 2015, and to date produces 5 year-round styles, several seasonal offerings, and a rotating small batch series of hard ciders, all of which are gluten-free. Each crafted with all-natural ingredients, free from artificial aromas, colors, and flavors.

Each Mountain West cider is produced on a small scale and is unique in that every batch is slightly different than the last – adding to its artisan feel. They produce the cider in their manufacturing site utilizing the traditional, old world style methods with modern equipment.

Despite the increasing popularity of craft beverages and hard cider, the Mountain West region of the US is still largely untouched by the craft hard cider scene that dominates the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes and Eastern seaboard. While craft beer production has skyrocketed in the past several years, the presence of a company that exclusively produces gluten-free, all natural cider hasn’t existed.

Contributing to hard cider’s success is its consumers shift to bolder, more diverse and upscale alcoholic offerings. Hard cider is a versatile base allowing for a variety of flavors that appeal to a broader audience.

Hard Cider, especially those small and regional cideries have created a new niche in the alcoholic beverage industry. Regional and local hard ciders currently account for more than 40% of industry sales and that trend is expected to continue for years to come.

The US cider industry has experienced double-digit sales growth year over year since 2014. Utah, and the middle states of the country have always been “late to the game” or lagged behind in adopting new trends, ideas and fads. Mountain West feels they are on the cusp of explosion and primed for expansion.

Mountain West sees an opportunity to grow the brand through expansion. We aim to expand distribution into other states, increasing production capacity and embark on a taproom and restaurant buildout for the local community to gather.

Mountain West operates as both a manufacturer and retailer, so our customers can purchase our products directly from the source. We remain the only manufacturer in the state that exclusively produces hard-cider, which allows us to focus all of our efforts on creating a line of products that reflect the quality and tradition of the process. 

As a retail or on-premise establishment, consumers can purchase our product 7 days a week for consumption off-site and take advantage of smaller batch offerings.

On-premise sales, specifically through our Tasting Room and Garten Bar experienced steady growth year over year. Mountain West operates the cidery as a community gathering and local hangout for good drinks, live music, entertainment and food trucks.

We have won multiple local accolades, and want to build on our established, loyal customer base by building out a restaurant to complete the customer experience and seize on the opportunity and also expanding beyond Utah. This requires new, larger infrastructure, equipment, vehicles, staffing support, and so on.

Our facility has 10,000 square foot workable space inside and 8,000 sq ft in event space. While the facility serves as the home base for the manufacturing and sale of cider, we possess a full-bar license where customers can enjoy their ciders or any of the products from their Utah-focused bar menu. The cidery and surrounding outdoor space have made the venue an excellent location to host weddings, private events/parties, company celebrations and even full-scale event exhibitions. 

We are eager to capitalize on the space and expand the business.

Alcohol sales in Utah have been climbing year over year, reaching a record height of $479 million in fiscal 2018-2019. Overall, cider retail sales revenue is 10x what it was 10 years ago, with 40% of consumers between ages 21 and 29.

Consumption of hard cider among young adults has increased significantly. This demographic appeals to the local nature of the product, innovative packaging, and diversity in flavors. While Generation X consumers (43-55 year olds) are taking to craft beer and hard cider in significant numbers, it’s the millennial generation (25-42 year olds) that is accounting for much of the growth and a considerable share of cider sales. (Sundance Research, 2020). The cider Industry benefits from health-conscious and gluten-free trends. It has seen a significant increase in sales to consumers who prefer a healthier alternative to other alcoholic options.

On-premise cider sales are 4.5X larger than flavored malt beverage sales and statistically speaking, cider drinkers visit and spend money at on-premise establishments more often than beer drinkers. Regional and local cider now makes up ⅓ of cider retail sales and 17 out of 25 of the top cider brands are regional or local brands. 

Mountain West has experienced significant revenue growth since inception and, based on revenue, we are the #2 Cider in Utah; which also makes Mountain West the #1 most purchased local cider year-over-year. We have been voted City Weekly Utah’s “Best Cider” every year since we’ve been in business and have won awards for our ciders both locally and nationally. 

• Yelp- The Top 24 cideries in the USA (2020)
• City Weekly Readers Choice Awards (2018)

  • “Best Hard Cider” brand of 2018

• Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition (2018)

  • Silver medal in “Hopped Cider” category for Cottonwood Cider

  • Bronze medal in “Fruit Cider” category for Desolation Cider

• City Weekly Readers Choice Awards (2017)

  • “Best Cider 2017” for our Cottonwood Cider

• World Cider Championships (2016)

  • Silver medal
• North American Brewers Association (2016)

  • Silver medal for Excellence in Brewing

• Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition (2016)

  • Silver medal in “Modern Cider” Category for our 7-Mile Cider

  • Bronze medal in “Modern Cider” category for our Ruby Cider

Since inception, Mountain West Cider has partnered with several not-for profit organizations in our community. Beginning in 2016 , our partnership with local Community Supported Agriculture and food-share agency Green Urban Lunchbox afforded us the opportunity to produce a hyper-local cider using fruit harvested within a 25-mile radius of Salt Lake City. A portion of proceeds from each bottle sold are donated to Green Urban Lunchbox to fight hunger and food insecurity in the state.

Partnerships with local small business and nonprofits, such as the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, (SUWA), Utah Humane Society, Utah’s Pride Center, Mark Miller Subaru and The Subaru Share the Love Event, to name a few, enable us to broaden our efforts and assist in fundraising for causes and the communities we support and call home.

Mountain West’s award-winning hard cider varieties include Ruby, 7-Mile, Cottonwood, Desolation and Sweet Alice Sweet. All ciders are made using a blend of apples sourced from the Mountain West Region and are free of artificial aromas, colors, and flavors.  Our ciders are available in our retail store and taproom, state controlled liquor stores and on- premise locations around the state.

As a result of the pandemic, Mountain West Hard Cider partnered with Bevv.com, direct to consumer e-commerce platform to offer a variety of ciders to consumers in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and Nevada. We have seen a steady sales increase on this platform and will add more states in the coming months.

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Location, location, location! Mountain West Hard Cider not only operates as a manufacturer of hard cider, but our expansive outdoor space and bar are situated in the heart of the growing West Capitol Hill neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah’s largest city. Our proximity to many newly developed luxury housing complexes, the SLC International Airport, sports venues, entertainment venues and the downtown area make Mountain West Hard Cider  a sought-after and convenient space to gather. Coupled with the fact that we offer retail sales on Sunday, many out-of-state residents find solace in our near constant accessibility. 

From 2015 to 2019 a large portion of our sales were attributed to the State of Utah and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control meaning that our principle lines of cider have been made available across the state in nearly every county for consumers. In addition to the supply and demand of the state-run stores, we have built strong relationships with bars and restaurants throughout the state of Utah amounting to hundreds of establishments serving one or more of our products. 

We saw an opportunity to bring our love of hard cider to an underserved community and we seized it!! As of now, Mountain West Hard Cider is the only exclusive hard cider manufacturer operating in Utah, meaning that though there are producers of hard apple cider in the state, they primarily produce other alcoholic and or non-alcoholic beverages whereas we only produce dry, hard cider. 

The expansion of Mountain West Hard Ciders has been swift and effective. Within the next 5 years, we aim to be a $5-$7 million gross revenue cider manufacturer and distribution company, as well as a bar/restaurant owner and management organization. In-state sales will continue to grow with the addition of new ciders and the transition to cans, and our costs will continue to decrease as our volumes grow and we negotiate more favorable agreements with our vendors.

Our current operation is scalable, and we can increase production volumes with limited additional expenses. We plan to begin production and distribution in states across the country and we are actively pursuing out-of-state distribution opportunities. Currently we ship our products to select states through a third-party direct to consumer platform, but our overall goal is to have direct relationships with resellers in surrounding states. 

Currently, state-level legislation is actively being lobbied for, which would change the current regulations regarding the sale of high ABV products by retailers like grocery and convenience stores. The pandemic events of 2020 have led many local bars and restaurants to lead new efforts to change the restriction on “to-go” items and zoning restrictions for outdoor drinking areas. All of these efforts have begun to shift the narrative at a state level and have opened the door for more clear and concerted lobbying efforts. 

Additionally, fundraising will support the addition of a restaurant in our current space. Pro forma expectations would indicate a $300,000 addition to net revenues. In the next 5 years, we would like to add an additional cider-centric brew pub. We’ve been approached by multiple developers but want to get the current space at our location ready for full-scale service first. 

The founding members of Mountain West Hard Cider, Jeff and Jennifer Carleton saw the chance to bring their love for hard cider and knack for business together in a way that would make craft cider locally available for the first time. They were fortunate to have recruited Joel Goodwillie, a wine-making veteran, who had retired from his own successful business in the industry and was quick to hop on board. With the idea and plans in tow, Larissa Brown joined the team in the first year to take direction of Sales and Account Management. Today, the Mountain West team is composed of the same four cider-loving people, but has grown to include a marketing department and full bar staff. Mountain West is a place that truly feels like home, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Mountain West Hard Cider is a family-owned and operated business that came to fruition because of the love that our owners have for not only the region that we operate in, but the tradition behind the craft.  We source ingredients with sustainability and quality as the core of our criteria for our suppliers. Creating cider that tastes good and does good for our community is the cornerstone of the operation. We are dedicated to making a positive impact in the space that we thrive in. Through partnerships with non-profit organizations and fellow brewers in the valley, we seek to make every day a day fit for celebration. We make cider because we love it, but we sell it because our customers love it more. Backed by a community of loyal customers who share in our passion for cider, we are ready for the next level of nationwide distribution, and we can’t wait to have you on board!