I originally grew up in Mukilteo but began making cider back in 2012, when my wife and I were living in an apartment in Queen Anne. At the time, cider wasn’t popular and was simply considered a sweet alternative to beer, so I wanted mine to be on the more traditional side (crisp and less sweet) and thought I'd apply my love for beer as well.

      

By experimenting with hops, various yeasts, and other ingredients, my hope was to give my cider more of a beer-like profile. I made a lot of hard cider in our tiny apartment and loved getting feedback from my wife, friends, and family. I also learned a lot about how to improve my cider through a very small, but active cider community that existed at the time.

     

After coming up with a few solid recipes, I decided to start Grizzly Cider. We had recently moved to Mill Creek, so I found a space in Woodinville to start commercial production of my product. Grizzly Cider was the first hard cider company in Woodinville. Naturally, I had to make

sure my cider was on tap somewhere close to our house, and thankfully, Bryan and his team at Elliott Bay Pizza were supportive and always put us on tap. 

     

Grizzly did fairly well for a small operation. I won awards and had product in several states, but after a few years, I had to stop and focus on my career/full time job and my family. Still, that didn't keep me from continuing to experiment with my ciders at home. Then, about six years ago, my parents bought a piece of property on Camano Island that came with a pole barn. After some thought, my dad asked if I'd like to make cider again so, with the help of my parents and brothers, we created Camano Cider. The goal was to create a staple brand for the island. With Camano Cider we were able to improve our process and cider “style” even more. We made over 50 different ciders that we sold around Camano, Stanwood, and Mill Creek (mainly Elliott Bay Pizza!). I will always appreciate the support we received from Elliott Bay Pizza when it came to taking a fresh keg of cider.

     

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about making cider are the people and other businesses

I’ve gotten to know along the way. The best experience yet was meeting Matt and Dena from 4

Stitch Brewing. After giving my cider a chance to be on tap at 4 Stitch, we knew we could create a great little partnership that supports our similar goals and dreams. Yet it didn’t make sense to push Camano Cider through 4 Stitch, so we decided this was the perfect time to revive Grizzly. Since then, we’ve added 3 rotating ciders on tap at 4 Stitch to compliment all of Matt’s amazing beers. It’s been a lot of fun bringing the kids down to the brewery to escape the house and watch other people enjoy the cider. In fact, watching people order my cider and talking to them about it is one of my favorite parts of the whole process.

     

I feel very fortunate to have a place like 4 Stitch to bring Grizzly back to life and to give the Mill Creek community a place to go and have some truly local craft ciders. For now, our goal is to work closely with 4 Stitch to help them grow and to continue building a great destination for craft beverage drinkers and families alike. Most importantly, we will be making a lot of fun and

delicious ciders for Mill Creek to enjoy.