This fall saw the grand re-opening of Inland Cider Mill, a north side cidery that aspires to become one of the friendliest watering holes in Spokane. "Basically I want us to replicate Cheers," says owner Sean Weeks. "A community-focused place where everyone knows and values you as a person."
Weeks adds that the new location is proving popular, and he attributes its success partly to the help he's received from a core group of 12 people he calls the "mixology team."
"These are all hardcore customers, promoters, advocates and volunteers who have been with me since the start," he says. "We've become a sort of bar family, gathering for potlucks and just having fun together."
The road to success was a bit bumpy, however. Inland Cider Mill was a concept Weeks and his wife Erin originally intended to pursue with help from two other local couples. "Unfortunately, we'd planned to open in March 2020 right when the pandemic started," he says. "Some circumstances changed, and our partners had to back out."
With that shift, Weeks decided instead to make Inland Cider Mill a second label for Thomas Clare Cellars LLC, the Spokane-based winery he started in 2015.
"We eventually opened Inland in May 2020, using a 200-square-foot tasting room in the warehouse space on east Francis," he says. "Capacity was limited and we had to get creative, but amazingly we were able to keep growing the businesses even with those challenges."
Now, with the 2021 harvest season over, they're settling in for winter at their new, and much larger, location at 1020 W. Francis.
Crafted almost exclusively from apples harvested at Green Bluff, many from Siemers Farm, Inland Cider Mill produces three types of ciders: dry, traditional artisan styles made from heirloom apples; sweeter craft ciders with multiple fruit flavors blended in; and hopped ciders.
"The dry ciders have almost no sugars left after production, and as a result taste similar to dry white wines," Weeks says. "Whereas sweet ciders maintain enough residual sugar to sweeten their flavor to something more similar to the sweet white wines like Riesling."
When it comes to favorite flavors, Weeks says his go-tos are the peach, lemonberry scone and guava hop ciders. "I think those are also the top three for most of our customers," he says. "If you're looking for a good celebratory cider, most people would probably choose our peach." And he notes the sweeter ciders pair well with the spicy flavors found in Thai or Szechuan foods.
"All cider is naturally gluten free, so for many people it's a good alternative to beer," he says. "Cider is the second fastest growing alcohol producing sector in the U.S., and here in Washington we also grow a lot of apples so it's natural that we have companies looking to capitalize on that."
Inland Cider Mill offers nine taps featuring its own ciders, most of which are exclusive to the tap house. Additionally, there's root beer and a beer on tap provided by Humble Abode Brewing, and also Thomas Clare Cellars wines.
The tap house doesn't currently have food offerings, but Weeks is hoping to establish a small kitchen by the end of the year.
"We'd like to serve a few basic items like wraps, pulled pork sandwiches, and mini pizzas," he says. "We're also looking to establish a mug club that would give customers their own 12-ounce glass to use with various special offers throughout the year." And they're planning to host live music every other week, as well as other events like bingo and trivia nights.
Beyond its tasting room, Inland Cider Mill products are on tap at 15 area bars and breweries, and bottles of the four core flavors are sold at Yoke's Fresh Markets.
"We started self distributing during the pandemic," Weeks says, "and I'm hoping to continue widening our exposure and expanding to get our stuff into neighboring states."
