CALGARY — Calgary’s first brick-and-mortar cider house opened this summer. Located in the Franklin Industrial area, SunnyCider is Calgary’s first taproom dedicated to cider.
The craft cidery originated in the city’s Sunnyside neighbourhood, where co-founder Tim Kitchen began home-fermenting cider in 2010. After taking a cider-making course at Washington State University in 2017, Kitchen, his wife Darlene and their neighbour Dennis Scanland decided to expand their business.
Fort Architecture designed the taproom in Sunnyside’s industrial unit and gave it a bar, communal-seating area and several small tables, with accents reflecting the Sunnyside community.
SunnyCider sources 90 per cent of its fruit (apples, pears, berries and more) from the Okanagan because few fruit farmers in Alberta wholesale their product. However, Kitchen has set up a fruit-donation program so that local farmers can contribute and gain valuable perks. Sunnyside also offers harvesting services in case growers prefer to outsource the work.
Sunnyside’s current house offerings include a dry apple cider, not-too-tart sour cherry apple cider and a Prairie-influenced Saskatoon-berry apple cider. SunnyCider also offers guest taps from other Calgary-based cideries, such as Uncommon Cider Co. and Lekker Cider, as well as producers from Quebec, B.C. and Ireland.
