Cider Flows in Old Town Goleta
Santa Barbara Cider Company Offers Diverse Alternatives to Beer and Wine Tastings
Already deep into home brewing, Ben Schroeder decided a few years ago to experiment with making hard apple cider because his 12-year-old daughter has celiac disease. While she’s far from drinking age, Schroeder found himself hanging around with adults and parents of other kids with the autoimmune disorder, which causes dangerous gastrointestinal reactions to the gluten that’s in wheat, barley, and all of those other grains so inherent in beer, but absent from fruit-based beverages.
“I started making cider and people started asking for more of it,” explained Schroeder, who was soon getting requests for weddings and bigger parties. “It kind of snowballed from there. You’re only allowed to make so much of it privately.”
About two years ago, he began investigating how to do it commercially and realized that he could fit a cidery and tasting room into his existing warehouse space in Old Town Goleta. That’s where, from an alley off Rutherford Street behind Santa Cruz Market, he sells marching-band equipment over the internet. (Though worthy of a story itself, suffice it for Schroeder to say, “If you see something in the Rose Parade, chances are we probably did it.”) His neighbors didn’t mind since the evening and weekend tasting-room hours didn’t conflict with their daytime traffic, and he also found support from the City of Goleta, whose leaders have pledged for 15 years to rejuvenate Old Town.
