Cider Riot! Begins To Use Oregon’s New Refillable Bottles

The first cidery in the state of Oregon to use the new refillable 500mL bottle from the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) is Portland’s Cider Riot!. The first of its ciders to get packaged in this bottle is its popular Burncider Dry Draught Cider.

Cider Riot! founder and cidermaker Abram Goldman-Armstrong has been an advocate of the use of refillable bottles for over a decade. He even wrote about the subject in an article in American Brewer magazine over ten years ago back in 2008.

These heavy duty, refillable bottles are made here in Portland at Owens-Illinois. The bottles are filled and then are washed where they are sent to Montana to be cleaned at Bayern Brewing and then sent back to Oregon. Yes, the carbon footprint is higher than if there was a brewery or cidery within the state of Oreogn that would step up financially and offer this service.

“As an Oregonian I grew up learning to reduce, reuse, and recycle from an very early age,” said Goldman-Armstrong in a statement. “When I first started homebrewing in the 1990’s I always sought out refillable glass bottles as they were heavier and better quality than the one-way glass. When we launched Cider Riot! in 2013 we chose a bottle that was rated for multiple fills, but we did not have access to a washing facility. The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) has cleared this hurdle for our cider, creating the BottleDrop Refill program so brewers and cidermakers can use bottles that are built to last over and over again.”

“The refillable bottles can be used as many as 25 times, and produce only 10% of the emissions of single use cans or bottles because they eliminate the energy required to melt down and recycle the glass or aluminum,” said Joel Schoening of the OBRC in a statement.

Burncider is Cider Riot!’s best selling Pub Draught Cider that is made with a blend of dessert apples from Yakima and Hood River in addition to rare cider apples grown in Goldman-Armstrong’s native Yamhill County. A true heritage style cider, it boasts rich tannins from the cider fruit to support the fruity flavors of the dessert apples. Like all Cider Riot! ciders, Burncider is a natural product and contains no artificial preservatives.

“The great thing about the BottleDrop refill program, is that it integrates seamlessly into Oregon’s existing bottle deposit and return program,” said Schoening in a statement. “So, unlike other brand specific refillable bottle programs, the BottleDrop bottle has the same 10 cent deposit the consumer would pay on any single-use bottle, and can return it conveniently.”

Burncider bottle release event will take place at the Cider Riot! Pub on Friday, January 11th from 5:00-7:00om. 500mL bottles will be on sale for $4.90 plus deposit during the event, and BottleDrop Refill staff will be on hand to answer questions about the bottles and refilling program.

Cider Riot! Pub
807 NE Couch St.
Portland, Oregon 97232