Starcut Ciders - Unique and traditional ciders from Northern Michigan

Starcut Ciders, brought to you by Short’s Brewing Company, was founded in 2014 and born out of a desire to make unique and traditional ciders from the orchards that surround us in Northern Michigan. Made from apples sourced from our own backyard and throughout the state of Michigan, we make cider not only because we love it, but because we have a strong desire to make a beverage we believe in. We are committed to crafting ciders that showcase the beauty of our home.

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LOCAL APPLES

We craft our ciders from apples grown by Michigan farmers, including local farmers whose orchards are close to our home in Antrim county. We use apples from the trees that we see on a daily basis at home and at orchards throughout our state. We transform and capture the local beauty of Michigan orchards into a form we can share with our friends.

BEING CREATIVE

We see the world through crafty eyes. What may look like just an apple orchard to some, is the catalyst to endless amounts of flavors, images, names and good times to us. We have just begun what promises to be a very exciting cider making adventure.

ULTIMATE VARIETY

We are encouraging our local farmers to grow an enormous range of apples to use in our ciders. Our aim is to create ciders that will reflect the complexity and variety of our local orchards, and promote Northern Michigan as a cider destination.

Featured, On Tap, and Cider Vault

Our Ciders

Pulsar is a semi-dry Modern Cider fermented with Michigan apples and Pinot Noir yeast.

Octorock is a semi-sweet Modern Cider fermented with Michigan apples and a blend of Belgian and traditional cider yeast.

*Coming as a flagship soon* Squishy is a semi-sweet Fruit Cider fermented with Michigan apples, Northern Michigan Balaton and Montmorency tart cherries, and English Cider yeast.

*Now Available* Phuzz is a semi-dry Fruit Cider fermented with Michigan apples, peaches, and a traditional cider yeast.

Bucket is a Semi-Dry Fruit Cider fermented with black currants and aged on oak chips.

Immortal Jelly is a semi-dry Fruit Cider inspired by Short’s Brewing Company’s Soft Parade. Immortal Jelly is fermented with Michigan apples and a blend of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries.

At Short’s Brewing Company in Bellaire, Michigan

A repository for all of our ciders not currently in production

Wild cider series

Exciting Starcut Cider related news

Blog

Starcut News / Starcut Releases

It’s Immortal Jelly Time

Northern Michigan is finally starting to thaw, and what better way to celebrate than with a berry filled concoction perfect for spring! Making its third appearance on the Starcut seasonal rotation, this cider is more than a little brother Short’s…

April 23, 2018

Starcut Releases

Find vacation vibes with Erraticus 17

Spring is nearly here, and even if you’re not able to take a spring break to a tropical destination we wanted to share this latest Wild Cider to inspire those vacation vibes. Made with local Jonathon apples, we blended them…

March 18, 2018

Starcut Releases

Celebrating with White Skies and Elita 2018

This weekend we celebrate another trip around the sun of making delicious ciders here in northern Michigan. In order to mark the occasion, we’re releasing two extra special bottles at the Short’s Brewing Company pub. White Skies (5.2% ABV) is…

February 26, 2018

Starcut News

Every season is Squishy season

We’ll admit, when we released our first bottles of Starcut Ciders, it was hard to decide which ciders we wanted to share with the world. We knew we wanted something dry and refreshingly simple, so Pulsar made the cut. Then…

January 8, 2018

Starcut Releases

Erraticus 16 here to ring in 2018

We recently released Erraticus 16, to help us say “so long” to 2017, and welcome 2018! This time, our cider makers decided to use a berry that is basically four berries in one. A cross among the European raspberry, European…

December 31, 2017

Starcut Releases

Introducing our new winter seasonal: Bucket

Once we had a taste of Erraticus 6, we knew something special was happening. The tart black currant and apple flavors blended with the soft oak notes creating a unique beverage we wanted to sip on more than once. As…

December 20, 2017

Where we source our apples

Our Farmers

Boals Orchards

Boals Orchards is a second generation farm located in Kewadin, MI. Originally a dairy farm started in 1945, the Boals family has been farming this land for the past 69 years. Ron Boals purchased the farm from his parents and transitioned from raising beef cattle and cherries to apples. The Boals family now grows seven different varieties of delicious apples.

Altonen Orchards

Altonen Orchards boasts a huge variety of Northern Michigan produce grown just outside of both Elk Rapids and Eastport, MI. As a third generation farm they now raise asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, sweet corn, a variety of other vegetables, and 20 + varieties of apples. Brian Altonen, his brother Jason, and his father John keep busy throughout the year in the orchard and running the fruit press for cider.

King Orchards

King Orchards is a first generation orchard and farm with their roots in Central Lake, MI. Pioneered by Jim and John King, this is a family owned and operated farm (pictured right, Jack and Courtney King). Multiple orchards and two farm market locations offer u-pick opportunities for a variety of fruit including cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, and many berries. The Balaton and Montmorency cherries that we use to make Squishy are grown at King Orchards.

MAKING DELICIOUS CIDERS FROM

Northern Michigan