On a centuries-old Centre County farm, cider production is steeped in tradition

Laurel Spring Cidery has been a long time coming.

Founder David Sterner, an anesthesiologist by day, originally purchased his centuries-old farm in Spring Mills when looking for a secluded spot where he could enjoy darker skies as a astronomy enthusiast. Eventually, he began considering how he might encourage the land to be a little more productive.

While a vineyard was his first idea, climatological challenges deterred him, but then he landed on the idea of an apple orchard.

“This was 2003 or 2004,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of cideries in the United States. I started researching and, well, we could grow apples and sell the apples, but wouldn’t it be more fun to make cider?”

A few years later, he cleared an acre of land, planted an orchard and built a cider press. A few years after that, his son approached him with the thought of scaling up the operations. Finally, one pandemic later, Laurel Spring Cidery officially launched and began welcoming visitors for tastings and events last fall.

Today, Laurel Spring Cidery is still growing at a slow and steady pace. Producing under a thousand cases last year, the cidery recently purchased extra equipment to increase production by about a third. Currently, Laurel Spring Cidery grows more than two dozen different apple varieties across more than a hundred trees on an acre of land.

“It’s an experimental orchard,” Sterner said. “We’re using this orchard to decide which trees grow well in this environment and our soil. Some of them do well. Some of them die out and then we replace them with new varieties. ... The plan is to eventually have maybe 10 acres of orchard.”

Today, the cider industry in America is much more popular than it was in the early 2000s, but Sterner said the market hasn’t been saturated just yet. Pair the public’s growing interest in cider with the vibrant Happy Valley community eager to support local business, as well as resources provided by Penn State’s enology experts, plus the Egg Hill property’s beauty and historic appeal (it was originally owned by a Revolutionary War veteran who’s buried nearby) — and you have a business venture that not only was Sterner eager to pursue, but that also attracted his nephew.

David All came onto the team as the head of sales and marketing and cidermaker apprentice after a major career shift. Previously a speech writer working in Washington, D.C., he was already looking for a more meaningful next step in his life and, when his uncle invited him to visit the farm, he found the ideal opportunity.

Tapping into the property’s historic roots, Laurel Spring Cidery’s heritage ciders are as traditional as it gets.

“We don’t add anything to it. We don’t add flavors,” Sterner said. “We do it the way that you would’ve back in the 1700s. It’s pressed. You let it ferment. You ... clarify it and eventually bottle it. We seal it with a real cork. We don’t use synthetic cork. Then we seal it with wax to preserve the cork and add a little bit of decoration and stamp it with our seal.”

Beyond the automatic press, this entire process is conducted by hand.

“We exclusively use Pennsylvania’s finest cider apples,” All added. “Cider apples are not dessert apples. A few specialty orchards in Pennsylvania are growing these heirloom varieties. ... We use 12 to 20 different varieties of apples in each of our ciders.”

The ciders “drink like a wine,” All said, which often surprises customers.

“If you like red wines or white wines, this is like the third leg of the stool,” he said.

Currently, Laurel Spring Cidery’s ciders are available online and at the on-site tasting room (which also serves products from local wineries and breweries). Sterner and All also hope to begin conversations with area restaurants and bars that might be interested in carrying their ciders, as well as begin hosting more small, private events on the historic property.

Those interested in visiting the cidery can learn more about upcoming events and tasting room hours at lscider.com, or by following the cidery on social media at facebook.com/lscider or instagram.com/lscider.

“We intend to define what America’s apple cider wine can be,” All said. “Our focus is a very, very elevated product — the highest-quality product. I don’t think that there’s any doubt among us, as a team, that we want to create the best product in America. Are we there today? No, but that’s our vision. That’s our goal.”