Amateur Cider Making Competition

October 18, 2025

The Amateur Cider Making Competition coincided with our CiderFest event. The purpose of this competition is to bring together home cider makers, celebrate creativity, and showcase a variety of cider styles while encouraging community engagement and appreciation of cider making. For our first event we had a total of 14 entries. The results are below. You can find information and guidelines on the competition by clicking here.

Results

Category: Traditional / Dry (6 entries)

• First Place: Wild Pet Nat from Kyle & Becca Kaliszewski (Shakopee, MN)

• Second Place: Blueberry Pomegranate - Special X from Chris Leines (Loretto, MN)

• Third Place: 12 Day Voyage from Tim Pearson (Roseville, MN)

Category: Sweet/Semi-Sweet (3 entries)

• First Place: Apple Cider 2023 from Chris Leines (Loretto, MN)

• Second Place: BK Sweet from Kyle & Becca Kaliszewski (Shakopee, MN)

• Third Place: Blueberry Pomegranate from Chris Leines (Loretto, MN)

Category: Specialty/Fruited (5 entries)

• First Place: Beekeepers from Alex Tuel (Maplewood, MN)

• Second Place: Blueberry Pomegranate 2023 from Chris Leines (Loretto, MN)

• Third Place: Berry Cider from Chris Leines (Loretto, MN)