Brick River Cider Co. opens next week in Downtown West

A stately former firehouse is reborn as St. Louis' first ciderworks.

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In the late 1800s, Engine House No. 32 was the largest firehouse west of the Mississippi. Today, it’s the home of Brick River Cider Co., St. Louis’ first cider house and tap room. The official opening date: next Friday, February 16. Here's what to know before you go.

The Background

The craft cider trend is a relatively new one, picking up steam on the coasts in the past seven or eight years. There are several cider makers in Chicago and one in Indianapolis, but until this month there were none in metro St. Louis.

Brick River Cider is owned by Russ John, whose family's owned a homestead farm and orchard in southeast Nebraska for 160 years. John and his family have been making cider for generations. “I still have some of the cider that my grandfather supposedly made during Prohibition,” he quips.

Brick River allows John to produce cider on a large-scale basis while staying connected to the family farm. He recently planted several thousand apple trees there—“from English stock, trees that should produce some really interesting juice,” he says.

Making money in the cider business requires investing and operating on a massive scale. “You can’t make small amounts unless you’re willing to do so at a loss,” he says. “You can’t stick your toe in the water—you have to dive in,” he says, which translates to “working in truckload volumes of juice on the inbound side.”

It took John four years of evaluating the business before deciding to fully commit and six months to find the right site: a red granite, brick, and sandstone building at the corner of Washington Avenue and 20th Street.

The name Brick River Cider was chosen for the city’s industrial and agricultural connection. “For a time, St. Louis was the biggest brick-manufacturing city in the U.S. and a major inland port," says John. "And at one time, Missouri was the third largest apple-producing state in the country."

The Building

John closed on the building in March 2017 and soon began refurbishing the 126-year-old former firehouse, which has a Romanesque façade. Bricked-in openings on the first and second floors were replaced with windows, bathing the space in natural light. The crumbling sandstone was rebuilt, and a refurbished garage door is now operational. 

On the ground floor, one of the most striking features is the wooden ceiling and the level of craftsmanship in the finish. Of note are the circular infills at the corners, “a few surely replacing former fire poles,” John says.

Upstairs, the original tin ceilings were restored, as was the original crown molding in the firefighters’ living area. “The level of opulence afforded them was really quite remarkable,” John says. “It didn't take us long to discover the building was as striking inside as it was out.”

On the walls are black-and-white archival photos of the fire engines in front of the firehouse, apple-harvest processing, and brick-street construction. Salvaged truck wheels were fashioned into bases for two communal tables, another apropos design touch. The cider taps are located downstairs, and the kitchen is upstairs (creating a minor logistical issue, considering there’s seating is on both levels, with 116 seats upstairs and 50 downstairs).

The Product

Cider master Evan Hiatt is currently producing four ciders, all with different taste profiles and production times.

1. Homestead: Unfiltered and cloudy, it's the sweetest, quickest to produce (in three weeks), and most fruit-forward. Hiatt calls it “approachable with an apple burst.”

2. Cornerstone: This clear, effervescent, off-dry cider has notes of “fermented apple, earth, and citrus,” similar in style to an English or French cider.

3. Firehouse Rose: Hiatt’s answer to a dry rosé wine, this cider is tart, flavorful, and barely pink, due to the addition of Michigan sour cherry juice and hibiscus tea.

4. Brewer’s Choice: Dry-hopped with Alsatian hops, this cider takes three months to produce and is available only at the cidery. Expect "a bold and complex cider with aromatic earthy, citrus, grassy, and herbal” notes.

The Process

Hiatt is a former brewmaster and winemaker, two skills that relate directly to cider-making. On a technical level, he says, “it's very much wine-making: bringing in fruit juice and fermenting it.” But unlike still wine, cider must be carbonated, like beer.

Apple juice arrives in 5,500-gallon tanker trucks, enough to fill three 60-barrel stainless-steel tanks, or 50,000 16-ounce cans. The tankers contain a blend of juice, from 10 to 15 varieties, according to John. Three or four of them are “too flaccid and not acceptable,” he says, “generally anything with ‘delicious’ in the name. They produce a lot of juice but make really uninteresting cider.”

Production time varies, depending on the raw ingredients and complexity of the finished product. There's no sugar added, except when necessary to maintain the alcohol level stated on the can (5 to 6.5 percent ABV). After fermentation, fresh apple juice can be added (often from 250-gallon totes from smaller orchards) to “brighten and add back some apple flavor and sweetness,” says John. Other post-fermentation additives, such as the aforementioned sour cherry juice, add a fresh layer of flavor. This summer, Brick River plans to introduce a peach-flavored cider made from locally sourced peach juice. (Although John eschews use of the word "local," Brick River Cider would qualify, as it fits the legal definition of "product grown within 400 miles or in the same state of origin as the end user.”)

The Apple Technology

Winter apples are grown in the U.S., just like summer apples, but stored in sealed, temperature-controlled warehouses filled with inert gas to prevent spoilage, which is how apples can be harvested in October and sold months later.

“That’s why you see crisp, fresh apples in February, and we can get truckfuls of fresh apple juice the same month," says John. Apples that are cosmetically unsuitable for general retail—generally 20 percent of the crop—are used for apple juice in stores and apple cider in cideries.”

The Distribution

John is currently in the process of selecting a distributor. “A cidery is classified as a winery, and wineries can self-distribute; breweries cannot," he explains. "The cans of cider on local shelves now are ones that we delivered. We could legally self-distribute to the whole state; we just couldn’t do it logistically.”

The Menu & Personnel

Veteran chef and consultant Chris Lee designed the menu and helped hire and train the kitchen staff. General manager Marcia Recks brings two decades of experience to the table (including at Modesto and The Boathouse). And Carlos Hernandez (formerly of Lorenzo’s, Eleven Eleven Mississippi, Modesto, and White Box Eatery) bested two other chefs in a TV-style cookoff to earn the title of executive chef.

The menu began with a nod to England and France, according to John. “While a brewery might favor English-Germanic food traditions, since that’s where its roots are, most of the world’s hard cider—75 percent of it—comes from England and France, so that’s the cuisine we thought appropriate. Our conception of fresher, lighter country fare as served in places like Normandy and Alsace. The Pork Normandy, for example, is served with a cider pan gravy and is very regionally accurate.”

There’s also chicken Provencal and Alsatian lentil soup, as well as contemporary American items, such as burgers and wings (cider-brined, glazed wings). “We’d be remiss if we didn’t sell burgers and wings in a place like this,” John says. 

The Sharables & Flatbreads section includes Chicken & Biscuit Sliders and Damascus Flatbread with spinach, apricots, spiced walnuts, and chèvre. Salads include a traditional Cobb and a Brussels Salad with pickled cranberries, candied pecans, and coriander vinaigrette.

There are six sandwiches, from the straight-ahead Black River Burger to more expressive offerings, such as French Onion Chicken (grilled chicken with sherry-caramelized onions, spinach, and gruyere).

Entrées average $18 and feature a cast-iron strip steak with Lyonnaise potatoes and a grilled salmon fillet with a brilliant saffron beurre blanc served on a bed of lentils and brunoise vegetables. (At present, the lunch menu—served on weekends—is a scaled-back version of the nighttime version.)

The Extras

For guests wishing to knock back something other than cider, there’s a full bar, serving cocktails (including the Firehouse Martini) and four local craft beers. Non-alcoholic offerings include house draft apple soda, fresh lemonade, and soft drinks.

Though the inaugural kids' menu only has two items, families and kids are welcome. “We don’t know whether we’ll attract [families] or not,” John says. “I hope we do. Places like this in Europe are full of parents with kids.”

The Bottom Line

“Taking on a beverage project like this requires an experiential retail component [the restaurant]—something you can see, hear, feel, and taste," says John, "and then hopefully say, 'Give me a hat, a T-shirt, and a case to go.'

“A lot of the expense in projects like this goes to elevators, fire-rated stairways, the exhaust hood, fire suppression system, and automatic sprinklers," he adds. "The good news is it's the safest this firehouse has ever been from fire.”

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Brick River Cider Co.

2000 Washington, St Louis, Missouri 63103

314-224-5046

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Inaugural hours: Tue - Thurs: 5 p.m. - 11 p.m., Fri - Sat: 11 a.m. - 1 a.m., Sun: 11 a.m - 5 p.m.

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