“…it is our job to do that piece of education and to get somebody excited about what we’re creating…”
— Caitlin Braam, Founder & CEO
Caitlin Braam, Founder & CEO, Yonder Cider and The Source Cider
Caitlin founded Yonder Cider and
The Source Cider in the Apple Capital of the world-Wenatchee Valley- after 12+ years in the beverage industry. Her career highlights include President of Seattle Cider Company and Two Beers Brewing Co, Angry Orchard’s Brand Strategist and a freelance career in branding, marketing and PR, working with dozens of cideries, breweries and wineries. She lives in Phinney Ridge with her husband, Jon, and dog, Emma.
Excerpts from a conversation at the Yonder Cider and Bale Breaker Taproom on an afternoon in April 2023
What was your first connection to brewing or cider making?
We moved around a lot when I was a kid. We landed in Minnesota right before high school. The consistent thing as we moved around was that my dad was always home brewing. And he would move these home- brewed beers from one state to another, to my mom's chagrin, because it was important to him and we had worked on it together and he wanted to see how it turned out. And my most vivid memory of it is a beer they ended up calling “Party Beer” because every time you popped off the cap of one, it would foam crazy. Not knowing at the time what that meant and now knowing that's an infection and that's a really bad thing. But I thought it was so much fun, and so interesting, and so crazy as a kid. And so it's funny to compare those memories with what I know now about it and look back on that and laugh.
My dad passed away about six years ago. And his dream was for me to open my own thing. I got a lot of my business acumen and hard work ethic and everything from him…to not have him be here and be able to see this breaks my heart but I know that he'd be so proud, and we could look back on those memories growing up as a kid, like when I was a kid homebrewing and making ice wine and beer and stuff. Just in any basement we were in no matter the state, just means a lot to know that this is where I am now.
Is there a specific moment that stands out as when you fell in love with cider?
So the reason I'm so passionate about cider and what has really driven me to get more into it and deeper into it, is the fact that I knew nothing about it when I got into [the industry]. And there's so much to learn. And there's not only so much to learn for myself, but as a consumer and all the people that maybe will drink cider in the world. There's just so much confusion around all the options and varieties and drivers that we have such an opportunity to change an industry and change people's minds. Where, maybe in beer or wine, that's not as much of an opportunity…for education. But glutton for punishment over here, I like an uphill battle and cider is definitely an uphill battle that I love to fight because, again, it's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. But watching somebody's face, seeing their cogs turn when they drink cider, or good cider that they love for the first time, is really fun for me. And whether it be person-by-person or account-by-account or distributor-by-distributor, we try to influence that on all levels and show the passion that I have. It’s with our sales team, it's in our marketing, it's in our branding. We try to get our bartenders and our distributors and our customers to feel that same passion in some way, shape, or form.
What does hospitality mean to you?
Somebody being able to come into our tap room knowing absolutely nothing about cider and being able to go on this amazing experience with our bartenders, or with me. Where they get to learn and really have a first chance to experience cider in a way that, maybe somebody hasn’t explained it to them before, but being in hospitality, it is our job to do that piece of education and to get somebody excited about what we’re creating. And maybe have that little bit of passion that we have rub off onto them and have them love the product that much more.
How did you know it was time to start your own company?
I'd worked at Boston Beer for a couple of years. And as anybody that knows me, knows I'm not a very patient person. I like to make decisions fast and quick. And that's a harder thing to do when you're at a larger company, for good reason. But I want to come in on a Tuesday and make a new slushy in the slushie machine. I want to call Monique on a Wednesday and say, “Hey, what new single varietals do we have that we could throw in?”...And those types of decisions are what makes Yonder, Yonder. Because we can react to the weather, the trends, spot the trends and create our own, which is what we really love to do. We can kind of do what we want because we're still small enough to do that. That wasn't always an option at the other places I worked.
… I’ll come to [my team] with five crazy ideas in a week. And they'll be like, “Okay, we can do three of those”. And I'll be like, “Fair” … I think that's how I knew it was time because there was so much bubbling up in me that I knew could be done and that I knew could change minds about cider. And the only way to do it was just to do it myself with a great team and with a vision. And honestly, I looked at my husband one day, and it was the end of 2019, I was like, “I think I want to start my own cidery”. And he said, “Thank God, we've been waiting two years”. And I was like, “Who's we?”, He's like, “Everyone! All your friends, your family, we just needed you to get comfortable with the idea”. And that solidified it for me. When you have that much unknown support and passion, you can't *not* do it. And you can't not pursue your dream. Is it easy? Hell no. But here we are and we're having fun. And some days are hard and challenging and difficult, but other days, they make it all possible and they make it all worth it.
When you think back to a year and a half ago, when you first opened the space, what's been the biggest surprise?
How people use the space is really surprising to me. There's lots of different spaces, whether you're here on a date, whether you're with your family, here in a big group, etc. It is one of my favorite things to come here on a Saturday and see all of that happening at once. There are families, there's kids, there's dogs, there's dates, there's best friends, there's birthday parties, there's dog’s birthday parties, and never in a million years did I think all of that would be happening all at once in our space. But it does. And I think, yes, we are here to sell cider and beer and whatever else we have on, but again, that community piece, getting to create a space where people just love being, kind of like Yonder Bar was, and love being a part of is really special to be able to do and I think we've done that here.
How important is community buy-in for opening a new space?
When we found this space…it was being advertised as, “brewery for sale, popular beer brewing district seven barrel brew house”. I’d been in the industry around here long enough to know that there were only a few spaces [like that]...when we came to look at it, the outdoor spaces were immediately what grabbed our attention. And that was because it was in the middle of the pandemic. We'd only been open for three months as Yonder. And we didn't know how long this was gonna last. And so we knew an outdoor space was going to be really special…We also wanted something that was a little bit different than all the other tap rooms around. And ours tends to be a little brighter and lighter. There's fire pits, there's gravel pit space, there's indoor, there's outdoor, there's just a lot of spaces. Because everybody's a little bit different. Every occasion is a little bit different. So it was a big part of what we're building here.
And, you know, we are in the middle of an industrial neighborhood that’s also a neighborhood…That's why we don't have a ton of live music outside because we literally have houses right behind us…We try and be really cognizant of the people and buildings around us as well as the people that are here…we have continued to work with our neighbors to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make sure they love us being here as much as we love being here.
What does balance look like for you? What does sustainability look like for you in this industry?
My husband recently asked me what my hobby was. And I said, Yonder and he's like, “No, that's work. What's your hobby?” …So I wouldn't say right now my work-life balance is the best, especially when my husband does all of our finances and helps me in exponential ways to build the business and to make sure it stays on the rails at the same time.
…It's the simple things right now. I was in Wenatchee every single week from August to February. But in March, I made the decision to start going every other [week]. And that's because I feel confident in our team over there. And we've worked really hard to build that trust and that confidence and make sure they have enough people and my support in a way that makes sense. I talk to Monique probably six times a day over the phone…that open communication allows me to be here in Seattle and to do the things I need to do here as well… to be with my husband and my dog and spend Saturday mornings cuddled up on the couch watching “Shrinking” on Apple TV…not running all my errands I probably need to run, but probably taking a midday nap and opening a bottle of white wine a little too early. And just spending time with the two people I love the most. Don't get me wrong, some Saturdays I'm also down here, cranking, to make sure the team here has got what they need. But I enjoy that sometimes… trying currently to find that balance.
What does growth look like for Yonder at this point?
On the Yonder side of things, growth looks like expanding to more states and maybe other tap rooms. Currently, we're only in Washington state and a little bit of northern Idaho. People sometimes can't believe that. We are growing fast. We grew 240% last year. And we’re projected to produce around 175,000 gallons this year in 2023, which is another big jump. Strike while the iron is hot!…We're getting a lot of demand from Oregon and Northern California for our product. I want to see the legs Yonder has and now is the time.
On top of that, shout-out to all the Wenatchee people that have been asking for a taproom and mad that we've [only] had a Seattle taproom. Since we opened, we are working hard to open one near Wenatchee, and looking forward to what that looks like? Maybe late fall this year or early 2024. But we're excited to have something out[by] where we produce everything…it breaks my heart that the people that work so hard on my team to make it, can't sit here at our taproom every day and enjoy a pint at the end of the day. And see how much joy [that] the hard work that they have put in and the products they produce are bringing to other people. I'm excited for my team to have that.
What’s your panic meal?
My husband, in our vows when we got married, said that I was really good at boiling things. I am not the chef or the cook in our house. I'm really good at baking, which is totally the opposite of my personality. Because in baking you have to be very precise and pay a lot of attention, which I do. But I like to play it fast and loose sometimes…and baking it's not that way. So I could probably bake something for somebody. I could whip out a cake, no problem. Cooking is a little bit more of a challenge for me. My husband's very good at throwing random things in {from} the fridge and making some beautiful dish, beautiful spice and just perfectly balanced….
There's an Allison Roman one pot chicken situation with lemons and dates, which I usually both have around now that I have like a chicken around all the time. But Ken's Market is really close and they usually have chickens. So that and, like, some carrots, I would say is kind of my go-to. It's also great because it's one pot and then you can just like still spend time with your “surprise guest”...
What bottle do you always have on hand?
Currently, Gulp/Hablo. It's a one liter white crushable, with a cute label. I honestly think liter bottles are under appreciated , especially crushable white liter bottles. It's just easy drinking and good and crisp and tastes delicious at the end of the day. And so we always have one of those or ”Why am I Mr. Pink” from the Underground Wine Project. Those are also two not very expensive bottles but still quality and amazing and I like tart acidic things. So those hit home for me.
What's the most frequently consumed beverage in your house?
Wine. I drink a lot of wine and cocktails when I'm not working. Cider is my life. I love it. And I enjoy it. But actually get a lot of ideas and insight from drinking other beverages. Cocktails specifically. All of our seasonals and infusions are based off of cocktails I've had and loved. Our summer seasonal Coulee is based off of a cocktail that I had when I was in Oaxaca drinking mezcal at this tiny little cocktail bar…mezcal, pineapple, lime, and cardamom. I came back from that trip and I called Monique and I was like, “I got our new summer seasonal”. And so I love exploring other beverages. Wine is just easy and delicious, and kind of what I'm in the mood for. But when I go out, I love Baker’s. It is one of my favorite cocktail bars. Sarah is amazing. And when I say, “I want something with Mezcal that’s citrus forward”, they'll make something that is just always beautiful.
What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve received?
The best piece of advice I ever received was care less. And it isn't in the way that you'd think it was in the way of care less about what they think. Care less about what they're saying. Worry less about what they're saying behind your back and just do what you do. If you think it's right and it feels good to you, do it. Screw what everybody else thinks. You've proven to yourself that you can do it. And you don't have to follow anyone, and you don't have to listen to them. And so I think that is something that I still struggle with. Because I want everybody to love what we do. And I don't want it to piss anyone off. And I want it to ring true. But that isn't going to stop that from happening from time to time. If somebody's saying something that's a little off color, or a little not supportive. And I'm trying my hardest to learn how to shrug it off and move on and just do what we do.
What about the worst piece of advice?
Don't start your own business, it's really hard. There are days that I feel that. There are days that are really hard, and I look at my husband and his joke is, “Start a cidery, she said, it'll be easy, she said”. I never said it would be easy for the record. But there are days that we're like, “What in the world did we get ourselves into?”…And I'm really glad every day I get to wake up and honestly face a new adventure every single day. No day is the same. And I love that…
Again, who's the crazy person that started two relatively large cideries in the heart of the pandemic? Feels like a weird time. But we made it work for us. And I keep saying, if we made it through that, I feel like we can make it through anything. And Monique will tell you that, over the past three months, we've definitely been tested on that theory. We were without power at our production facility for an entire week; the transformers on our property blew and it was dead in the water. Thank God there was a cold snap in Wenatchee so we opened up all the doors, turned off our heaters in our building and chilled down because all our tanks were full of cider. And so if that had happened in the middle of August, it would have been lost. Our filter went down. Monique now knows how to replace the motor on an air compressor because she YouTubed it and fixed it… We've been tested. And we've made it through and we're all a little bit more mechanically inclined because of it. And we keep saying that if we can make it through all of this, there is a light on the other end of the tunnel and we're already seeing it. But, I think the big part is: we're working together as a team now. And the communication is extremely open… And then good days and bad days. And the good days we celebrate. And the bad days we go, ‘We'll do it better tomorrow’. And when pallets of Palisades fall over, that's why you have a slushie machine.
What is your most memorable meal so far this year?
My husband made me a beautiful pork chop from Beast and Cleaver a couple Sundays ago to celebrate making 40 under 40 for Puget Sound Business Journal. And the meat itself was amazing; the way John prepared it was amazing. The bottle of wine we had was great. But honestly, I don't get many moments to sit down and do that anymore. And just celebrate all the hard work and to look at it that way and to celebrate with somebody I love so much and who has made it possible for me to be there. So it's not some amazing restaurant, it's just my house and my husband and my dog, who sits on the bench next to me while we eat like she's a human herself. But that was the best meal because, yes, it was delicious and it meant the most.
