Mountain West Cider is a food and drink brand founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2014.
Salt Lake City's zoning office called Mountain West Cider a winery years before it made any wine. Jennifer Hamilton-Carleton and Jeff Carleton had picked a building next to a brewery, and the city objected that a winery was not approved for that zone. They moved the cidery into a warehouse at 425 North 400 West, in the Marmalade District, where the cider is still fermented and canned.
Both founders are Philadelphia natives who worked in financial services, and Jeff's employer moved him to Salt Lake City in 2010. A trip to Ireland had already given Jennifer a taste for traditional cider. They established the company in 2014 and opened the doors the following year.
The ciders are dry on purpose. Jeff told Cyprus Credit Union that the fruit's sugars ferment out and no sweetener goes back in. Many of the apples come from Santaquin and other parts of Utah, and cans arrived in June 2018. Head cidermaker Marcio Buffolo, whom the company calls the first Brazilian certified as a Pommelier, runs production. In 2023 the company launched Mountain West Cellars, a wine line that includes a canned rosé, which made the zoning office right after all.
Mountain West's Ruby cider is named for a canyon along the Colorado River on the Utah and Colorado border.
