Major Colorado cidery replicates a pair of top flavors at zero ABV options

Story and photos by Steve Graham

Lafayette’s Stem Ciders has a new entry in the growing non-alcoholic (NA) market. Two flavors of Stem Zero debut this week at Stem’s three locations and select liquor stores.

A recent Gallup survey found 54 percent of Americans report that they drink alcohol, the lowest number in nearly 90 years of polling. Moreover, many drinkers report having fewer drinks per week. In response, the libations industry has been working to offer complex, flavorful adult options for non-drinkers and sometimes-drinkers.

Breweries from Bootstrap in Longmont and Station 26 in Denver to Tommyknocker in Idaho Springs and Eddyline in Buena Vista are joining Ceria, Grüvi and other dedicated NA beer makers in serving the growing boozeless beer market. Meanwhile, Breckenridge Distillery, Locke + Co., Wisetails and others are making zero-proof spirits and canned cocktails. But cider fans have had limited options.

Apricot haze and blueberry lime Stem Zero cans are being distributed throughout Colorado.

“What do we offer them so they have something they can enjoy without the hangover when they're not drinking, if they don't drink at all, or if they're just going back and forth between having a cider and going to an N/A option,” said Corey Dickinson, vice president of marketing for Wilding Brands, which includes Stem Ciders and several other Colorado drink makers.

The team knew the answer wasn’t a sweet kiddy juice box. Instead, they started from scratch replicating two of their most popular flavors — apricot haze and blueberry lime — without fermentation into alcohol.

The Thirst team had a chance to taste the new drinks with Dickinson and Patrick Combs, Stem’s master cicerone, at their Lafayette barrel room this week, just as the first four-packs of Stem Zero were being shipped.

The apricot haze version was slightly sweeter than the alcoholic version, but very similar in depth and flavor. The blueberry lime was noticeably less boozy but otherwise as smooth and complex as the 6 percent ABV original.

Stem Ciders was launched in 2013, with the goal of using real fruit to craft ciders that were more interesting and less sweet than Angry Orchard and other market leaders.

“The majority of American cider is quite high in sugar,” Combs said. “...There's still a large segment of that market that has 30 to 40 grams of sugar, just like a soda.”

Stem’s original real dry cider has no added sugar.

The base of all Stem Ciders is “fresh pressed apple juice because there's just not a better way of doing that,” Combs said.

To make a basic alcoholic cider, he adds champagne yeast to feed fermentation, and filter the resulting liquid. From there, he has developed a range of other flavors.

In place of fermentation, he added apple cider vinegar to the NA alternative (as an added bonus, he can also promote the prebiotic health benefits of natural vinegar), and took the results through about 18 months of research, development and testing.

A test batch sold very well in the Stem taproom this summer.

“Believe it or not, Stem Zero four-packs were both in the top five for to-go and the top five for here,” Combs said. “So that was a pretty big wake-up call of like, okay, we get it. We're really sorry it took so long. We'll get on that right away.”

The apricot haze includes some NA hop tea and additional hop terpenes. Blueberry lime Stem Zero also adds key lime juice, blueberries and bergamot citrus extract (bringing some Earl Grey tea tasting notes). Combs said the alcoholic blueberry lime cider quickly became a bestseller upon its May 2025 release.

“We knew that berries were a category that were growing, we knew that berry-flavored liquids in general were super popular right now, but we didn't want to just throw a bunch of berries in a cider and call it a berry cider,” he said. “I wanted to take my favorite aspect of blueberries, which is the floral characteristic that you get from really good, really ripe, really juicy blueberries.”

A third option will be available starting in January (the driest month for many drinkers). Pear Stem Zero will be packaged in mixed six-packs with the original two flavors.

Combs said he hopes they all find a happy medium for adults cutting back on alcohol.

“These live somewhere between a Spindrift (flavored sparkling water) and a soda,” he said. “And that's really a sweet spot for me because I want something that's satisfying and rich enough to scratch the itch if I decide I'm not drinking that night. But I don't want something that's overly cloying and something that feels like a guilty pleasure.”