Ilwaco Cider Co. looks to juice up downtown core

Published 9:24 pm Saturday, November 18, 2023

ILWACO, Wash. — A new cidery more than five years in the making is nearing fruition downtown.

The Ilwaco Cider Co., owned by Vinessa and Jarrod Karnofski, anticipates serving their first pint this spring, concluding the latest chapter in a revival in the town’s downtown core.

“Initially, we’re going to focus on producing cider and self-distributing on the peninsula, that’s (the) first stage. Once we get that going, we’re going to double down on getting a tasting room open, with a 25 to 30 person capacity by summer, that’s the goal,” Vinessa Karnofski said during a tour of the cidery.

The cidery, located on Spruce Street E, is the latest in a flurry of burgeoning businesses over the past two years, including Spawn Fly Fish, Tre-Fin Foods and 360 Floral Shops, among others. Complete renovation of the landmark Doupé-Aberdeen Packing Co. building is also well underway.

Vinessa Karnofski, a culinary chef graduate from Western Culinary Institute, took cider business classes at Portland State University and a cider-making course at Washington State University in preparation for her new role as head cider maker and business operator.

“I’ve worked in kitchens my entire career,” said Vinessa Karnofski, who has also served in local government and community development roles.

Jarrod Karnofski, the vice president of ancillary and support services at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria who also works as a physical therapist and athletic trainer, will support the cidery as co-owner.

“I’m trying to do whatever she needs me to do to make sure it’s running smooth,” he said. “She’s the head cider maker.”

Jarrod Karnofski grew up in and graduated from Ilwaco High School — Class of 1998 — and is hopeful the cidery will help inject more life and personality to the sleepy port town.

“It would be nice to see more business coming through the downtown core and maybe a little bit of nightlife or afternoon life on the weekends,” he said. “We want to give a little more personality back to Ilwaco, which used to be a thriving town. That’s one of the big reasons we decided to do it here, to help revitalize Ilwaco.”

The seeds for the cidery were first planted about six years ago.

“I was working for the county, and we were thinking long term about what we would like to do. I’ve always been very much involved with Ilwaco government and community events, so we were thinking, ‘What can we do?’ We love Ilwaco and wanted to help foster growth here. One of the things we kicked around jokingly at first was opening a cidery,” Vinessa Karnofski recalled.

“It was something I could do while working as a side job, making small batches of cider. It then kind of took on a life of its own. We saw this building was for sale, and it’s right near the core (of town), so we jumped on it. It had storage units, so the building took care of its own overhead while we put time into our cider-making idea. The rent from the storage paid the mortgage.”

After purchasing the property in 2017, around 30 storage units have been removed to make room for the cidery.

“We started slowly tearing units out, then COVID hit and we got waylaid by that. We didn’t really start diving back into it until this year and we’ve progressed quite a ways. We’re hoping to be open by early spring, that’s our goal,” Vinessa Karnofski said.

The entire space covers about 8,000 square feet, with the cider operation occupying 2,500 to 3,000 to start. A portion of the building will still operate as storage.

“We’re doing this in a way that we start small. We have expansion ideas for a full taproom or restaurant, but we want to take it slow and not overwhelm ourselves with too many things going on at the same time. Our focus is to produce a great product first,” Jarrod Karnofski said.

Four 30-barrel capacity cider fermentation tanks were purchased from the former 12 Bridge Ciderworks, which operated in Oregon City from 2017 until earlier this year.

“We can have up to 60 barrels of cider going in rotation at one time,” Vinessa Karnofski said.

The apples will be sourced from Washington state, including a special annual reserve batch featuring local apples. Although apples aren’t commercially grown in Pacific County, they were planted here in the early 19th century. Many local backyard and naturalized apple trees produce ample crops.

“We’ll have a Harvest Days kind of deal where people can bring their own bucket (of apples) and get a free pint. That will be our reserve batch. We will press and sell that local reserve batch, whether it’s 150 or 500 gallons,” Vinessa Karnofski said.