Portland’s Alter Ego Cider is shutting down

Alter Ego Cider, founded in 2014 by Helioterra Wines winemaker Anne Hubatch, is ceasing operations and shutting down production of their beloved cider brand. Looking back to pre-pandemic 2019, Alter Ego Cider was opening a taproom at their southeast Portland production facility and had sexy new cans on the market distributed through Running Man Distributors.

The all too frequently heard reason for Alter Ego’s closure is the result of the pandemic says founder Anne Hubatch.

“The pandemic was a difficult time for all of us, and for Alter Ego it came at a crucial time where we had just invested in the expansion of our business. Not unexpected, we operated at a loss during that first year after investing in our tap house and production facility with hopes of much more. The pandemic's timing caused these losses to carry on for much longer,” says Hubatch.

In August, 2021 Alter Ego made the difficult choice to close their tasting room to stem their losses by cutting overhead costs. Since the tasting room was also on site at Helioterra Wines central production space, they were able to keep it open as a winery tasting room with a few of their ciders on tap still. Unfortunately, the cutbacks weren’t enough to keep the cider part of the business financially viable.

“On top of these challenges, our production costs have increased significantly over the last two years, which we attempted to recover some with price adjustments, but our costs increased well beyond what the market would bear for price adjustments and the margin necessary to operate our business evaporated,” says Hubatch. “After years of operating at a loss, we have decided that it doesn't make sense to go on any longer.”

Alter Ego’s small production output just doesn’t scale when increased costs are hitting nearly all aspects of the industry, there is only so much consumers will bear for paying increased prices on their products. Hubatch says that it is now nearly impossible for Alter Ego to turn a profit at their size, but Helioterra Wines are doing just fine.

“Wine has much more elastic pricing and consumers see it as more of a luxury item, so we have more upward mobility with our pricing in wine than we do in cider,” says Hubatch. Alter Ego still have some limited product availability in the market, and customers can still pick up canned ciders from Helioterra Wines Wine Bar as long as supplies last.