Resurgence Brewing Company, a leading craft brewery celebrated for its innovative and high-quality beers, is thrilled to announce its recent acquisition of the Blackbird Cider Works brand from Donovan Orchards, LLC. BlackBird Cider Works, an award-winning brand of ciders was founded in 2011 and located in Barker, NY. This strategic acquisition represents Resurgence Brewing Company’s commitment to diversifying and expanding its craft beverage offerings.
Donovan Orchards plans to continue to own and operate the Buffalo Cider Hall and the Lake Ontario Tasting Room as well as their commercial orchards and state of the art juice pressing operation. Additionally, they have immediate plans to launch a line of high-end, orchard based artisanal ciders under the new Donovan Orchards Estate Ciders brand for direct-to-consumer sales, Theses ciders will be available at both of their locations. BlackBird Cider Works packaged, and draft products will continue to be sold at both the Lake Ontario Tasting Room and the Buffalo Cider Hall.
The acquisition of Blackbird Cider Works aligns with Resurgence’s vision to provide an exceptional range of craft beverages to its loyal customers. By joining forces with Blackbird Cider Works, Resurgence aims to strengthen its presence in the ever-evolving craft beverage market and further enhance the overall experience for its patrons. For Donovan Orchards, this strategic divestiture will enable them to focus their management talent on producing additional barrel aged and other artisanal ciders.
“We are thrilled to welcome Blackbird Cider Works into the Resurgence Brewing family”, said Jeff Ware, founder and president of Resurgence. “Scott and his team grow great apples and make world class ciders. We share a lot of the same values and think this will be a great fit for our portfolio.”
Both companies share a passion for high quality, innovation, and a commitment to supporting local communities. This shared dedication to craftsmanship and community makes this acquisition a perfect synergy, allowing both brands to combine strengths and build the brands.
Blackbird Cider Works has earned a stellar reputation for its commitment to crafting high-quality ciders using estate grown apples from their orchard and other local orchards. Resurgence does not plan to change anything and will continue to source juice pressed directly from the Donovan Orchards press house.
Donovan Orchards founder and president commented, “We are proud to have Resurgence Brewing Company as our transition partner for the BlackBird Cider Works brand and look forward to working with Jeff and his team as they continue to build upon what we created.”
Resurgence Brewing and Blackbird Cider Works are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and are confident that the acquisition will enable both brands to reach new heights in the craft beverage industry.
About Donovan Orchards LLC
Donovan Orchards, founded by Scott Donovan and co-founder Margaret Glover was established in 2006 when Scott purchased a 38-acre Lakeside apple orchard with the intent of producing European style ciders like the ones he had enjoyed while visiting the U.K., France, and Spain. Located at 8503 Lower Lake Road in Barker, NY (Niagara County) the property is situated along the Lake Ontario Fruit Belt and overlooks Lake Ontario, the ideal climate for growing tree fruit. Donovan Orchards was an early pioneer in the modern cider renaissance, launching BlackBird Cider Works, an estate style cidery in 2011. The cider became very popular and by 2013 was widely distributed in the Western NY area. Known for their superior quality and exquisite tastes, Scott states, “great ciders begin with great fruit,” In addition to commercial fruit growing operations and cider production capabilities, Donovan Orchards has fruit pressing services.
About Resurgence Brewing Company
Resurgence Brewing is a production craft brewery and taproom located at 55 Chicago Street in Buffalo’s Old First Ward. Established in 2014, Resurgence has gained a loyal following for its high-quality beer, innovation, and destination taproom/ banquet facility. The idea for Resurgence Brewing was born in New York City, where owner Jeff Ware and now wife Erin would frequent beer gardens and wonder why there were no such spaces in Buffalo when they’d come home to visit family. The Wares officially packed their bags for Buffalo in January 2012 and, after two years of brewing recipes in his kitchen with a 5-gallon system rigged together out of converted Coleman coolers, cooking pots and a turkey fryer (no, seriously), opened its original location on Niagara Street in June 2014. Resurgence now brews just under 5,000 gallons of beer a week. Our mission is for our fans to “Experience Beer” and be the industry standard of providing high quality, small batch craft beer and spirits in a City of Good Neighbors community gathering environment. For more information about us, visit www.resurgencebrewing.com.