Brendan and Carly Coyle each developed a taste for sparkling dry cider during their time living abroad. Bottled like champagne and crafted to be sipped like fine wine, it was a far cry from the sweeter, mass-produced ciders they were used to in the United States.
“Coming back to the U.S., Brendan and I, separately, were like, ‘Why can’t we find that cider varietal that we like? That’s super dry, not sweet?” Carly said.
That gap sparked an idea that became the Coyles’ next business venture: To buy 20 acres in the Kamas Valley and plant apple trees, laying the foundation for what would become a mountain cidery called Dendric Estate.
By crafting the kind of refined, dry cider they had fallen in love with overseas, Brendan — who recently left a job as Master Distiller at Park City’s High West Distillery —explained that Dendric Estate is “an orchard that creates wine, except we’re making our wine from apples instead of grapes.”
The sprawling, rectangular property the Coyles bought in 2019 sits at 6,440 feet above sea level, set against the backdrop of the Uinta Mountains, and has a production house with an array of equipment used to craft their dry cider.
“It kind of comes across as like a big, fancy garage, and that’s really by design, because just like a winery, we’re governed by the seasons,” Brendan said. “And so because we change what we do with the seasons, the equipment needs to be very modular. So most everything is either movable or on wheels.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Carly and Brendan Coyle at Dendric Estate, a new cidery and orchard in Kamas, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
Over the past four years, Brendan and Carly have dedicated about three acres to a research and development orchard, testing various apple varietals. While some trees are still young, others are beginning to bear fruit as the couple transitions into production. They plan to expand the orchard across three zones: a western block, a central block that will wrap around a future tasting room with a full kitchen and bar, and an eastern block.
The layout is designed to feel like an estate vineyard, Brendan said, with a driveway that leads visitors through high-density trellised rows, directly into the heart of the property and its agricultural setting.
“This was just an alfalfa greens field like you see all around Kamas Valley,” Carly explained, gesturing to the estate. “So we brought in the utilities. We worked with [Utah Department of Transportation] for over two years just to get the entrance onto the property. So it’s been an adventure, but we’re really glad that we can contribute to the community that’s been so good to us and that we really want to make roots in.”
Their first cider, Dry Cut, launches on July 11. True to its name, it contains zero grams of residual sugar and will be available in two sizes: a 375-milliliter bottle — perfect for two glasses — and the standard 750-milliliter bottle.
In their first year, the couple will offer their cider at select restaurants and bars in Park City and Salt Lake City, focusing on favorite local spots. They’ll also sell bottles and cases directly at the estate, with plans to expand into Utah liquor stores in 2026.
“The best way to experience a new product or a new beverage is when you’re at your favorite restaurant, surrounded by friends and family, having a great time, and you drink this new product and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing,’” Carly said. “Then you have these memories with it. You’re sharing it with people. That, to us, is more important and more impactful than putting it into a retail store and hoping someone reaches for it.”
Building an agritourism destination
Though still in its early stages, Brendan and Carly have plans to grow the estate into an agritourism experience where people can come taste their product and see how it’s made.
That vision includes a 4,200-square-foot tasting room and outdoor patio, where guests will eventually be able to enjoy cider pairings alongside a curated small plate menu, all set against the backdrop of the estate and the Uinta Mountains.
They hope to break ground on the tasting room in 2026 with plans to have it open in 2027, the couple said.
“Any great food, any great beverage, has agriculture directly tied to it, but the consumer typically doesn’t get to see that firsthand,” Brendan said.
With an estate winery layout, he said, “you get to come and you get to visit, you get to taste, you get to pair with food. You get to do it all right next to the agriculture from which it came from.”
Once the tasting room opens, the couple plans to host full-scale events.
In the meantime, they’re exploring ways to hold smaller events, such as tours and pop-up tastings in the production house. By moving some of the equipment aside, they hope to set up a small tasting bar one or two days a week, paired with food trucks and a laid-back, outdoor atmosphere, Brendan said.
Other ideas include a dinner or a happy hour in the orchard to coincide with the launch of Dry Cut.
A labor of love and science
For Brendan and Carly Coyle, crafting cider is both a science and an art.
When they co-founded Dendric Estate, they combined Brendan’s technical expertise as former Master Distiller at High West Distillery — where he worked from the Park City whiskey maker’s beginning in 2007 — with Carly’s skills in finance and branding.
Part of the experience the couple is offering is seeing how the cider is made. Each season is different, Brendan said, just like a winery.
In the fall, they receive fresh apples in 900-pound bins, which are then washed, hand-sorted for quality and crushed in a special mill that breaks up the fruit but leaves the seeds intact to avoid bitterness. The crushed apples enter a low-pressure pneumatic press that extracts the juice without extracting too many tannins from the skins or risk crushing the seeds, Brendan said.
The juice then ferments through the winter with a mix of natural and cultured yeasts, slowly turning sugars into alcohol while building complex flavors. After primary fermentation, the cider ages on the lees — the yeast sediment — to deepen its aroma and texture.
Come spring, batches from mostly single-variety fermenters are carefully blended for a balanced, nuanced cider, Brendan said. This blend undergoes a final fermentation in a large Charmat tank, used for Prosecco production, to carbonate the cider. All of the sugar is fermented and converted into carbon dioxide, he said.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brendan Coyle in the fermentation cellar at Dendric Estate, a new cidery and orchard in Kamas, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
“That’s really the backbone of the cider that we like to drink, where there’s no sweetness to it, there’s almost that elevated acidity that makes your mouth water, and it’s just crisp and refreshing and light,” Carly said.
Growing with purpose
Sustainability is central to the Coyles’ philosophy at Dendric Estate, where they cultivate the land using environmentally conscious farming methods, they said.
They use mulch to keep moisture in the soil and support biodiversity, micro-sprinklers target water right at the tree roots and they keep grass in the row middles to protect topsoil and support pollinators, they said.
Another key initiative is water recycling, as the couple is working toward using 100% of their filtered wastewater for irrigation. They estimate this could conserve up to 1 million gallons of water each year.
This would be done through an on-site aerobic digestion system, an environmentally conscious wastewater treatment that, Brendan said, is commonly used in California wineries but still making its way into Utah.
“We’re working with the state of Utah on how that works, and showing them the data,” Carly said. “It’s a fairly new system, especially for Utah, so they just want to make sure that the system is doing what we say it’s going to do.”
While their debut cider isn’t fully organic, due to the inclusion of apples sourced from other farms, Dendric Estate’s own agricultural practices are entirely organic, they said.
“This is an honor to be on this land, and we want to respect it,” Carly said. “Are we going to solve the world’s issues on this 20-acre piece of land? No. But can we make a little dent in what we think is right? That’d be our goal.”