Last Leg Cidery is located on Route 407 in Fleetville.
Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
Pictured are the owners of Last Leg Cidery, Wendy Ahlers, left, and her husband, George Ahlers.
Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
Red umbrellas are shown on picnic tables, as well as a sign welcome customers.
Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
A porch outside of Fleetville Hotel, which is next door to Last Leg Cidery, provides additional seating to customers.
Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
The cider garden provides outdoor seating and a stage for local musicians.
Ben Freda | For Abington Journal
FLEETVILLE — Husband and wife George and Wendy Ahlers don’t have to travel for their business venture, which they opened late last summer. They live at the former Fleetville Hotel, right next door to their garage to Last Leg Cidery.
“You can’t beat the commute,” joked Wendy.
The Ahlers serve hand-crafted, hard ciders on tap and local craft beer in cans. They have three rotating taps that serve seasonal cider. They have limited quantities of batches, with their smallest being five gallons and their largest 120 gallons.
Their signature drink, called Tried & True, is an apple cider that is back sweetened with agave nectar and light brown sugar. Their cider called Cherry Bomb is conditioned with sweet black cherries. The sunset cider is made with fresh ginger and sweet orange peel.
There are also cider cocktails, including Porch Rock n’ Razz, which is Tried & True mixed with vodka and cran-raspberry juice. Their cocktail called Bahama Poppa is flavored with pineapple, mango and rum. There is also non-alcoholic sweet cider and frozen ice pops for kids.
Last Leg Cidery is considered to be an urban cidery, since the Ahlers don’t press their own apples. They source their juice from local orchards. They don’t have an orchard, but the have an outdoor space called the cider garden. It has picnic tables with red umbrellas and seats. There is also a stage, in which local musicians can perform.
George and Wendy enjoy bringing a sense of community by having a place where people can sit with each other and connect with conversation. There are also cornhole boards available to play at the cider garden.
“It’s really nice to see people come in separately and all of a sudden I see them sitting together and chatting,” said George.
“It’s one of the things we enjoy most,” Wendy added. “It’s important to have places like this.”
George has 25 years of experience as a home brewer and five years working in a brewery. He and Wendy decided to open their own craft beverage business.
“We’re kind of easing our way into a retirement plan with the Last Leg Cidery,” said Wendy. “It’s like the ‘last leg’ of our journey.”
There is additional seating on the front porch of the Fleetville Hotel. The Ahlers are working on having a taproom inside the old house that had been a hotel from 1840 to the 1970’s.
Last Leg Cidery is located on Route 407 near the Fleetville corners. It is about two miles from Lackawanna State Park. It is across the street from the Fleetville Volunteer Fire Company. The Ahlers will bring their hard ciders to the Fleetville Fall Fair, which will be on the grounds of the fire company on Saturday, Sept. 11. They hope to help raise funds for it.
“It’s nice to know the hard work that we do is for ourselves, and we can choose to give back,” said George. “We’re giving back to the community a little bit.”
