Carriage House is a love story

A love of traditional cider made with natural ingredients from mother nature. A love of Michigan and every one of its apple orchards and everyone in its community. A love of the flavor our cider brings out of good food.

We celebrate each apple’s uniqueness, whether it’s a Hoople’s Antique Gold, Grime’s Golden, Dabinett, Foxwhelp—or any of the abundance of varieties we use to create a different, fuller flavor cider each with an expression all its own.

Falling in love usually involves a leap of faith, a heap of daring, and a dash of crazy. 

We’re crazy enough to select and prepare every apple of the thousands that go into our ciders. To use wild yeast that's found on the skins of the apples, leaving nature in control. To use oak barrels for fermenting and aging to lend flavor and tannins to our cider. And crazy enough to restore and remake a 137-year-old carriage house into a cidery. 

We’re daring enough to bring European-style cider to American tables because we believe our customers are daring enough to try and embrace something unique. 

We take a leap of faith with every batch and bring only the most delightful, interesting ciders to our market. 

How about them apples?

Our Process

At Carriage House, we select every Michigan apple that goes into our cider by hand.

Our Process

we use only 3 ingredients

• Apple juice crushed fresh here at the cidery for each batch

• Wild yeast found on the apple skins

• Some sugar to help with the fermenting process.

A man with glasses, wearing a denim jacket and a baseball cap, inspecting green apples outdoors.
Green and red heritage apples in a wooden crate.

Our Process

We source our apples from local Southwest Michigan orchards

We use more varieties than any cidery in our area. Last year we used 50 different varieties.

Our Process

The naturally gluten-free cider is aged and fermented in oak barrels to lend flavor and tannins for a fuller, more interesting taste that pairs well with rich food.

Gluten-free symbol with a leaf inside a crossed-out circle
Illustration of a barrel with the words "Barrel Aged" underneath.

Our Process

Sustainability is important to us

So we invite local farmers to pick up our pomace—the pulp remaining after apples have been crushed—to feed to their livestock, and we accept our bottles back from customers to recycle. 

Large blue container filled with chopped, cooked meat and vegetables, with some spilled on the ground. A person stands behind it, with a yellow meat grinder and other supplies nearby. The setting appears to be outdoors or in a garage. Small pieces of debris and leaves are scattered on the ground.

OUR STORY

Paula Camp’s love of cider began when she interviewed the famed French chef, Jacques Pépin, and tried his homemade cider. From there, the former Chicago Tribune restaurant critic experimented with a cider recipe from Pépin. In 2016, Paula and her wife, Mary Connors, a former journalist and editor, together with family and friends, transformed their 137-year-old carriage house in Benton Harbor, Michigan into a modern-day craft cidery. In 2020, the Carriage House brand was born.

While the cidery is relatively new, the Carriage House cider-making process dates back centuries—used by Europeans and early American settlers.

Two smiling women with gray hair standing close together inside a rustic wooden building, possibly a cidery or brewery, with large wooden barrels in the background.

“It is never too late to do what you dream of doing or to be who you really are.”

-Paula Camp

HISTORY

Newspaper clippings from the late 1800’s describe the property’s history.

Four smiling people, the carriage house team, standing outdoors in front of a large house with trees and fallen leaves on the ground, likely in autumn.
Two women, the owners, smiling and talking in a rustic room with wooden walls and large barrels.
Two people working in a tented fruit stand, with crates of red and yellow apples in the foreground, during daytime.
Apple harvest scene with buckets of apples next to a trailer and a tent in a green outdoor setting.
A man with glasses and a hat, smiling, picking apples into a yellow basket at an outdoor apple picking farm during daytime.
People tasting wine in a wooden cellar, with barrels in the foreground and a woman holding a graduated container of wine.
Three women standing in front of a large wooden container filled with green apples, smiling at the camera, under a canopy. Two women are wearing rubber gloves, and one is holding an apple.
A wooden cart filled with freshly picked green apples outdoors.
Two people preparing large batch of rice inside a tent with trees visible in the background.
A bottling machine filling glass bottles with a pink liquid, positioned on a wooden surface in a rustic setting.
A young man smiling outdoors holding several bottles and jars of beverages, including cherry juice and other drinks, with a lush green background.
Six wooden wine barrels on a metal rack in a cellar with wooden walls, some with orange-coated spigots on top.
A woman in a red and black plaid shirt is pouring wine into glasses in a winery cellar, with three people watching and holding glasses of wine.
Group of five women standing in a rustic wood-paneled room; one woman pours a drink while others watch and smile.
A smiling woman with glasses and blonde hair in a gray hooded sweatshirt that says 'Lake Michigan College' stands outdoors on green grass with trees in the background, holding a large wooden barrel.
Two people inspecting wooden barrels outside in front of a garage door.
Man standing near a truck loaded with large wooden barrels outdoors with trees and grassy area in background.
Young man with short dark hair wearing a green shirt and red oven mitts standing underneath a large cotton candy machine at an outdoor event, with two women in the background preparing food.
Bobbing for apples at Carriage House
A deer stands on a lawn with fallen autumn leaves, near a tree and a trailer filled with pink objects, possibly fruit or flowers, in a park or garden setting.
A woman with glasses, gray hair, and a gray beanie pouring a substance from a white bucket into a barrel in a rustic wood-paneled room.
Old beige house with gray roof, surrounded by tall trees, with a closed garage door and multiple windows.
Chicago Magazine logo in black text on a white background

Carriage House in the Press

AXIOS Chicago logo on a white background.
Text reading "CIDER CULTURE" with a small drop icon to the right of "CIDER".
The logo of 10 WNDU, a news station, in grayscale with a modern geometric background.
Black and white logo with the text "Voyage Michigan" in italics in the center.
A booth at an outdoor market selling cider, decorated with signs and a tablecloth, under a white canopy with the words "Carriage House" and a logo. Two smiling vendors stand behind the table, which displays bottles of cider, honey jars, and a colorful board listing prices and product options. The background features green trees, a distant view of rooftops, and a body of water under a bright blue sky.

FIND US AT THE 2025 FARMERS MARKETS

FIND US AT THE 2025 FARMERS MARKETS

We set up at our local Michigan farmers markets from May through November. Come say hello and taste some cider!