The Great Frontier Beverage holdings collective headquartered out of Eugene, Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing has added two more acquisitions to the growing family which already included Ashland Hard Seltzer, Ecliptic Brewing, and the aforementioned Ninkasi Brewing.
Sometime in 2025 GFB quietly acquired Washington’s Incline Cider, a popular cider brand known for their high octane Imperial Ciders and their taproom in Tacoma. The acquisition was never publicized or commented upon, perhaps because of the lawsuit it set off with Schilling Cider.
According to Seattle, Washington-based Schilling Cider, they had been contracted to both create and produce Incline Cider’s canned products. In a press release dated 9/1/25 Schilling Cider claimed “Under a mutual agreement, Schilling’s recipes were protected, with ownership reverting to Schilling if production moved elsewhere. In June 2025, Incline announced plans to shift production to a competitor, prompting Schilling to take legal action to safeguard its intellectual property.”
Incline Cider was founded by Jordan Zehner and his father Chris Zehner in 2015. “At the time, I was living in Arizona and Chris was in Tahoe (Incline Village), which inspired our name. I had been a home cidermaker for years, and given Chris and I’s shared professional backgrounds in wine and spirit sales, we decided to combine our skills and give Incline a go. That leap of faith brough us both to Washington to formally launch the company,” Jordan told the New School…