LONGMONT — A couple plans to unveil Longmont’s first hard cidery in mid- to late-May in part of the building that until recently housed the city’s daily newspaper.

Dean and Cindy Landi are working to open St. Vrain Cidery and Taproom in 2,300 square feet of the former Times-Call building’s first floor. The building is at Fourth Avenue and Terry Street, but the cidery’s entrance and patio will be off the alley on the east side, toward Coffman Street, Cindy Landi said.

The taproom will have 25 taps, she said, featuring five of their own brews and 20 from other local businesses including Stem Ciders, Colorado Cider Co., Wild Cider, Scrumpy’s, Big Bs and more.

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The Landis met along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where Dean was a marine biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They took up home brewing while living in Austin, Texas, and the idea of opening a cidery was born after they moved to Longmont and met Dan Daugherty, who runs a blog called Cider Sage.

“We’ve always talked about it, but it was just kind of a fantasy,” Cindy Landi said. “So this just seemed like the right step to take.”

The couple started laying the groundwork for the business in January 2015, she said, then set about finding a space. “We went to this amazing workshop in Portland, Ore., and met some of the leaders in the industry. We learned a little more about what the industry was doing, and signed a lease at the end of last year.”

Raising the money to start the business involved selling a condo they owned in Austin and working with High Plains Bank on a small-business loan. Then there was a GoFundMe page.

“We were hoping to raise some extra money for the patio and outdoor seating with that page, and we raised a little over $5,000 from friends and family,” she said, “but we haven’t pushed that very hard.”

The Landis just received their liquor license and are working through the final permitting process, she said, adding that the couple plans to be open from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. or noon until 6 p.m. Sundays.

The majority of the space will be public, she said, “but off to the north of the taproom will be an area segregated for our tanks. It’ll be visible, but behind a barrier.”

She said she’d like to preserve some of the building’s newspaper past as part of the taproom’s décor. “We’ve asked them if we can keep one of the Times-Call signs to honor the history. We still have to talk to an electrician about it,” she said. “We’d also like to take the old globe lights from the warehouse and see if we can convert them to LED. We’re really trying to honor the space.”

The Times-Call moved its staff to 1860 Industrial Circle last year. The newspaper’s longtime headquarters was sold to investor/developer Jamie St. John for $2.4 million in September 2014. The sale included the 48,310-square-foot main newspaper building, a 39,673-square-foot parking lot on the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Terry Street and an 11,875-square-foot parking lot to the east of the building along the alley, where the entrance to the taproom will be.

The Landis are in the process of developing recipes for the ciders they’ll offer.

“We’ve come up with some interesting flavors,” Cindy Landi said, “flavors like poblano pepper, grapefruit, ginger lime, basil lavender and a traditional apple. We have a barrel from Still Cellars and would like to develop a barrel-aged cider.

“We’ve also heard something about a ‘St. Vrain apple’ — a variety of apple that supposedly disappeared in the 1880s — so we’re trying to find out more about that.”

Dallas Heltzell can be reached at 970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or dheltzell@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.