How ayrloom became New York’s best-selling cannabis brand

For more than 100 years, Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards has invited the community to experience what they grow.

Founded in 1911 by George Skiff and Andrew Beak, the family business spent decades growing apples for grocery stores and other wholesale buyers.

Change can be difficult in business; it was more than 60 years later, in 1979, when the orchard added fresh sweet cider to its product line.

The company’s evolution into a diversified manufacturer, and eventually the business behind New York’s best-selling cannabis brand, occurred gradually.

Beak & Skiff began producing hard cider and apple wine in 2001 – 90 years after the founding – opened a distillery in 2009, and introduced the 1911 Established brand nearly a century after the orchard’s first apple blossoms.

When Eddie Brennan joined the family business as a fifth-generation co-owner, he understood that preserving its history would require the company to continue evolving.

“Family businesses die because the way they made money in the past is the way they want to keep making money in the future,” Brennan continued. “That’s a sure path to destruction.”

Under Brennan’s leadership, the company continued expanding its hard cider, spirits, beverage-manufacturing, entertainment, and agritourism operations.

More recently, Brennan led its expansion into cannabis.

That push produced ayrloom, a vertically integrated cannabis brand that has transformed the family business while helping preserve the orchard at its center.

Today, ayrloom, the regulated cannabis brand created on the family farm, offers beverages, gummies, tinctures, topicals, infused pre-rolls, and All-In-One vapes.

According to retail data from BDSA, Pistil, and Headset –  ayrloom is New York’s best-selling adult-use cannabis brand.

The company reported in July that ayrloom products were available in more than 600 licensed dispensaries and that the brand had sold more than 5 million units during the preceding 12 months, representing 85% year-over-year growth in unit sales.

Headset data for June 2026 ranked ayrloom first in New York beverages, tinctures and sublinguals, and topicals, and as a Top 3 brand in vape pens and Top 10 in pre-rolls.

The company’s growth was not simply the result of entering an emerging market early. It came from applying more than a century of agricultural history and decades of beverage-manufacturing experience to a new category.

For Brennan, the decision to enter cannabis was part of a broader responsibility to ensure that Beak & Skiff survived for another generation.

“The motivation for me personally has always been legacy and trying to leave the business better than I found it,” Brennan said. “That is a big weight to carry on your shoulders when you’re talking about a 115-year legacy.”

Apple farming remained central to the business, but Brennan understood that relying solely on an agricultural crop created significant financial risk. An orchard requires years of investment before new trees produce commercially meaningful harvests. Even after those trees mature, frost, drought, heat, disease, and severe weather can eliminate a season’s revenue.

“When I came into the business, I knew that wasn’t going to be the ultimate path for our business,” Brennan said. “That being said, it’s one of the foundational cores, no pun intended or pun intended, of our business. Apples are everything we do. It’s what we’re known for.”

That tension between preserving the orchard and changing the company became a defining element of Brennan’s leadership.

“The family, as we pivoted to the fifth generation, always understood how necessary change was,” Brennan explained. “Family businesses die because the way they made money in the past is the way they want to keep making money in the future. That’s a sure path to destruction.”

Cannabis offered another potential crop, another manufactured product category, and another opportunity to use the land and infrastructure the family had developed over more than a century.

It also provided a hedge against changes affecting the company’s alcohol business.

“We saw that the alcohol industry overall was softening,” Brennan said. “We looked at states like Colorado, and there was data. It was a real threat to the alcohol business.”

Rather than treat cannabis solely as competition, Beak & Skiff saw an opportunity to participate in the category and apply its existing capabilities to a new consumer market.

Research to regulated

Beak & Skiff’s first cannabis project came through New York’s industrial hemp research program.

The company set out to grow hemp, process the harvested crop, and formulate a CBD beverage using a New York-based supply chain. The concept resembled the farm-to-beverage process the company had already developed around apples.

“Our project was that we wanted to take a crop, a cannabis crop, hemp, and process it and turn it into a CBD beverage,” Brennan said. “We wanted to prove that you could do that using the supply chain in New York state.”

The agricultural connection made the project feel like an extension of Beak & Skiff rather than a completely unrelated venture.

“It kind of lined up with what we had done with apples, growing apples, pressing them, turning them into fresh cider, and then hard cider,” Brennan continued. “That was our project, and that was our foray into the wild, crazy world of cannabis.”

After New York legalized adult-use cannabis, Brennan pursued cultivation and processing opportunities in the regulated market. Forbes reported that the company committed approximately $5 million to new facilities and infrastructure while preparing to supply New York’s first licensed dispensaries. ayrloom entered the regulated market in 2023.

The company brought decades of beverage-manufacturing experience into the venture.

“When we started our hard cider brand, 1911, 15 years ago, we were making cider in a garage,” Brennan said. “Ultimately, we scaled to a multimillion-gallon facility, which we operate in today. Along that pathway, we made every mistake you can possibly make in the beverage industry.”

Those mistakes became valuable lessons. Beak & Skiff learned how to select and install equipment, arrange production facilities, work with flavor houses, formulate products, maintain shelf stability, and scale production while protecting consistency.

“By the time we got to ayrloom, we really understood beverage,” Brennan said. “Beverage is a complicated form factor when you’re doing consumer packaged goods, whether it’s how you make it shelf-stable, how you’re blending, or how you’re ensuring the dosage is correct.”

The company had also developed a 15-year playbook for flavor development and beverage manufacturing. That knowledge helped ayrloom enter the market with products that connected the cannabis operation to the family’s history.

From the orchard to the can

Few products demonstrate the relationship between Beak & Skiff and ayrloom as clearly as the brand’s infused Honeycrisp cider.

The product begins with Honeycrisp apples grown at Beak & Skiff. The apples are harvested and pressed at the orchard before the juice is filtered, transferred to the cannabis facility, and infused.

“It’s literally from Honeycrisp apple trees we grow here at Beak & Skiff,” Brennan said. “Those apples are harvested, they’re pressed in our cider mill, they’re filtered, and then they’re sent over to our cannabis facility, where they’re infused.”

For Brennan, the product is not simply an apple-flavored cannabis beverage. It represents several generations of agricultural work contained in a single can.

“Those are trees my grandfather planted, in some cases,” he said. “You can see all of the work come together.”

The product also demonstrates the manufacturing challenges ayrloom inherited from the beverage industry. Unlike a conventional carbonated drink, the cider requires nitrogen during packaging. It must also remain stable while delivering a consistent cannabinoid dose.

That combination of agricultural authenticity and manufacturing experience has helped distinguish ayrloom in an increasingly crowded beverage category.

Building a brand, instead of a label

The name ayrloom was designed to connect the cannabis company to the orchard’s history.

Heirloom apple cultivars are often passed from one generation to the next. They can be difficult to grow and may not produce consistent crops, but their acidity and other characteristics can make them particularly valuable for cider production.

“When we chose the name ayrloom, it was very intentional,” Brennan said. “Every generation in our business has brought something new to the company.”

The spelling created a distinct identity for the cannabis line while preserving the reference to the fruit and trees that sustained the family business.

“The roots in our heirloom apple trees run deep,” Brennan explained. “Ultimately, 1911 is what saved our family farm, for sure. But ayrloom is what’s going to keep it going into the future.”

That story became an important part of the company’s strategy in New York. Brennan said the ayrloom team regularly discusses the difference between placing a label on a package and building a brand with a recognizable identity.

“We talk a lot in our marketing meetings about the difference between a label and a brand,” he said. “There are a lot of labels on the shelf in cannabis, in a lot of different consumer packaged goods categories. We believe the brand and the story behind the brand are everything.”

Beak & Skiff already had generations of recognition among New York consumers. Some had picked apples at the orchard, purchased fresh cider, attended a concert, or consumed products from 1911 Established before ayrloom appeared in dispensaries.

“When you have a five-generation family story, when people pull that label off the shelf, there’s an inherent quality and trust that’s been built over five generations,” Brennan said.

“We’ve seen people transition from our brand. They say, ‘I picked apples there. I love your fresh cider. I’ve bought hard cider before, and now I buy ayrloom.’ They make that connection.”

In parts of the state farther from the orchard, consumers may discover ayrloom first and learn about Beak & Skiff later.

In either direction, the relationship gives the cannabis brand a history that cannot be manufactured through packaging alone.

ayrloom’s branding was developed to make cannabis feel approachable, particularly for consumers who may be unfamiliar with dispensaries or overwhelmed by the number of products on the shelf.

Brennan sees beverages as an especially effective means of normalizing cannabis consumption. Drinking from a can is a familiar social behavior, allowing a cannabis beverage to fit naturally into occasions where smoking may feel less comfortable or appropriate.

“When you look at the ayrloom branding, it’s done in a way that’s made to feel like a craft beer or another category,” Brennan said. “We’re not going to put a big cannabis leaf on the side of that can. It’s meant to blend in and fit in with the beverages.”

The objective is not to conceal the nature of the product. It is to present cannabis in a format consumers already understand while clearly communicating its contents and potency.

“We’ve seen time and time again that cannabis beverages really break that barrier and allow people to consume it in all different environments,” Brennan said.

Brennan said the company initially believed low-dose beverages containing 2.5 or 5 milligrams of THC would drive the category. Consumer purchasing patterns in New York’s regulated market, however, showed strong demand for the state’s maximum 10-milligram serving.

“We offer a 5-milligram beverage, and we offer a 10-milligram beverage because that’s the maximum you can put in a dispensary in New York,” Brennan said. “We’re about 95% skewed to 10 milligrams.”

He acknowledged that price and perceived value may contribute to that preference, but the results showed the company that many consumers were seeking higher-dose products than it originally anticipated.

Crafting consistency

Although beverages remain central to ayrloom’s identity, the brand has grown by extending its flavors, product language, and intended experiences across several formats.

Its portfolio includes gummies, tinctures, topicals, infused pre-rolls, and AIO vapes. The Mood line pairs THC with minor cannabinoids and flavor profiles intended to give consumers clearer guidance about the experience associated with each product.

“We’re trying to be very intentional with our consumer and tell them what they’re getting,” Brennan said. “The average customer who goes into a dispensary can have a very overwhelming experience for the first time.”

Products may be positioned around rest, focus, energy, or another desired occasion, giving inexperienced consumers an entry point that does not depend solely on cultivar names or technical terminology.

“The ayrloom brand is for everyone, but it’s also for that first-time customer who’s going to walk into a dispensary and be like, ‘What am I doing here? Where do I even start?’” Brennan said.

The company also carries flavors and product concepts from one category to another.

“You’ll see a lot of our flavors are similar to what we do in beverages,” Brennan said. “We tell a story across all of it, whether it’s vapes, beverages, or gummies. That story goes all the way through.”

ayrloom initially introduced half-gram AIO vapes as an accessible way for consumers to sample the brand. As consumers became familiar with the products, the company expanded into 1-gram and 2-gram options designed for more frequent purchasers.

The progression reflects ayrloom’s broader strategy of using approachable products to attract consumers and developing and introducing additional formats as those consumers become more comfortable with the brand.

The company has also applied lessons from apple production to its cannabis supply chain.

Beak & Skiff grows outdoor cannabis on the farm and processes harvested material through its production operation. Brennan said most of the cannabis used in ayrloom products is grown on the property.

In 2026, the company expanded its outdoor canopy from one acre to two. Much of the sun-grown cannabis is directed into ayrloom’s infused pre-roll portfolio.

The family has also repurposed portions of its existing agricultural infrastructure. Controlled-atmosphere rooms previously used for apple storage have been converted into cannabis drying rooms.

“Similar to what we do in the apple business, we’re vertically integrating all the way from growing the product to harvesting it and all the way through,” Brennan said. “We’ve actually converted some of our apple controlled-atmosphere rooms. We’ve transitioned them over to drying rooms. It’s all been kept in the family.”

The integration gives the company greater control over cultivation, extraction, formulation, manufacturing, and finished products. It also allows the cannabis business to support the continued preservation of the orchard and its infrastructure.

Built for legacy

ayrloom’s growth has transformed the economics of the family company. Brennan said the cannabis operation has become significantly larger than the original Beak & Skiff business, despite operating for only a few years.

“Today, ayrloom is actually significantly bigger than Beak & Skiff,” Brennan said. “You think about a 115-year-old business versus a three- to five-year-old business,” Brennan chuckled, “That is crazy.”

The comparison illustrates how diversification has allowed the family to continue farming rather than selling or redeveloping its land.

Beak & Skiff continues planting apple trees, harvesting fruit, producing cider, and inviting the community to experience the farm firsthand.

Its concerts, tasting rooms, seasonal attractions, and emerging cannabis operation all support the agricultural business at the heart of the company.

For Brennan, ayrloom’s position as New York’s top-selling cannabis brand is not simply a sales milestone. It is evidence that a family business can enter a new industry without abandoning the identity that sustained it for more than a century.

“There’s a lot of pressure to keep a family business alive, but there’s a lot of passion and pride that comes with it every day,” Brennan said.