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Craft Hard Cider Is On A Roll. How Ya Like Them Apples?
Hard cider is having a hot moment. Hotter still, if it's locally made and distributed. Over the past four years, the number of cideries across the country has doubled, from 400 to 800, according to The Cyder Market LLC, a small business that keeps statistics on the cider industry. [...] Wine has long had its connoisseurs. With the rise of the craft beer movement, drinkers have learned to appreciate the nuances of that brewed beverage, too. But cider, in many drinkers' imagination, remains an unrefined, blandly sweet drink, says Johnson. The reality is far different, he says.
[...] Hard cider's history in the U.S. goes all the way back to the Founding Fathers. During the American Revolution, many landowners had apple orchards and made homemade fermented cider using the cider apples that grew in their backyard, says Michelle McGrath, executive director of the U.S. Cider Makers Association. "Prohibition came and most of the cider apple trees were cut down in this country. But now, it's having a renaissance," she says. "It's coming back really strongly; it's taking market share from beer."
Nielsen's research says sales for regional cider are up 35.6 percent. McGrath says this is because local cideries have more varieties of cider that appeal to more sophisticated palates. In other words, cider seems to be going through what wine and beer went through years ago: people moving from drinking big brands to being more discerning, niche, and sometimes downright persnickety.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday December 06 2017, @03:09AM (1 child)
Well, it think I spotted your problem.
I haven't tried their Cider, but almost everything they make is just grain alcohol and flavoring.
Got to be a craft made near you or in your local beer store.
The thing is, the output of even a single mature apple tree is way more than your entire family can possibly consume, and sooner or later people start looking for something to do with all those extra apples. People naturally turn to Hard Cider after a while.
Western Washington is a awash with apple trees. Everybody buys a house and gets a romantic notion about an apple tree in the yard. Or two. Maybe three.
One is way more than you need by the time its half grown.
I walk around my neighborhood, and people have signs out hanging on the Apple trees in their lawns: "Don't Ask. Just Pick." They can't bring themselves to cut them down.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday December 07 2017, @12:33AM
At the time it was the only one available. At the time I think Zuma? was being heavily marketed, it also sucked dinosaur balls.
If memory serves this was before the craft beer revolution. Once I found Arrogant Bastard in the mid 90's I was hooked. Before that it was either the very pricey Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout (from England) when I had the money (e.g. Friday), or Becks dark.
CSB. I was notorious for trying new beers I'd never seen before. This was when a new beer would pop up every 6-12 months. First time I had an Arrogant Bastard (basically a 6 pack in a bottle) I loved it. Had to pee, got up from my chair, and flopped right onto my face. In front of my wife. Not my best time, but I was an AB fan ever since.
Funny how times change. I now do Zumba 3 times a week, and haven't had a Zuma in a couple decades.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.