~ Cider History Buffs ~

liquidavalon · Jan 10, 2012

I enjoy the making of 'hard' cider but also anything that has to do with the historical end of cider as well. Here is an article called " The Mysterious Demise of Hard Cider in America " by David Williams.

Enjoy!

Hard Cider's Mysterious Demise

truckjohn · Jan 10, 2012

Well... maybe folks got tired of bitter, vinegary cider when Beer became more commonly available....

I think there's also a nod towards industrialization... It's difficult to keep a full scale Industrial Cider manufacturing plant running all year... Apples only come due in the fall - what are you going to do the rest of the year.... Compare that with Beer - you can store grain in grain bins all year long - and continue to brew through the winter, spring, and summer.... It's just well suited towards large scale industrial production... and the history of Beer in the USA since the 1800's is one of larger and larger scale industrial production up until the last 10 years or so....

I suppose you could argue that Wineries have to deal with that problem too... but small scale "family farm" type wineries are now just starting to make a comeback in the marketplace in the usa... 20 years ago in the USA - there wasn't a whole lot of commercial domestic wine production in small wineries...

Thanks

Pumbaa · Jan 10, 2012

truckjohn said:
Well... maybe folks got tired of bitter, vinegary cider when Beer became more commonly available....

I think there's also a nod towards industrialization... It's difficult to keep a full scale Industrial Cider manufacturing plant running all year... Apples only come due in the fall - what are you going to do the rest of the year.... Compare that with Beer - you can store grain in grain bins all year long - and continue to brew through the winter, spring, and summer.... It's just well suited towards large scale industrial production... and the history of Beer in the USA since the 1800's is one of larger and larger scale industrial production up until the last 10 years or so....

I suppose you could argue that Wineries have to deal with that problem too... but small scale "family farm" type wineries are now just starting to make a comeback in the marketplace in the usa... 20 years ago in the USA - there wasn't a whole lot of commercial domestic wine production in small wineries...

Thanks

if you get "bitter, vinegary" cider IMHO you're doing something wrong . . . plus I have no problem making hard cider year round with commercially available juice.

I wish I could get the link to work because I would love to read the article but I dont know if it's a problem on my end due to being at work or if it's on the other end.

From everything I have read about the history of cider a big reason it never recovered after prohibition is prior to prohibition people didnt eat a lot of apple the drank them so during prohibition people saw no reason to keep the orchards and burned a lot of them to make room for other crops.

I'm very fortune to have a local orchard that survived prohibition and the torch and still grows approximately 100 (what is now considered) "antique" varieties.

Revvy · Jan 10, 2012

Interesting article. It made me pull out a pint of 2 year old apfelwein to drink while reading. Though at 8.5 abv it fasll slightly outside of the authors definition of a cider, it still seemed fitting.

Pickled_Pepper · Jan 10, 2012

Nice article. My understanding previously was that it wasn't as economical to produce cider as it was to produce beer, thus leading to the demise. I guess there were some other external forces working as well.

Edit: Revvy...I did the same and I wasn't a purist either. I had added 2 cups of brown sugar and raisins to the batch I drank.