DRINKING AT ITS CORE, HARD CIDER is an agricultural product, an alchemical alliance between the apple and the land where it grows, shaped by the maker’s skill. Unlike beer, cider is not made from grain, so it does not require brewing. Made with fruit, like wine, it only ferments. And because it ferments, craft ciders— those made with local orchard apples—have terror, or a regional fingerprint reflecting variables of climate, soil, terrain, and tradition. For colonists, particularly in early New England and mid- Atlantic settlements, hard cider was a link to their British heritage and every day way of life. Our early apples, cultivated from European trees, were not meant for eating out of hand. They were “spatters,” bitter tannic apples intended for preservation, particularly in the form of fermented…
