The 15th annual CiderCon took place in Chicago earlier this month, drawing about 850 attendees and cider industry members to the Windy City for the American Cider Association’s (ACA) annual industry conference and trade show.
The event – with the theme “Cider’s Balanced Future: People, Planet and Profit” – had an elevated air of excitement this year, as nearly half of attendees – who traveled from 40 states and 13 countries – were first-timers, including new ACA CEO Monica Cohen, who took office February 1.
Cohen – a former executive for Dairy Farmers of America, who succeeds Michelle McGrath – shared her excitement for the hard cider segment and her role in it during a speech at the event’s opening session.
“I believe it’s cider’s time,” Cohen said.
She shared some of her goals, including:
- Making sure members are “able to keep your lights on and grow your business;”
- To be present at Capitol Hill and fight “for things that make it easier for you to do business,” including eliminating laws that “don’t make sense,” such as “bubble tax;”
- And “tell the stories of cideries” to fellow bev-alc industry members and consumers.
“My journey to the stage today has taught me the possibilities of cider,” Cohen said. “It’s vast, it’s diverse – I had no idea. Now I know, and as the leader of the ACA, I’m going to make sure everybody else knows too.”
Admittedly, it is not the first time the hard cider industry has touted that “now is the time” for the segment to take off and gain a more substantial share of bev-alc.
During a data presentation, NBWA chief economist and VP of analytics Lester Jones placed the past nearly 15 years of hard cider into four chapters:
- Chapter 1 (2012-2015) was a period of rapid expansion, driven mainly by a surge in nationally distributed brands such as Boston Beer Company’s Angry Orchard, Heineken’s Strongbow and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Johnny Appleseed;
- Chapter 2 (2016-2019) had “ups and downs” similar to the craft beer industry, with macro- and micro-brands shuffling around share of the segment;
- Chapter 3 (2020-2023) a.k.a. the COVID-19 pandemic added a hurdle for the hard cider segment, as many brands did not participate in the major shift to the off-premise that other beer segments did, particularly as hard cider is more reliant on own-premise sales than other segments, according to Jones.
The segment is now in Chapter 4 as of 2024, with hard cider recording slight growth in on- and off-premise channels. That growth is expected to continue, with the segment speaking to consumer taste preferences, as well as demographic changes, Jones said.
Hard cider recorded $704 million in sales to retailers (STRs) in 2024, up from $676 million in 2023, Jones said citing Fintech data, which accounts for about one-third of all licensed retailers.
The segment also grew in the on-premise, increasing STRs from $120 million in 2023, to $127 million in 2024. Draft’s share of on-premise hard cider dollar sales also increased from 31%, to 34%, taking mainly from bottled cider (down from 31%, to 27%).
Specific regional pockets are recording even more growth for the segment, causing retailers and distributors alike to gain more interest in cider, according to a panel discussion featuring Whole Foods principal beer buyer Mary Guiver, Hayden Beverage president Andy Mitchell and HopCat beverage director Justin Pollock.
Hayden Beverage – which distributes products in Idaho, Montana and Eastern Washington – “doubled-down” on hard cider a decade ago and continues to believe in the strength of the segment, particularly when compared to the rest of the beer category, Mitchell shared.
“I don’t really care about brands, I care about dollar growth,” Mitchell said. “But what makes me care about brands is the cider category over the last four years has grown +68% [and] my alcohol category has grown +17%.”
Hayden distributes about 75% of the hard cider available in its markets, including large regional brands such as Schilling Cider, 2 Towns Ciderhouse and Seattle Cider.
Four years ago, hard cider accounted for about 2.2% of Hayden’s total bev-alc business. In 2024, that share had increased to 3.3% – admittedly “still not material.” However, the segment accounted for 9% of Hayden’s growth last year.
“You say that to a distributor, I can guarantee they will stop what they’re doing and give you their full attention,” Mitchell said. “Because anything that’s growing, that’s overindexing like that, will get their attention.”
Mitchell is projecting +12% growth for Hayden’s cider brands in 2025 and is so confident, he’s tied his year-end bonus to the objective, he shared.
“If cider grows at 12% next year, I’m the highest paid employee of my company,” he said. “If cider doesn’t grow at 12%, I’m the seventh highest paid employee at my company.”
Retailers are also bullish on the segment, including Whole Foods, which is committed to expanding its cider programming, Guiver said.
Hard cider has outpaced total beer growth at Whole Foods for the last three years, and that is expected to continue, Guiver shared. Additionally, the retailer is seeing significant momentum from local brands, which recorded the largest growth within hard cider in 2024.
Guiver predicted that in the next couple years, more consumers will associate hard cider with “craft” and that the segment and its participants can provide a similar experience to craft beer and taprooms.
“There are a lot of people who don’t know that,” Guiver said. “A lot of consumers out there are not aware that this is a craft, approachable, low barrier to entry [product], just like beer. It’s not like going to a winery – you can go to a taproom, a cider taproom, and hang out there all day.
“More people at the end of this year are going to see that, and it’s going to reflect in our numbers, in terms of slow and steady growth in the off-premise.”
Note: more than 80% of U.S. cideries produce less than 25,000 gallons of cider annually (just over 8,000 barrels), according to ACA board president Christine Walter, who is also the owner and head cider maker at Bauman’s Cider.
Guiver added the caveat that cider’s growth will not be quick, like the rise of recent skyrocketing segments such as hard seltzers or ready-to-drink cocktails.
“We’re really cautious,” Guiver said. “This is not a sprint, this is a long game for cider. And we’re cool with that.”
HopCat is ahead of many on-premise retailers in its adoption of hard cider. The 17-year-old craft beer bar – which has 10 locations across Michigan and one in Nebraska – has an average of five cider-dedicated tap handles at each of its locations, equivalent to about 10% of its total draft list, according to Pollock.
HopCat has found the most success with its hard cider sales by emphasizing the locality of the brands it serves, and hard cider has the opportunity to capitalize on that message and brand image, Pollock shared.
Looking forward, Pollock sees HopCat as having “a lot more than five ciders on tap” by the end of the year, particularly if cideries start to capitalize on seasonal trends, which beer has struggled to keep hold of.
“Cider in and of itself is a fall seasonal product,” Guiver added, noting that the segment is primed to take over retail displays around the fall season that pumpkin beers used to fill, but no longer have the annual draw with consumers that they used to.
Halloween is “ripe for a takeover,” Mitchell added. And hard cider has the advantage of being able to continue beyond seasonal spikes, making the segment more appealing for retailers who wouldn’t have to offload unsold products with 50% discounts and other post-seasonal strategies, he said.
“Capitalize” was one of the most repeated words throughout the conference, along with “collaboration,” with many speakers emphasizing hard cider’s need to work together to educate industry members and consumers alike on the segment’s possibilities.
“There wouldn’t be seltzer if it wasn’t for cider,” Mitchell said. “There wouldn’t be RTDs if not for cider – you guys made high-proof alcohol taste good, like really good .. But somehow those guys all caught on fire and you … kind of flattened out.”
Mitchell encouraged cideries to “get together as an organization” and “claim the throne.”
“You have all the elements to do it, you just have to get together,” he said.