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The American cider taproom

What is a cider taproom and where did the format come from?

In short

A cider taproom is a room at a cidery where the producer sells its own cider for consumption on site, usually by the glass and by the flight, often with a tasting counter rather than a bar.

The format was adopted from American craft brewing rather than from any cider tradition, and it spread rapidly after 2010 as the number of cideries in the United States grew.

Its shape is largely determined by state licensing: farm cidery and farm winery licences, which typically tie the privilege to using locally grown fruit, are what make direct sale from the premises possible.

Borrowed from brewing

The North American cider sector rebuilt itself from a very low base in the late twentieth century, and it did so alongside — and frequently inside — the craft beer sector. Producers took their commercial vocabulary from brewing: the taproom, the flight of small pours, the rotating tap list, the growler or can filled to take away, the merchandise counter. None of these have antecedents in historical American cider, which was a farm and household drink sold in barrels.

That borrowing is worth stating plainly because it shapes expectations. A visitor to an American cider taproom encounters a format designed for comparing many products quickly, which suits a sector whose producers make wide ranges and whose customers are still learning the category. It does not resemble a sidrería, a sagardotegi or an English cider house, none of which are organised around comparison.

The physical arrangement follows: production visible or adjacent, a counter with taps, a short list of house products, and food either absent, limited or supplied by an outside vendor. Where food licensing is restrictive, the taproom operates as a drinks room with a truck outside, which is again a brewing pattern.

Licensing is the determining factor

Alcohol licensing in the United States is a state matter operating under a federal layer, and the practical shape of a cidery is set by which licence it holds. Federal rules define hard cider for tax purposes by reference to composition, carbonation and alcoholic strength, and a producer whose cider exceeds those parameters is taxed on a different basis. That definition governs product formulation rather than the taproom.

The taproom itself depends on state licence categories. Several states created farm cidery or farm winery licences that permit a producer using a stated proportion of in-state fruit to sell directly to the public on the premises, and in some cases at markets and other outlets. New York created such a category in the mid-2010s and others followed; the details, thresholds and privileges vary widely and change.

The consequence is that the American taproom is a policy artefact as much as a cultural one. The requirement to use local fruit, where it exists, ties the room to an orchard, which is why so many American cideries present themselves as agricultural businesses with a public face rather than as drinks factories.

State rules vary and changeLicence categories, in-state fruit thresholds and on-premises privileges differ between states and are amended frequently. Nothing here should be relied on for a specific jurisdiction.

The orchard visit and the seasonal trade

A second and older American institution overlaps with the taproom: the orchard open to visitors in autumn, selling fresh sweet cider, doughnuts and pick-your-own fruit. This is a well-established seasonal agricultural business, particularly in New England, New York and the upper Midwest, and it long predates the modern fermented-cider sector.

Where a fermented-cider producer operates on such a site, the two businesses coexist and the terminology becomes confusing: in American usage cider unqualified usually means the unfermented pressed juice, and the fermented drink is hard cider. A room selling both is selling two products the rest of the world would not call by the same name.

The seasonal orchard visit is also the main route by which most Americans encounter a cider orchard at all, which gives the fermented sector an unusual marketing position — its raw material has a strong autumn association with family visiting, and its product does not.

What the format does and does not preserve

The taproom has been effective at doing what it was adopted to do: it lets a small producer sell at retail margin, explain a category most customers do not know, and test products directly. For a sector rebuilding an audience, that is a substantial advantage and it goes a long way to explaining the shape of American cider today, including the prevalence of wide product ranges and frequent releases.

What it does not do is carry a service tradition. There is no established American cider pour, glass, measure or etiquette comparable to the Asturian, Basque or Hessian cases, and attempts to introduce one — including imported long pours — are borrowings rather than continuities. Whether a service culture develops around North American cider is an open question, and it is more likely to be settled by what taprooms find workable than by any revival.

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