History · Seventeenth century to present
The history of duty on cider in Britain
Has cider always been taxed in Britain?
In short
No. Cider has moved in and out of the tax system repeatedly. It was charged under the excise from the seventeenth century, taxed disastrously at the point of production in 1763, relieved of duty in 1830, taxed again during the First World War, relieved again in the 1920s, and brought back into duty in 1976, where it has remained.
Since August 2023 cider has been taxed under the Alcoholic Products Duty framework, which charges by alcoholic strength in bands rather than by volume of liquid alone. Rates change with each Budget and are not reproduced here.
Excise, and why the method mattered
The English excise was established during the 1640s as a wartime expedient and became permanent. Cider and perry appear in excise schedules from the seventeenth century onwards, generally charged on retailers or on quantities entering trade rather than on every farm cellar.
The distinction between charging a maker and charging a seller is the recurring theme of this history. Almost every farm in the cider counties made cider, so a duty charged at production implied a right to inspect houses; a duty charged on sale did not. When governments forgot this they were reminded forcefully.
The 1763 Cider Act is the clearest case. It charged four shillings a hogshead on the maker, provoked riots and a constitutional argument across the western counties, and was repealed in 1766 in favour of a charge on retailers.
A century without duty
Duty on cider and perry was removed in 1830, in the same reforming budget that dismantled the beer duty and opened the retail beer trade. For the rest of the nineteenth century cider was, in duty terms, untaxed — a fact that shaped the drink’s cheapness and its place in rural wages.
This is the period in which cider is most firmly associated with the farm allowance and with the poorest rural drinking. Untaxed does not mean encouraged: the drink’s low price reflected low quality and low status as much as the absence of duty.
The First World War brought cider back into charge as the state extended control over alcohol generally, and the duty was removed again within a few years of the peace. That short episode left little mark beyond demonstrating that cider could be taxed when revenue was needed.
The modern regime
Duty on cider and perry was reintroduced in 1976, in the context of British membership of the European Communities and the harmonisation of indirect taxation. From that point cider was charged by volume of finished product within strength bands, and a legal definition of what counts as cider for duty purposes became necessary — which is where the minimum juice requirement in British law originates.
A long-standing exemption relieves the smallest producers from registration and duty below an annual production threshold, a provision that has kept farmhouse and hobby production lawful without a revenue relationship. This exemption is the reason a great deal of small-scale British cider making exists at all.
From 1 August 2023 alcohol duties were restructured under a single framework charging by litres of pure alcohol across strength bands, with a reduced rate for qualifying draught products and relief for small producers. The structure is set out by HM Revenue and Customs; the rates themselves are revised at Budgets.
What duty has done to the drink
Tax structures shape products. A duty charged by volume of liquid rather than by alcohol content rewards low strength, and the long British practice of taxing cider by the litre within broad bands is part of the explanation for why mainstream cider settled at the strengths it did.
Definitions written for revenue purposes also travel outwards. The minimum juice content that determines whether a drink is cider for duty has become, in practice, the working definition of cider in the British market, and products falling outside it are taxed and labelled as something else.
The 2023 move to strength-based charging changes those incentives, and the effects on product formulation will take years to read. It is too early to write that history.
How this developed
Certainty is marked on each entry. Where the popular account runs ahead of the evidence, that is said rather than smoothed over.
From the 1640s· probable
The excise established
Cider and perry appear in English excise schedules, generally charged in trade rather than on every maker.
1763–1766
The Cider Act and its repeal
Duty charged on the maker provokes sustained opposition in the western counties and is repealed in favour of a retail charge.
1830
Duty removed
Cider and perry duties are abolished alongside the reform of beer duty, and cider remains free of duty for most of a century.
First World War and early 1920s· probable
Taxed and untaxed again
Duty is imposed during the war as part of wider alcohol control, and removed again shortly afterwards.
1976
Reintroduction
Cider and perry are brought permanently into duty, requiring a legal definition of cider and establishing the volume-and-strength-band structure.
1 August 2023
Alcoholic Products Duty
Alcohol duties are restructured to charge by litres of pure alcohol in strength bands, with draught relief and small-producer relief.
Also answered on this page
Questions this page covers, so you can tell at a glance whether it is the one you want.
- When was duty first charged on cider?
- Why is small-scale cider making exempt from duty?
- What changed for cider duty in 2023?
Related
Places
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- Is mass-market cider made from apple juice — Partly. Most high-volume cider is made from apple juice concentrate reconstituted with water, fermented, and adjusted with sugar, water and sweeteners to a target strength and sweetness. The finished drink can contain a minority of apple juice by volume and still be sold as cider in the United Kingdom.
- What has happened to cider in the last thirty years — The volume category was transformed in the mid-2000s by serving cider cold over ice in a tall glass, marketed heavily, and then by fruit-flavoured products from around 2010. Cider became a mainstream long drink competing with lager, and the category grew accordingly.
- Where is cider made in england — Overwhelmingly in the West Country — Somerset, Herefordshire, Devon, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire — with smaller traditions in Kent, Sussex, East Anglia and the north.
- Why were there riots over a cider tax in the 1760s
- What is herefordshire cider
- Why is cider made in the west country — Because the climate suits apples and disappoints wheat and barley: mild, wet winters, heavy soils and a long growing season. Where grain was hard to grow, orchards took its place and cider took beer’s.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Alcoholic products duty rates and the Alcohol Duty regime
HM Revenue & Customs · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
The UK alcohol duty system was reformed in August 2023 onto a strength-based footing, with draught relief and small producer relief alongside it. The rate table was read on 2026-08-24 and carries an effective date of 1 February 2026. CiderHQ records the band *structure* — which is stable and explains why producers make the strengths they do — and states rates only with that effective date attached, because a rate with no date on it becomes permanent and wrong.
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
Where to go next
- The history of cider — The rest of the history, by period and by tradition.
- Cider culture — What survived from this history and is still practised.
- Regions — The places this happened in, and what they make now.