Wendell Berry never wrote a handbook for growing cider apples or making cider. But his ideas about farming, land, community and the people who tend both helped shape generations of growers… including pomologist Mike Biltonen of Know Your Roots. Wendell Berry died this month at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, at the age of … Read more
Press Then Press draws a specific kind of cider drinker. What the shop hears about pommeau, perry, sulfites and patience may say less about the mainstream market and more about where the category’s edges are moving. A question about still cider led eCiderNews somewhere unexpected. After encountering more American producers making still cider, including Sowams … Read more
For the first time in the history of the Beer Purchasers’ Index, cider ranked ahead of imports and recent market data suggests the result may be part of a broader improvement in cider’s U.S. position. Cider finished August in an unfamiliar place: at the top. The cider segment recorded a 44 in the National Beer … Read more
Michigan’s cider industry is heading into its most important season with consumers watching their spending, producers preparing for the quieter winter months, and at least one encouraging sign: people are showing up. With one of the country’s major apple-growing regions, a landscape shaped by the Great Lakes and a cider scene that ranges from large, … Read more
In Episode 512, Cider Chat MC Ria Windcaller reads her August eCiderNews editorial, Plant the Damn Apple Tree, reflecting on entrepreneurship, uncertainty, abundance, and what an apple tree might teach us about the time in between. From the Editor’s Desk: Summer 2026 News Cycle Reflections Cideries close. People in our community are passing. The weather … Read more
Ria Windcaller August 24, 2026 🎧 Listen to this editorial: Ria reads Plant the Damn Apple Tree in Cider Chat Episode 512. Listen below or find Cider Chat wherever you get your podcasts. https://ciderchat.com/podcast/512-plant-the-damn-apple-tree-special-edition Plant the Damn Apple Tree You’re checking this essay out because you’re thinking…maybe. Maybe this might be worth a moment of … Read more
A bottle of Canadian cider showing up on a shelf in London might not sound like big news. But it’s part of a deliberate strategy, backed by federal money, to make sure Canadian cider doesn’t have all its eggs in one basket. For decades, the United States has been Canada’s obvious trading partner. It’s right … Read more
Ben Watson, the writer, apple advocate and longtime cider educator whose book Cider, Hard and Sweet helped introduce a generation of Americans to traditional cider and the apples behind it, died Saturday, August 15, 2026, at his home in New Hampshire. He was 64. Update, September 2026: Following the publication of this remembrance, Ben’s friend … Read more
August 13, 2026 Want to know what your cider will taste like next year? Watch the weather now. From heat-shrunk apples in England and Germany to freeze-damaged orchards and wildfire threats in North America, the 2026 growing season is already shaping what cider makers will have to work with. For cider drinkers, the connection starts … Read more
August 10, 2026 Here’s a question that is best asked over a glass of…cider: What actually makes something a cider? Many traditional producers, particularly in France and Spain, have been asking that question for years, urging EU regulators to adopt a clearer legal definition that distinguishes cider made entirely from fermented fruit juice from more … Read more
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