Cider's Cultural Context
This blog post is a culmination of a semester-long capstone project for four senior college students at UW-Madison. Katie is studying International Studies, Environmental Studies, and French. Grace is studying Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, and Environmental Studies. Tien is studying Geography and Environmental Studies. Allie is an International Studies, Environmental Studies, and German major. Our capstone class as a whole focused on the Brix Project and worked with Brix Cider to help highlight their work within local food systems in Wisconsin. Our project in particular aimed to motivate and inform people about how Brix helps put cider back within its cultural context in relation to Wisconsin, emphasizing that this context explains how Brix works within and enriches local food systems. This blog post goes over the cultural history of cider within the US and Wisconsin, cultural contributions to cider by different groups of people, how Brix fits into that context through their production of cider including their impacts on the local food system and the environment, and concludes with adding beer as a compliment to how to expand on your own personal knowledge of cider.
Katie: Cider’s Cultural History in America and Beyond
This semester, our group sought to explore the many dimensions of cider, and I was tasked with uncovering its cultural side. It doesn’t take much more than a few clicks on Google to find an endless plethora of stories that, no matter their particular focus, all share the same through line: cider has served as a cornerstone in the everyday lives of Americans for centuries.
We were shocked to find out cider’s importance in the shared American identity– cider wasn’t just a popular beverage, it was the drink of choice for centuries of Americans. It found its way onto revolutionary battlefields, in the texts of popular myths and songs, and onto family lands and farms in pre-industrial America. In the 1700’s, the first distillery license issued in America was given to company that produced apple-based “cyder” spirits; in the 1800’s, cider became a pillar of American politics, with 1840 presidential candidate William Henry Harrison running on a national platform of a “log cabin and hard cider” for every man and woman. But cider has been a staple for communities long before the birth of the modern nation-state, let alone America. To find its first appearance in the world record, one must go over two thousand years back into the past to find its mention in documents narrating the Roman conquests of the First Triumvirate– before our Common Era. From a global perspective, cider has traced the rise and fall of power over millennia in remarkable ways.
It was unbelievable to see how deep the threads of cider production interlace amongst the fabric of history, particularly America’s. One aspect of my disbelief likely was due, in part, to my personal lack of awareness surrounding the cultural and historical dimensions of different alcoholic beverages in general. Even so, it seems that a second factor compounded this—namely, the dearth of public awareness surrounding cider in our cultural heritage. It’s as if cider was a pillar that held up every day American life for hundreds of years, and suddenly, it was erased from the collective consciousness, even through to the present moment. All this rich history was incredibly exciting to discover, but it left us asking– what went wrong? What stopped cider from making a rebound?
While this question may be impossible to fully answer, hints and evidence reveal themselves through the drink’s history. The fall of cider in America corresponded with several factors— including, industrialization, urbanization, the rise of beer, and the gaining traction of the Temperance movement. With this steady decline, the final nail in the coffin may have been the 1919 institution of Prohibition; when the law was lifted in the next decade, cider seems to have been left behind and forgotten.
While we may never fully understand why the downfall of cider’s popularity was so drastic, we can do something about it by shifting our attention to a different, more productive task. By reintroducing America to its beloved history of cider, we can revive its cultural potency, and in so reconnect with our heritage and American tradition. For example, it can help us celebrate our nation’s multiculturalism; it was only brought to America by tireless immigrants who held steadfast to their traditions of cider production. In so many ways, cider can help us reconnect to our common heritage and towards our shared future. It can be a subtle, yet powerful reminder that we are united with one another in a community together; in a time where public division and hostility often seems so rampant, I cannot think of a more important endeavor to pursue.
Tien: The Power Dynamics of Cider and Group Contributions
For this project, I took on the task of learning more about cider’s cultural history in the United States. The history of cider is a long one, dating back to as far as 55 B.C. From this long history, I wanted to focus specifically on how power dynamics between people have altered the beverage’s development. I chose to focus on three main groups of people and their cultural contributions: early European colonists, Indigenous Americans, and enslaved peoples.
My research led me to discover how cider in America started with early European settlers. These settlers brought apples over from Europe and planted them all around colonial America. Almost every household had an apple orchard that they harvested apples from for making cider. Fermenting apple juice to make cider was an easy way to 1) preserve a large harvest of apples and 2) use apples that couldn’t be eaten or dried, since the apples of colonial America weren’t all suited for direct consumption. Cider created in colonial America was always mildly alcoholic, but everyone, including children, drank cider because it was healthier and more sanitary than water.
Having grown up in America, I was always confused by the term “cider.” As a child, I always thought cider referred to specially made apple juice. Indeed, “cider” in America almost always refers to a beverage similar to unfiltered apple juice. We use “hard cider” to specify alcoholic cider, which I later learned about when I neared the drinking age. Throughout Europe, “cider'' refers to the alcoholic drink, while “juice” refers to apple juice.
Information on the historical contributions of Indigneous and enslaved peoples were more sparse. I couldn’t find a lot of Black and Indigenous history recorded in text, as it was never written down because it was regarded as unimportant in colonial America. However, from what little information I could find, I discovered the far extent of Black and Indigenous contributions.
Black and Indigneous peoples played a large role in the success of cider in America through the cultivation of the apple trees and/or participation in the cider making process. Indigenous people were often forced to take care of apple orchards planted by plantation owners in southeastern America during the 1600s. Under their care, Indigenous people cultivated the trees, resulting in trees that produced fruits that were better for both direct consumption and cider making.
Black, enslaved people were also forced to take care of the apple orchards of their owners. Apple trees were also cultivated under their care, and enslaved peoples had a direct influence on the cider making process as cider making was another responsibility thrusted onto them. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson kept detailed records of their slaves’ work and these records show how capable and exceptional enslaved peoples were at making cider. It’s unfortunate that Indigenous and enslaved peoples were forced to participate in the creation and evolution of cider, but the drink would not be the way it is today without their invaluable contributions.
Coming into this project, I didn’t know much about any aspect of cider. Now that I know more about cider’s cultural history, I have a deeper appreciation for both the drink and the work that Brix Cider is doing. Fermentation is one of the oldest ways humans have modified plants for food preservation. To see cider consumed throughout the United States today, knowing cider’s complex cultural history, demonstrates just how proliferated human ingenuity can be.
Grace: Cider’s Production Process
As a UW-Madison student, I knew next to nothing about what makes cider different from beer or wine. Although cider is becoming a more popular drink among young people, what is cider? How is cider made at a local cidery in southwest Wisconsin? This is what we set out to discover during our project process.
The first step in the cider-making process is sourcing apples. All apples used in Brix ciders are sourced in Wisconsin, with many coming from wild apple orchards or small family farms within a few miles of the cidery. As a result, each batch has a unique story- whether it’s sourcing apples from an orchard on St Francis Hermitage, or hauling apples on foot from an abandoned circus-owned orchard. These apples are harvested from August through November, depending on the variety.
Next, the apples are cleaned, ground to a pulp, and pressed to extract all of the juice. Some of this leftover pumice from apple pressing ends up as feed for the pigs and sheep at Marie and Matt’s own farm. Other leftover pumice might end up as pig feed at Dorothy’s Range, or as a soil amendment at the local orchard Eplegaarden. This process comes full circle when the pork from Brix’s farm and Dorothy’s Range is used to make Brix’s sausages, and the soil at Eplegaarden nurtures apples for next year’s harvest. Some ciders are mixed with other fruit juices to create unique flavors, and this juice is ground and pressed with the apples.
After being pressed, the apples are stored in large containers to ferment. Occasionally sugar is added during this process, usually in the form of honey, which increases the alcohol percentage. Fermentation can last a few weeks, or sometimes longer.
Following fermentation, the cider-making process is almost complete. The fermented juice takes a couple weeks to settle, and is then filtered. Some ciders are filtered more times than others, and some further sweetened with honey or fresh (non-fermented) juices. This process gives each type of cider a unique taste. Lastly, Brix carbonates the cider by injecting carbon dioxide. The cider is then bottled, or kegged for use at Brix.
This process makes the ciders we know and love at Brix. These small-batch ciders are more unique from the rest- from local hand-picked apple varieties, to unique fruity flavors. In addition to the tasty ciders, Brix’s process has lower environmental impacts than name-brand ciders.
Because all of their apples are sourced within Wisconsin, and many within a short radius of Brix, the food miles to create each batch of cider is extremely low. Food miles is a unit of measure used to show how far food has traveled to reach your plate (or cider glass). This local sourcing results in a smaller carbon footprint for your cider. Brix even uses their apple waste (pumice) as an input to feed the pigs that eventuallly show up on their menu.
In general, cider production has low environmental impacts as compared to other drinks. Apple orchards themselves extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Because apples come from trees, they provide a natural form of carbon sequestration.
Brix is unique in their cider making process, with localized sourcing and processing techniques that focus on community partnerships. The Brix cider production process doesn’t end when the bottle’s opened, it adds to the regional history of cider in the region.
Allie: Beer as a Way to Understand the Significance of Cider
As a college student coming to Madison I already knew about the existence of Spotted Cow, the iconic beer of Wisconsin. My mother is from Wisconsin and everytime we visited the state a case of Spotted Cow was a must on the way out. I thought of Wisconsin as a beer state, without knowing anything about the cultural importance of cider within Wisconsin and the long history of cider within Wisconsin. Wisconsin has such potential to be a “cider” state due to its climate’s propensity for apple orchards. I’m sure that my lack of knowledge extends to other people within the state as well but luckily our knowledge about beer can be used to inform us on which types of cider we might be more likely to enjoy.
Beers and ciders are both fermented alcoholic beverages but beer is made with malts and hops whereas cider is made with fermented fruit juice, typically apples. There’s a variety of types of both cider and beer, all with individual characteristics despite their similarities.
All beers are ales or lagers (or sometimes a hybrid of the two). Ales and lagers both can use five basic ingredients: water, malted barley, malted wheat, hops, and yeast. Many beers use the German Purity Law which only allows these ingredients to meet its standards. The biggest difference between ingredients in ales and lagers is the type of yeast used: ales use "top-fermenting yeasts" and lagers use "bottom-fermenting yeast". Essentially, when yeast that ferments at the top of the tank are used in ales and yeast that ferments at the bottom of the tank is used in lagers.
Even within the categories of ales and lagers there’s different types within the respective categories. Some common types of ales are pale ales, IPAs, porters, stouts, and amber ales. Spotted Cow, mentioned earlier as a Wisconsin favorite, is a farmhouse ale from New Glarus Brewing. Ales are often described as hoppy, fruity, malty, bright, bold, and sour. Some common types of lagers are pale pilsners, bock beers, German Helles, Dark American lager, and pale American lagers. A famous Wisconsin lager would be Miller Lite, which is a pale American lager from Milwaukee. Lagers are often described as crisp, thirst-quenching, graceful, solid, and clean.
The different types of ciders are not as well known as the different types of beers. Cider can be split into the different categories of sweetness or dryness levels: Dry, Semi-Dry, Semi-Sweet, and Sweet. Cider follows more of a continuum as compared to beers but nonetheless the differences are there. Grace mentioned the cider making process earlier, her explanation indicates that the fermentation process can vary in length, and the process of fermentation for dry ciders tends to be longer so more of the natural sugars are consumed, which makes dry ciders typically have a higher alcohol percentage than sweet cider. Some ciders also have additional sweeteners added which is necessary to make a cider sweeter.The real difference between dry and sweet lies in the actual measure of sugar and the perceived dryness of the cider itself.
The majority of the ciders produced by Brix are dry ciders. This is much different from the typical hard ciders that are produced commercially, as the majority of those ciders are sweet ciders. Angry Orchard is perhaps the best known sweet cider in the US but it is significantly sweeter than even the sweetest cider at Brix cider. Some common descriptors for dry cider include crisp, refreshing, golden, and bright, whereas some common adjectives for sweet cider include, of course, sweet but also fruity and floral. Dry cider is often more acidic than sweet ciders but there isn’t a clearly defined line within acidity that makes a cider dry vs sweet.
Based on the common descriptors of these types of beers and ciders we can make a recommendation for which type of cider you may like over another. If your go-to beer is an ale you should consider trying a sweeter cider. Ales and sweeter ciders are both commonly described as fruity or floral and they can be very rich. A semi-sweet option would be a great place to start. If you’re someone who typically enjoys a lager you should consider starting with a drier cider. Both dry ciders and lagers are commonly described as crisp, refreshing, and bright. Lagers are personally my favorite, in particular German Helles, and of the ciders I’ve had so far a semi-dry option was tastiest. These are of course only suggestions for where to start, trying many different types of beers and ciders can help you decide what you really enjoy from these beverages.
Beer and cider are both important parts of Wisconsin’s culture and history, and we can use our knowledge of each beverage to compliment the other. Beer plays an important role within Wisconsin but cider also has a longer history and cultural significance within Wisconsin than most people know. This project helped me expand my own knowledge of the beverages and the state, pushing me to try new things. Cider can go beyond being a beverage and help people understand more about this state that we call home.
Thank you for joining us on this journey of rediscovering Cider’s Cultural Significance in Wisconsin. We hope you were able to learn something new and that you choose to help us continue this long history of cider. All of the sources used in this post can be found here. Thank you!