Posterity Ciderworks – An Extraordinary Education!
Background
Photo ©Michael Kelly
I was invited by the owners of Posterity Ciderworks to visit their operation. I agreed and made the short trip/visit to Mokelumne Hill, California. I spent three hours with Brendan Barnard, co-owner and cider maker. While I haven’t really spent any time tasting real “cider” or understanding the cider process or business segment, I walked away with just a modicum of knowledge from a great tutorial by “Master Appleman” Brendan.
Industry
The fermented cider market, in stark contrast to the shrinking wine industry/consumption, is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% to over 6.5%. The worldwide market for cider is $16.38 billion dollars. Europe is the largest market followed by Asia Pacific region as the fastest growing from China and Australia demand. The US market size is estimated at $5.15 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $6.86 billion by 2030 for a CAGR of 5%. The wine industry in the US in 2025 is estimated at $109 billion. Comparatively, alcoholic cider sales are 4.7% of the fermented wine market.
Key factors in the growth for the cider market are the consumer preferences towards a healthier drink alternative, craft style implementation and lower alcohol levels compared to wine and spirits. Also, many ciders are sweet, but Posterity Ciderworks do not add sugars or back sweeteners which result in having low or zero residual sugars for their ciders. Additional factors like rising costs of “fine wine” and the next younger generations are “less brand loyal” than previous generations. Other concerns are the elitist or out of touch image/reputation of the wine industry relating to younger wine drinkers and demographic changes with Baby Boomers aging slowing their consumption.
History
Many think the cider market decreased due to Prohibition. Between 1800 to 1900 the cider market dropped by 80%. Brendan explained this was due to sociological and economic factors and considerations. First the population moved from rural to urban cities and local farms/farmers moved away from an agricultural society. Secondly the development of the industrial revolution allowed new and unique foods to be introduced from various cultures immigrating to the US. Thirdly, with a significant influx of immigrants, there was a growing market and consumer demand for beer.
Similarities and Differences to Winemaking
There are many parallels to winemaking with taking the fruit (apples), squeezing the fruit for juice, fermentation and aging. The differences are the time of fermentation of cider is typically 8-14 months with a few batches taking 22 months. The apples are first ground up to smaller pieces before being pressed as seen in this picture:
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Other similarities include aging in stainless steel barrels, American oak barrels, used wine barrels and even French oak barrels.
A key difference is that no sulfites are added, and no refining or filtering is done on cider by Posterity Ciderworks.
One of the fascinating, at least for my understanding, is that there are over 7,500 apple varieties in the world and the US has approximately 2,500 varieties grown according to a internet search. While the number is large, due to commercialization, leveraging resources, farming practices, ability for storage, yields and transportation ease without spoilage less than 100 are readily available for the commercial markets. Brendan showed me the classic work on apples called The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada in seven books covering 16,350 apples. Some differences in how many apple varieties exist, suffice it to say, many are correct!
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Pages in the book detail descriptions and a drawing/picture of the apples.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
And
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Here is a bin of Arkansas Black apples waiting to be processed. This is the only single varietal apple cider that Posterity Ciderworks produces. It also happens to be Brendan’s favorite! I was given one to take home and it was delicious and one of the “meatiest” apples I have tasted. Many cider producers do have single varietal ciders especially where they use their own commercial orchards.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
That said many people are hard pressed to name more than a dozen and most local markets only carry 4-6 varieties.
Can you imagine with about 100 or so varieties of wine grapes grown in the USA, if we had 7,500 varieties of wine grapes, the market would be really diluted! Interestingly over the course of a year Posterity Ciderworks typically uses about 93 varieties of apples. Another fascinating aspect is while there are varietal apples, in a single orchard, there can be a field mix of varieties some up to 30 blends. The varieties are spread primarily due to deer and bears.
Some heirloom varieties of apples have been around since just after the Gold Rush in 1849.
This is just part one of two stories on cider and Ciderworks. The next story will focus on how they started their business and several of the ciders (and Mead) offerings. Stay tuned for that story!
Sláinte,
Michael Kelly