Tuesday, October 16, 2012

[Hour Detroit] Ripe for Drinking: Michigan's Growing Hard Cider Industry

Michigan’s increasingly popular craft-beer movement has a sweet aftertaste. Boutique brewing is opening doors to other locally made products — hard cider among them.

“It’s fortunate for us that the craft-brewing industry is doing so well,” says Paul Vander Heide, who began producing hard cider in 2008 at his Vander Mill in Spring Lake, Mich. “It’s really helping push the consumer to try different things.”

Mike Beck, owner of Uncle John’s Cider Mill in St. Johns, near Lansing, says hard ciders are attractive as an alternative to beer and wine.

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