HARD CIDER, CRAFT BEER’S UPSTART COUSIN, IS BOOMING

Even with a company only three years old, Colin Schilling counted himself among the old-timers among some 60 vendors at the “Northwest Cider Summit” this weekend in Portland, Ore. His family has for more than a century been in the spice business—A. Schilling & Company merged with McCormick & Company in 1946 but kept producing spices under the family name throughout the remainder of the century.

On the side, though, Schilling and his parents and grandparents have been making hard cider since the 1970s, in Washington State. And a few years ago, Schilling decided to move into the rapidly expanding craft cider industry.

“I knew I wanted to start my own company,” he told Newsweek. “I made my first batch at 14. When cider started to pick up, my basement was covered in cider bottles.”

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