A Recap From the 14th Annual CiderCon

This past week the 14th annual CiderCon took place over three days in Portland, Oregon from January 17-19, 2024. Attendees, the largest amount ever for the conference, endeared Portland’s ice and snow storm to attend the seminars and trade show held at the Oregon Convention Center. CiderCon 2024 also took place during Oregon Cider Week that too felt the ramifications from the ice and snow.

CiderCon is organized by the American Cider Association (ACA) and presented by FruitSmart, and it is the world’s largest conference for the hard cider industry. The conference was created to offer the commercial hard  cider industry an outlet to meet, share ideas, collaborate and affect positive changes in cidermaking, apple and pear production, the cider market and cider regulations.

For CiderCon 2024, 1,250 people registered and of that, 1,100 attended the three-day conference. Registration was 20% more than the previous year, and CiderCon 2024 attendance exceeded any prior year’s levels despite the challenging weather conditions that faced our local area.

Of the attendees, over 40 states and DC were represented. Of course the Pacific Northwest had the most with Oregon claiming the most registrants, followed by Washington, California, and New York. An estimated 30% of CiderCon® attendees came from the Northwest (MT, ID, OR, WA, BC) this year.

But it was not just the US that showed up in Portland for CiderCon as there were attendees from over a dozen of other countries. This list includes Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

CiderCon kicked off on Wednesday, January 17 as the ACA hosted the annual cider guild leadership meeting with guild leaders from the Northwest, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Virginia, Utah, and Vermont as well as the UK, Norway, Japan, and Canada. During these discussions, the various groups shared regional strategies for engaging consumers, retailers, and distributors as well as preemptive strategies for protecting the cider industry from efforts to raise state excise taxes in the US.

The cider industry experienced a fairly decent year in 2023. Dollar sales of cider increased 1.9% year-over-year. This was a bit higher than beer dollar sales that increased 1.4%. However, both cider and beer saw volume declines. Cider decreased by 2.7%, while beer decreased a bit more by 3%.

On Thursday, January 18, CiderCon fully kicked off with its trade show and two days of seminars. The ACA welcomed three keynote speakers on the morning of January 18,  including multigenerational orchardists Kaitlyn Thornton (Tonasket, Washington) and Randy Kiyokawa (Kiyokawa Family Orchard in Hood River, Oregon), along with cidery owner Lara Worm (Bivouac Ciderworks in San Diego, California). All three discussed the theme for this year’s CiderCon: Connecting to Consumers in an Age of Endless Choice.

Following these three mini-presentations, Zoe Licata of Brewbound hosted a panel discussion, investigating the state of the hard cider industry with a selection of cidery representatives from around the country: Aaron Sarnoff-Wood (2 Towns Ciderhouse, Oregon), Casey Baxter (Blake’s Beverage Company, Michigan), Shannon Edgar (Stormalong Cider, Massachusetts), Caitlin Braam (Yonder Cider, Washington), and Eleanor Leger (Eden Specialty Ciders, Vermont).

During the opening session, Michelle McGrath, CEO of the ACA, announced that Reps. Earl Blumenauer (OR-D) and Mike Kelly (PA-R) introduced the Bubble Tax Modernization Act of 2024 (HR 7029) to the 118th Congress of the United States on Thursday, January 18. The “Bubble Bill” will amend a carbonation threshold disparity for lower alcohol wine, cider and mead made with fruit.

In all, CiderCon hosted 38 educational sessions covering topics in the areas of Crafting Amazing Cider, Doing Better Business, Exploring Cider’s Flavor & Terroir, Growing Bountiful Apples, and Selling More Cider. The Cider Institute of North America helped to develop the Crafting Amazing Cider track sessions once again.

There were 12 sensory sessions, including a tasting with cidermaking guests from Sweden and Norway. Other tasting sessions featured stone fruit co-ferments, international perry (pear wine), cider and beer/wine hybrids, foraged fruit cider, ancestral method cider, amphoras, and more.

During the annual conference the ACA Board of Directors recognized several industry members for their efforts to move the cider industry forward, including 2024 Members of the Year: Seattle Cider and Ploughman Cider, the 2024 Apple Advocate Awards: Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jake Mann (Five Mile Orchard), and the 2024 Significant Impact Awards: Emily Ritchie (Executive Director of Northwest Cider Association) and Brighid O’Keene (Cider Institute of North America).

Mark your calendars as CiderCon 2025 will return to Chicago, Illinois next year taking place from February 4-7, 2025.