More Variety In Hard Cider On The Way

Cheaper and more varied forms of hard cider are likely in the future, thanks to  —  of all things, the $1 trillion federal budget compromise.

Oregon’s delegation squeezed the Cider Act into the massive budget package.

The act removes a tax on ciders that contain pears; stops a ban on ciders with more than seven percent alcohol; and blocks a tax for excessive carbonation.

That bubble tax is based on the fact that champagne is fizzy.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider said prohibition-era government wanted to tax champagne as a luxury. "So they wanted to maintain cider as a lower amount of bubbles in there. Trouble is, most consumers don't want to drink flat cider. So a lot of producers have really been pushing the envelope about about how much carbonation and sometimes going over the edge, accidentally adding too much carbonation, because that's what consumers want," he said.

Cider businesses in the Pacific Northwest have grown exponentially over the last few years.