I may be wrong but I remember learning some where some years ago that cider was less in alcoholic content. Sometimes I travel to Ithaca which has a cider store that sells a number of European ciders. Surprisingly a lot are 2.5% to 5.4%.
Mead was also drank but I'm not sure it's popularity. If you read Food in England by Dorethy Hartley; beet wine, turnip wine and carrot wine were all being made too. I have a recipe for parsley root wine that I keep meaning to try whenever I have them fresh from the garden.
The amount of alcohol nowadays in cider is due to legislation.
My cider without chaptalisation can go to ~6%. (100g/l is what modern apple yields in sugar this 100g/17 ~ 5.8%)
Actual cider makers are owned by a few brands that can make cheaper cider that are horribly sugarish since the 90s.
Old «farmers» cider were more acid, astringent and strong.
No need to say, that farmers were no idiots and that the knowledge of adding more sugar to higher the degree of alcohol is known since the XIXth.
I have add access to «cidre fermier of the grandpa» that was 12%.
Opaque, whitish and making you cough.
That is how my cider is looking like, and how home made and «illegally sold under the mantel» ciders were.
The government is trying to kill the taste of traditional products for the profit of big shitty brands. But the gustative resistance is all over the country since decades.
We will not bow down, and will keep on making bread, hams, alcohol, choucroute, pickles and jams in our homes.
I was a tad exaggerating. However living in Canada made me scared of how much the federal govt was looking so victorian.
They are scared of everything, making blood wurst the traditionnal way (by taking blood, spices and milk) is forbidden!
They almost pasteurize everything, even the cheeses !
And god curse the queen, Québec has awesome cheeses better than most UK and germany.
Cheesus God! I don't want to take part in the global fight against tasty food!
Tripes, boundins, alcohols, bagels, couscous, kebab, pierogi, pizza, bo bun and so much more should be the symbol of a new generation, giving up on flags for the profit of what should really unite us: happy fooding!
In the US there are definitely still a lot of laws on the books outright prohibiting the brewing of ciders and the sale of ciders. Most of these laws are leftovers of American prohibition and its teetotaling war on all alchohol. Some of the anti-cider laws were the first on the books and the strictest and hardest to overturn in the way that marijuana laws are similar the vanguard of America's laws in place from its war on drugs.
Alcoholic cider is one of the easiest things to homebrew, and was indeed something of a common beverage. To my grandfathers and great-grandfathers, brewing cider was an act of home rebellion, a reminder of how simple and commonplace alcohol can be. During the American Prohibition cider brewing was seen as a slippery slope to bootlegging and moonshine. (Partly because it was.)
I think America is still recovering from a lot of Prohibition-era anti-cider bias. There are still a lot of people that seem to think that making home ciders is dangerous and a quick way to die, even as there is an incredible movement overall in homebrewing beers these days. In some states, from what I recall, it may even still be the case that homebrewing cider is technically illegal.
My immigrant (Belgian) great father also arrived in a anti cider era (in France).
No resistance, he just did what stubborn persons are making ; his own cider at industrial scale for him. I think he actually ended up being a legal moonshiner (bouilleur de crue).
Incidently, I am gonna point at Vermont and Québec that are 2 of my favourite north American regions because they so love great food :
- Québec cider industry is making awesome apple wine, and some heirs of french traditions are going back to making french ciders (I prefer the québecan apple wine) that are delightful;
- Vermont and Québec are pushing towards high quality food;
- Washington wines deserves to be given a thumb up for their quality (ontario/niagara wines are interesting too);
- Québec is beginning to produce amazing high quality stuff in Gaspésie (charcuterie, sparkling wines, veggies...)
My staying in Canada has been enlightened by the discovery of great food coming from unexpected places, and the rebirth of old awesome traditions. I even tasted close to medieval french recipes and it actually brought tears to my eyes. (When it comes to food, I have a problem)
And I also remember eating in PA in an amish place where food was way above standards.
The cliché of America being an underdeveloped gastronomical country is a lie. Even the tacos in Miami (FL) bouibouis are awesome.
Mead was also drank but I'm not sure it's popularity. If you read Food in England by Dorethy Hartley; beet wine, turnip wine and carrot wine were all being made too. I have a recipe for parsley root wine that I keep meaning to try whenever I have them fresh from the garden.