Five years after hard cider manufacturer Black Apple Crossing was founded in downtown Springdale, it’s now legal — well, even more legal — to manufacture hard cider in Arkansas.
Just in time, too, since Black Apple recently began selling its product in Sam’s Club and Harps Food stores with plans to be in Walmart stores in Benton and Washington counties soon.
Act 691 of 2019, signed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson last month, established a hard cider manufacturing permit and authorized the state to issue permits for the sale of hard cider, an alcoholic drink usually made from fermented apples.
State Sen. Lance Eads, R-Springdale, was one of the sponsors of the bill, suggested to him by the owners of Black Apple, which is in his district. The cider maker opened its doors at 321 E. Emma Ave. in 2015, first operating under a state small farm winery permit and later under a brewery permit, according to Black Apple co-owner Leo Orpin.
But Orpin and his partners, John Hanley and Trey Holt, sought to make their authority to manufacture hard cider explicit under state law. Hence Act 691.
“We wanted to have it reflect what they truly do and not be confused with what other people are doing,” Eads said. “And hopefully, just as it has in the brewery industry, [cider making] might take off here as well.”
Production to Jump
In 2014, Black Apple bought a 1930s building that had once housed a George’s Chicken hatchery and offices, opening its doors in the summer of 2015. “What separates us from other cideries across the country is we have an unadulterated beverage, meaning we don’t add any sulfites or preservatives or any additives of any sort,” Orpin told Whispers.
Black Apple ciders are about 7-8% alcohol by volume, a bit higher than the national brands like Angry Orchard. Act 691 “established cider as its own alcohol, neither grouped with strictly beer, neither grouped with strictly wine,” Orpin said. “We wanted to make sure that the way we were doing business wouldn’t one day become illegal due to somebody else’s interpretation” of the law.
“Cider is the fastest-growing alcohol segment in the country, because craft beer is starting to plateau a little bit,” Orpin said. He thinks Black Apple is the only registered cidery in Arkansas, though some brewers also make ciders.
There are now more than 900 cideries in the U.S., according to BeverageDaily.com. “The cider industry is seeing record growth in the U.S., outpacing stagnant sales across general alcohol,” the website says, touting “a gender-equal audience” primarily made up of millennials.
Black Apple Crossing made 24,000 gallons of cider in 2018, but expects to make 58,000 gallons this year. That soaring output is attributable to the recent addition of a canning line to sell its product to retailers. Moon Distributors and Central Distributors, both of Little Rock, distribute Black Apple’s cider.
Northwest Arkansas used to be famous for its apples, particularly the Arkansas Black, and Orpin said Black Apple Crossing tries to use local apple products when they’re available.
Eads, the state senator, told Whispers he’d heard talk that someone might be opening a “meadery” in Arkansas to produce, yes, mead, the alcoholic beverage made with fermented honey and featured prominently in Beowulf. (Those literature classes finally came in handy.)
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