Annual per capita consumption of cider is less than a litre, compared with about 80 litres of beer and about 20 litres of wine.
Beer and wine consumption has, in recent years, been relatively static, while that of cider has been growing by up to 13% annually.
Cider sales have boomed in recent years in Britain and the United States, too - hence the move in the past two years by our big breweries into cider: DB with Monteith's Crushed Apple Cider (then pear) and Johnny Arrow, and Lion's Mac's Isaac's cider (then pear).
Lion has now produced a less-sweet version of Isaac's in Auckland under the Speight's label. It is slightly less alcoholic than Monteith's or Isaac's (4.6% instead of 5%) and borders on a still version, with minimum bubbles.
Most brewery-made ciders are in four or six-packs, but Speight's is in 12-packs ($29) as well as six ($17)
Tribute brew
Dunedin-based Emerson's has released its annual JP, a tribute to the late Jean-Pierre Dufour, dean of food sciences at the University of Otago, who died in 2007.
Belgian-born Prof Dufour was internationally known in the brewing industry and highly regarded locally, and the annual brew (featuring June 2, the professor's birthday, on the label) is always a strong Belgian tripel or dubbel style.
This one is 9.2% - powerful and warming, with apple, spice and caramel characters.
Latest reserve
Emerson's current Brewer's Reserve is Brownville Brown brown ale (5.8%), a popular style in the United States, but which should also suit English rugby fans in the city craving their usual pint of "bitter".
This brew is rich, with roasted and bitter characters and a hint of chocolate.
The reserve brews are on tap in a few city bars and available in 1.25 litre plastic at the Wickliffe St brewery.
Quick slurps
Moa Five Hop Winter Ale (6.2%). Hop flavour and bitterness dominates, of course, but is accompanied by underlying malt flavour and a hint of oak.
Moa Noir (5.5%) is a dark lager. It is refreshing like a lager but with a subtle chocolate/coffee aftertaste and hop bitterness.
Moa Pale Ale (5.5%) is rich, with hop dominating the malt flavour.
The trio is bottle-conditioned, which produces big long-lasting heads.
Wigram Ginger Jerry (4%) is a wheat beer with ginger, lemon and honey infused to produce a tasty, refreshing hot-weather drink.
Not that bad
In a review, last column, of alcohol-free beers, I reported that Bitburger Drive "smells and tastes like boiled veges". Beer Force (one of the beer's distributors) southern sales rep Matt Groves drinks and enjoys the brew, saying "it is fresh and crisp". My sample, which seems to have spoiled in its travels, came from a distributor other than Beer Force.
