Hard Cider & Sparkling Wine Production in Kentucky

The goal of this project will be to identify the potential of producing high quality hard cider from apples that are currently produced commercially in Kentucky and to establish an experimental apple orchard that will help identify new apple cultivars to be grown specifically for hard cider production. Apples produced in Kentucky are primarily grown as dessert style - eating apples. Due to customer expectations there are extremely high standards for the appearance of dessert style apples, which ultimately requires very high labor and pesticide inputs to achieve such quality appearance. Fresh apples are also perishable, meaning they have a limited shelf life and therefore a limited window of opportunity to be sold. Apples grown for hard cider can be considered acceptable in spite of cosmetic blemishes and therefore require lower inputs to be successfully produced by Kentucky farmers. Hard cider also has a much longer shelf life, which dramatically extends its marketability. Equipment and production practices used to produce hard cider are similar to that of sparkling wine. This project will also focus on creating unique style of sparkling wine from grapes grown at the UK Horticulture research Center. There is very little sparkling wine currently being produced by Kentucky wineries. Identification and development of sound sparkling wine production practices will serve to diversify the style of wines being produced from Kentucky grown grapes. The research and production of hard cider and sparkling wine at the UK Horticulture Research Farm will also provide Undergraduate and Graduate students enrolled in UK courses that focus on the science behind the production of fermented agricultural products with valuable exposure to a up and coming and rapidly expanding commercial products. Growth of hard cider sales in the US is expanding more rapidly than any other alcoholic beverage. According to Impact Databank, a market analysis service that tracks sales statistics for commercial beverage industries including wine, beer and spirits, the top 10 cider brands in the U.S. market in 2012 collectively saw 62-percent growth. There are currently 100 hard cider producers in the United States, with most of these operations being less than ten years old. This project has the potential to benefit a wide range of Organizations including: approximately 70 commercial wineries and 22 commercial breweries, commercial apple growers, as well as both sweet and hard cider producers in the state of Kentucky. According to Bart Watson, Brewers Association of America Staff Economist, Kentucky breweries alone have a total economic impact of $271 million to the state, with 1,600 Kentucky residents directly employed by craft breweries and 2,722 total employees (including indirect and induced). Commercial small-farm wineries are thought to provide an equal or exceedingly higher economic impact, although exact data has not yet been officially reported. This project has not been submitted to or funded by another Federal or State grant program.