Before Coca-Cola found its way down the gullets and onto the palates of Americans in 1886, hard apple cider, another effervescent drink, had been one of the most popular drinks on the East Coast. In fact, hard cider had been the preferred alcoholic beverage, even touted by our founding fathers. In 1895, on the west Coast, between Salem and Portland, Bauman Farms was first homesteaded by Elizabeth Bauman and her teenage sons, Stephen and Leo. Stephen eventually married at the cider apples on their Gervais, Oregon, farm, with the barrels in their barn fermenting the goods into hard cider. When beer production arrived with German immigrants, cider’s popularity diminished. But it was 20th century Prohibition that ended most U.S. cider production, including Stephen Bauman’s operation. The Bauman’s turned to dessert apple growing. His great granddaughter, Christine Walter, armed with a degree in biochemistry from Lewis & Clark University, revived her great grandfather’s hard cider operation, taking advantage of the family farm history spanning five generations, her work ethic growing up on the farm and modern-day cidermaking methods. She opened Bauman’s Cider Company in 2016, honoring Stephen Bauman on the cider’s branding. Today, Peaks & Pints presents a to-go flight of Bauman’s Cider, a flight we call Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Bauman’s Cider, but it’s described by Walter on her website because … well, you’ll discover.

Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Bauman’s Cider

Bauman’s Loganberry

6% ABV

“Family lore has it that I really wasn’t much of a berry picker as a kid, but I remember things quite differently! Logans are generally one of the first berries of the season, and making this sweet, fruity cider floods me with memories of picking them behind where the farm store is today. Logans can’t be picked with a machine as they are too delicate and soft, and those attributes come out in the cider as a sweetness from start to finish.”

Bauman’s Peach Raspberry

6.4% ABV

“Sweet from the peaches and tart from the berries, this fun summer cider captures that fleeting summer day where the sun is shining and the berries and peaches are in their prime! Enjoy it before it’s gone…”

Bauman’s All the Berries

6.2% ABV

“Growing up on a berry farm meant that summers were filled with incentives like not being able to go swimming in the river until you had picked your target number of pounds of berries each day. I vividly remember the excitement of putting our crates on the scale to see if we were released to swim! With just as much eagerness, I present to you my tribute to Oregon berries. All the Berries is a semi-sweet cider filled with flavor from three of my favorites that we grow: blueberries, raspberries and marionberries.”

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