We clearly recall the first time we addressed this reader's question, we just can't believe that was almost four years ago (January 4, 2006, to be precise).
You're correct in your assumption that the cider landscape has changed somewhat since then and we'll get to that in a moment; first, however, we'll give a little background for the uninitiated.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, "hard cider" is an alcoholic beverage similar to beer, but made from fermented apples. It can be dry or sweet and is very popular in England (particularly in the western part of the country), where it's known simply as cider (we call the other stuff apple juice), but it's also gaining a following in the U.S.
The commercial versions tend to be similar in appearance to beer, but either slightly darker or much paler in color, more carbonated, and more alcoholic (typically more than 6% alcohol by volume, and as high as 8.4%). In the U.K., there’s a rural version known as "scrumpy," which is less carbonated, cloudy like a wheat beer, and has a kick like the proverbial mule. The Brits, especially students, sometimes drink a 50/50 mix of beer and cider, which, for reasons that will quickly become apparent if you try it, is known as "snakebite."
So that’s what it is. To find out where it is, we revisited all the venues we found last time around, plus we checked with all the likely new suspects that have opened since then, and we're happy to inform you that although you've lost a couple of options since 2006, you've more than made up for that with new cider-drinking opportunities, including a couple of new brands on the Vegas market.
Of the ciders we know of that you can try at various bars and pubs around town, the most widely available are the Canadian Wyder's brand (founded by a cider master who learned his craft in England), which comes in apple, pear, raspberry, and peach varieties and is found both bottled and on tap; and Dry Blackthorn (apparently just called Blackthorn in the U.S.), which is a traditional apple cider that comes from Somerset, England's cider capital, in the west of the country. Strongbow's another well-known English cider that we just discovered is available at a few venues here. Although cider is quintessentially an English libation, you’ll find that a lot of Las Vegas Irish pubs also serve it, and there's an Irish cider called Magner's.
Here’s the updated list we were able to put together of pubs and bars with cider on tap or in bottles — we're not pretending it’s exhaustive, but it should get you off to a good start, and if anyone out there has any other tips, please pass them on:
If any other cider fans out there have information about bars, pubs, or liquor outlets in Las Vegas that sell the hard stuff, please let us know and we’ll keep adding to the list.
And now, we'll round off this answer with a famous gambling quotation from the one-and-only Damon Runyon, which is Anthony Curtis' most welcome contribution to this QoD:
"One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider."
