Beer is made with malted barley, while cider is made with fermented apple juice. There are several beers that contain fruit and other ingredients, but the core is always malted barley. No real cider contains malted grains. Beer comes in a variety of colors, from pale to very dark, depending on the malt.
Beer and cider are very different in taste. Because cider is made with fermented apple juice, it results in a sweeter flavor compared to a classic beer. Some ciders are described as dry, while others are described as a mixture between apple juice and white wine. Although both beverages are made through a fermentation process, their flavors are very different.
Cider, for example, is made from fermented apple juice, which gives it a sweeter flavor and a lighter color than beer. You could say it tastes like a combination of apple juice mixed with white wine. Cider is made of apples, beer is made of barley. The real answer here would depend on where your priorities lie in terms of creating a healthy lifestyle.
In general terms, most would agree that ciders have an advantage over beer in a variety of respects. A great cider, such as Stock & Row's Cold Tea cider has 0 g of sugar, gluten-free & vegan, low in carbohydrates. Also made with 100% Ontario apples. Most beers would have a hard time competing with that.
We appreciate both a quality beer and a cider at the right time, although we usually only choose beer when that is the only option offered by in-laws. Cider is also nutrient-rich, as it contains pectin, B vitamins, biotin, folic acid and, unlike beer, vitamin C. Many breweries, such as Big Rock Brewery in Calgary and Alexander Keith's Brewery in Halifax, produce ciders along with their beers. In general, calories will be higher in a cider than in a beer because hard ciders have a higher sugar content (about 20-25 g per serving) than most beers.
Apple cider is very similar to apple juice, only spicier (not in a tabasco-spicy way, but rather cinnamon). Apple Cider - Yellowbelly Brewery (NL), Apple Lime Twist - Rider's Cider (BC), Classic Apple - Wanderoot Craft Cider (AB), Pear Apple Cider & - Lonetree Cider Co. And before you rule out cider because of its high sugar content, remember that dry cider is a perfectly valid option that has many more benefits than beer. If you're worried about the high sugar content in your hard cider, choose a dry cider, such as Wyder's Cider dry raspberry cider (12 g of sugar), because they generally contain less sugar.
Despite the fact that cider has been around for a long time, it has only recently resurfaced as a popular substitute for beer. While ciders are generally made in ciders, don't rule out local breweries or wineries in your city when looking for tasty cider. When it comes to sugar content, cider usually has 23 grams per serving, which is actually quite high for a drink. As a result, it usually has fewer carbohydrates than cider, which makes it a little “healthier”, even though the number of calories remains approximately the same.
But is it really? While hard cider is a very tasty alcoholic beverage, we believe there are too many significant differences between cider and beer to be considered a “substitute”.
