100 years after it was first made, Heurich’s Liberty Apple Cider has been reborn. DC’s ANXO - known for its dry-fermented ciders - worked closely with the Museum to create a 21st Century version of legendary DC brewer Christian Heurich’s Prohibition-era offering. The result is a tart, hoppy cider like the one that was first sold a century ago.
Liberty Apple is currently available, give it a try at our biergarten.
Liberty Apple History
In anticipation of Prohibition coming to DC, Christian Heurich pivoted his brewery to make a non-alcoholic apple drink, purchasing $100,000 worth of Stayman Winesap apples and pasteurizing them to prevent the juice from fermenting to alcohol. While he diluted the beverage and added a hop extract, what Heurich did not anticipate is that, contrary to beer which requires the addition of yeast, cider ferments in its own juices. After 18 months, the apple drink was about 6% ABV.
Although Prohibition was in effect, in 1920 Heurich was given special permission to sell the fermented apple drink - which he called Liberty Apple Champagne - for just three weeks. In 1933 when Prohibition was repealed, Heurich still had 60,000 gallons of Liberty Apple Champagne stored at the brewery, which were dumped and lost to time to make room for future brews. One hundred years later, the new Liberty Apple Cider pays homage to Heurich’s original release, while staying true to ANXO’s standards of creating ciders made with only apples and no additives, except hops.
