Although it accounts for only a small portion of the overall beer category, hard cider is finding a home with American consumers. “Compared to beer, cider tends to be more gender neutral, and I think there continues to be growth opportunities with females for cider,” says Danelle Kosmal, vice president of the beverage alcohol practice at New York-based Nielsen. “Additionally, the hard cider drinker tends to be the younger and more affluent legal-drinking-age consumers, similar to the craft drinker.”