Say No to Wine at Thanksgiving: A Guide to Beer, Whiskey, and Cider

Of all the things people usually fight over at the Thanksgiving table—what time you actually sit down to eat; homemade cranberry sauce vs. the canned stuff; politics—the wine on the table isn’t usually the fire starter. That’s partly because almost every smart host and hostess has an array of reds and whites for their guests; after all, there isn’t one magic Thanksgiving wine.

But now there’s a new reason to pick a fight at the Thanksgiving table: what to drink besides wine. After all, cider, craft beer, and whiskey have been on a cultural tear in America over the past few years, and each has an ever-expanding following. Craft beer has had eight years of double-digit growth. American whiskey sales are up (they rose almost 8 percent last year). And the beverage with the most dramatic expansion might be hard cider: According to fivethirtyeight, cider’s marketshare increased more than five times over a three-year period. In 2016, cider’s global sales are projected to be $769 million (up from $595 million in 2013).