Jeff Smith didn't start out to be the city's biggest hard cider purveyor when he opened his Southeast Portland shop in 2010.

"It's kind of a hobby that went nuts," says Smith, co-owner of Bushwhacker Cider, which claims to be the first all-cider bar in the United States.

"I opened with 35 ciders," he says, which was every brand he could get his hands on. "Now we're sitting on about 295."

Smith is surfing the latest alcohol craze, one that has caught fire nationally but especially in Portland: apple cider fermented like wine and consumed like beer.

Oregon has 30 licensed cider-makers, up from 10 in 2010, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

"We're like the worldwide epicenter for cider," Smith says.

That might be a bit of provincial hyperbole. Michigan has at least as many, if not more, brands, and New York is catching up, says Mike Beck, president of the U.S. Association of Cider Makers, which formed just two years ago.

"But I don't want to take anything away from Oregon," says Beck, who has been making cider for 15 years at his farm in St. John's, Mich. "They're doing great things out there with cider."

Nationally, production has more than tripled in just three years, from 9.4 million gallons in 2011 to 32 million gallons in 2013, according to the Washington D.C.-based Beer Institute, which tracks such things.

"We're experiencing maybe the birth of the recognition of cider," says David White, president of the Washington-based Northwest Cider Association. White, who runs Whitewood Cider Co. in Olympia says drinkers have to come to appreciate the different varieties and distinct character of craft cider.

"I try for a nice acidity, good astringency and tannins, if that's what the apples are giving me," White says.

The stuff he and his fellow cider-makers produce has little to do with the sparkling nonalcoholic cider that graces many a Thanksgiving table. One variety may have a musky aftertaste and murky color. Another may be crystal clear with a hint of sweetness.

Theories about its sudden cachet abound. Part of it is the Northwest mindset of buying and drinking local. Part of it is its appeal to younger drinkers. "Cider captures the young millennial," according to the national survey giant Nielson, which also notes it is also attracting more affluent drinkers.

Then there's the whole gluten-free aspect.

"It's a nice little niche," says Pete Mulligan, whose Bull Run Cider in Forest Grove is among the better known in Oregon. "It's not wine. It's not beer. It's something quite different."

Throws in Smith, the Bushwhacker owner: "It's not as complicated as beer. You basically get an apple and crush it. It's branch to bottle. People see that."

The OLCC treats cider as something of a hybrid product. Anyone who makes it must have a winery license, because the process involves fermented fruit. But any cider product under 7 percent alcohol content is taxed as beer – a lower rate than wine.

As Smith points out among his vast array of ciders, nary a one is above 7 percent, though a good many clock in at 6.9 percent.

In Oregon, brewers and winemakers were among the first to try cidermaking. Widmer Brewing and Eola Hills Winery got licenses in 2001. Not much happened until about three years ago, however, when a bunch of independent startups entered the market.

Companies such as Blue Mountain Cider in Milton-Freewater and Reverend Nat's Hard Cider in Portland started putting out products with intriguing labels and subtle flavors.

At the moment, cider equals between 1 percent and 2 percent of the local beer market, according to several estimates. Christie Scott, spokeswoman for the OLCC ,says her agency doesn't have a solid handle on cider's market share because it gets mixed in with beer in the monthly tax reports. But she says the agency is getting more questions about cider laws at winery conferences.

"We're happy to see it," Mulligan says about the boomlet of cidermakers. "We believe there's a lot of room on the market for a lot of players."

-- Harry Esteve