Cider on a Beer Menu: Where Seltzer, Wine and NA Go

Cider, hard seltzer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks go after the beer, in 4 sections in that order, with Non-Alcoholic last, just above On Deck. Every section keeps the same 6 columns as a beer line; only what goes in them changes. Below are the order, what to do with a section of 1, section names, the field map, pour sizes, a filled example, and the one case where NA moves up.

Which non-beer drinks belong on a beer list?

Any drink guests order where they order beer belongs on the list. A guest who doesn't want beer reads 14 beer lines, finds 2 ciders and asks whether that's everything. If the wine sits on a card by the register and the NA IPA sits in a cooler only staff can see, most of the answer never made it onto the board.

Count canned and bottled drinks the same way. A can of hard seltzer sold at the rail is part of the list even though it has no handle.

The guide to writing a tap list guests can read fast sets the beer sections and their order, and everything here picks up below the last beer section. If you're comparing tap list plans, count these lines as well; the Untappd for Business renewal checklist asks for that number.

What order do cider, hard seltzer, wine and NA go in?

Cider goes first after the beer, then Hard Seltzer, then Wine, then Non-Alcoholic, with On Deck at the very bottom. Beer stays on top in whatever order you already use.

1. Cider fills the same 6 fields as a beer line (tap, maker, name, style, ABV, pours) and often pours from the same wall, so a beer guest reads it without switching gears.
2. Hard Seltzer keeps maker, name, ABV and pours, and flavor takes the place of style.
3. Wine changes more fields than any other section, and a wine guest reads it as its own short menu.
4. Non-Alcoholic goes last, directly above On Deck.

The first 3 are ordered by how many fields they share with a beer line. The more they share, the closer they sit to the beer, so a guest reading down the style or ABV column keeps getting the same kind of information for as long as possible.

The order follows how guests read. Federal rules treat cider as wine: the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's cider resources page says cider and perry products "are regulated by TTB as wines." Guests still read a dry cider line the way they read a pilsner line, so cider sits next to the beer.

Why does NA go last?

NA goes last so it has a fixed spot, even though an NA IPA shares every field with a beer line and would sit beside the beer under the shared-fields rule. The guest looking for it shops by 1 question: is there alcohol in it? That guest needs a spot that never moves, and staff need one they can say out loud: "bottom of the board, just above what's coming next."

The on deck section closes the list, and NA sits right above it. The screens and pages section further down covers the one reason to move NA higher.

What happens to a section with only 1 line?

A 1 line section on the non-beer side follows its own rules. On the beer side it would fold into its nearest neighbor, but a lone cider tucked into Sour and Fruited reads like a sour.

• A single seltzer folds into Cider. The header becomes "Cider and Hard Seltzer," and the style column reads "Hard Seltzer (Lime)" instead of just "Lime," so nobody takes it for a cider.
• A single cider stays its own section. No beer section is the right home for it.
• Wine never folds. A single house red can be a 1 line Wine section, or it can move to its own screen.
• NA never folds into an alcoholic section, and nothing alcoholic ever goes into NA. A single NA line gets its own section.

The NA rule is the only fold rule with no exceptions. A bartender pouring from the NA section has to be able to trust that every line in it is non-alcoholic. The post on stopping wrong NA pours behind the bar covers the pouring side.

What should each non-beer section be called?

Name each section so it answers the guest's question before they reach the first line:

• Cider is clear as it stands.
• Hard Seltzer gets both words. "Seltzer" alone can read as sparkling water to someone ordering for the driver.
• Wine works, or Wine by the Glass if you don't sell bottles, so nobody asks for one.
• Non-Alcoholic gets spelled out. "NA" is staff shorthand.

Whatever wording you pick for NA, the header, the line and what the bartender says out loud should match.

Keep "alcohol free" off the board unless every drink under it has no alcohol at all. The federal label rule for malt beverages, 27 CFR 7.65 as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute, allows "non-alcoholic" on a label only with "contains less than 0.5 percent (or .5%) alcohol by volume" right next to it.

The same rule allows "alcohol free" only on malt beverages that contain no alcohol, with no tolerance. So an NA IPA at 0.4% can say non-alcoholic on its can and still not be alcohol free. The guide to 0.0% versus 0.5% on a menu covers the wording in detail. Before you settle it, ask your state alcohol regulator whether it adds rules for menus.

Which columns change on a cider, seltzer, wine or NA line?

The columns stay put and their contents change. Keep the 6 columns in the same positions in every section, and treat the style column as "what kind is it?" The rest follows:

Write cider styles from a fixed list, the same way the beer side uses a house glossary. The guide to ABV, IBU, style and pour size on a draft menu shows how to build one.

Should a can or bottle get a tap number?

A can or bottle gets a blank tap column. Tap numbers belong to handles, so a can listed as "17" sends someone looking for a handle that doesn't exist. Wine or seltzer on draft keeps its tap number like any other line. Whether NA belongs on a handle at all has its own post: NA beer on draft or in cans.

What ABV goes on an NA line?

An NA line shows the maker's ABV, copied from the label or the sell sheet, and you never round it to 0% on your own. Under 0.5%, the federal label rule, 27 CFR 7.65 on Cornell's Legal Information Institute site, lets a malt beverage label state alcohol to the nearest tenth or the nearest hundredth of a point. A can that says 0.35% goes on the board as 0.35%.

Why does each non-beer section need its own pour sizes?

Each section needs its own sizes because the drinks carry different amounts of alcohol per ounce, so a beer header of 16 oz and 10 oz makes no sense over a wine. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines a US standard drink as about 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol. That's the amount in a 12 oz can of 5% beer or a 5 oz glass of 12% wine.

Multiply the pour by the ABV for ounces of alcohol, then divide by 0.6. The ABVs below are examples; use the numbers on your own list.

Wine poured at the beer header's 16 oz would hold more than 3 standard drinks. The math uses the full listed size, so a pour with a head on it holds a little less.

Seltzer needs its own check. NIAAA's chart groups "flavored malt beverages such as hard seltzer" with malt liquor, at 8 to 10 fl oz of about 7% for 1 standard drink. Read each seltzer's ABV off the can instead of assuming it matches a light beer.

If your beer sections put sizes in a section header, give each non-beer section its own header (glass and bottle, for wine), or write the size on every line.

What does the bottom of a 16 tap list look like?

The bottom of a made-up 16 tap beer bar's list, with every section in place, reads like this. Maker and drink names are placeholders, and the seltzer, wine and NA lines are left blank for your own sizes and prices.

BIG AND STRONG
12 | Brewery  | Beer name   | Barleywine                 | 10.5% | 8 oz only $9
13 | Brewery  | Beer name   | Imperial Stout             | 11.0% | 8 oz only $8
14 | Brewery  | Beer name   | Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout | 12.4% | 8 oz only $9

CIDER AND HARD SELTZER
15 | Cidery   | Cider name  | Fruited Cider (Cherry)     | 5.5%  | 12 oz $8
16 | Cidery   | Cider name  | Dry Cider                  | 6.2%  | 12 oz $8
   | Maker    | Name        | Hard Seltzer (Lime)        | ___%  | __ oz can $__

WINE                                                        glass __ oz | bottle
   | Producer | house red   | Grape                      | ___%  |    $__      |  $__
   | Producer | house white | Grape                      | ___%  |    $__      |  $__

NON-ALCOHOLIC
   | Maker    | Name        | NA IPA                     | ___%  | __ oz can $__

ON DECK
Next on 16 | Cidery | Cider name | Semi-Dry Cider | 5.8% | 12 oz $8

Read down it and every line answers "what is it?" in the style column. The ABV column lines up from the barleywine to the NA IPA, and nothing without a handle has a tap number.

Where should NA and wine go when the list spans screens or pages?

When the list runs across 2 or more screens or turns pages, NA has to stay in sight from where guests order, and it moves up beside Cider if it doesn't. A list in this order puts every non-beer section in the tail, and the tail lands on the last screen or page.

Count the example above: 16 taps, 1 seltzer, 2 wines, 1 NA line and 1 on deck line make 21 lines. Split evenly over 2 screens, that's about 11 lines on the first and 10 on the second, counting lines only.

Everything from tap 12 down, including all of the non-beer sections, sits on screen 2. If screen 2 hangs where guests at the register can't see it, the NA line is off the board for them.

Stand where guests order and check 2 things:

1. Can a guest find NA without waiting for a page to turn or looking at a second screen? If not, move the NA section up to sit right after Cider. It keeps its own header and its own lines.
2. Is wine listed where wine is poured? If the wine comes from the backbar, a separate screen over the backbar carrying only the Wine section is a fair option, and it takes those lines off the main list, so the beer list gets shorter too. The post on how many menu screens you need and where they hang covers placement.

A section that moves keeps its label, its fields and its pour sizes. Only its position changes. For building the NA section itself, see the step by step guide to a non-alcoholic section on a digital tap list.

How does TapDisplay handle cider, wine and NA lines?

TapDisplay gives every line the same fields, so a cider, wine or NA line fills the same columns as a beer. On the TapDisplay board, each item shows its name, maker, style, the venue's own stats and a price per pour, with 2 pours by default and up to 4. The maker label and the 2 stat labels come from the business type (Brewery, ABV and IBU on a brewery menu), and you can edit them.

On a beer bar's list, the winery goes in the maker field and the grape goes in the style field, as in the field map above.

One list can be split across several screens, or each screen can show its own sections, so the wine-only backbar screen is a matter of choosing sections for that screen. Screens are unlimited: a location costs $49 a month or $499 a year (at 3 to 9 locations, $39 a month or $399 a year each), as listed on the pricing page. A wine screen doesn't change the plan price.

The sold out word comes from the business type and applies to every line. A struck-through line reads KICKED on keg menus such as a bar, brewery or cidery, and SOLD OUT on menus such as wine or coffee. On a beer bar's board, a house red that runs out reads KICKED too, and you can't type a different word.

You change the board from a phone, a tablet or a computer. Every connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds, so moving NA up beside Cider shows on the screens within about 30 seconds.

The bottom line

Put the non-beer drinks after the beer in 4 sections, Cider, Hard Seltzer, Wine and Non-Alcoholic, with NA just above On Deck, and keep the same 6 columns throughout. Give each section its own pour sizes and leave the tap number off anything without a handle. If the list pages or spans screens, move NA up beside Cider so a guest at the register can find it.