>Redd's, Johnny Appleseed, Woodchuck, Angry Orchard, all those
>are greatness to me. I always drank apple cider growing up
>anyway, so it's perfect.

quote-real-unquote hard cider is really dry, almost like a white wine with an appleish flavor and less alcohol. I've done I think three batches of homebrew and they all came out totally dry, 7-10%

So if my understanding is correct, most of the sweet hard ciders (the one you mentioned plus Magner's, Strongbow, etc.) either stop fermentation at the desired balance, or kill off the yeast after fermentation and then 'backsweeten' by adding sugar or unfermented apple juice/cider to it.

There's been a huge expansion in cider on the tails of craft beer's saturation of the marketplace; my favorite beer bar now has a permanent draft cider section... today's list is
Big Hill Little Round Hop

Easy Eve Hoppy Cyser
Spire Pear Cider
de Christian Drouin Pays' d Auger
Trabanco Sidra
Big Hill Summer Scrumpy
Fuchshof German Most
Stone and Key Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Cider

They tend to have a balance of the sweet and dry ciders available.

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so I'm in a band now:
album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
Soundcloud ---> http://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns

my own stuff -->http://soundcloud.com/lonesomedstringband

avy by buckshot_defunct