I remember my grandfather telling me that prior to prohibition the beverage of choice was cider. Cider implied that it was alcoholic and apple juice was for the children and ladies.
Beer only came into vogue because many of the bootleggers were of German and Italian heritage. After prohibition was repealed, people continued to drink beer and cider never regained its pre-prohibition status.
They also had something called applejack, which had distilled apple brandy added to it.
Doing some genealogy for a friend...found out biggest bootlegger in Town lived across the street from her aunt.
The name applejack derives from the traditional method of producing the drink, jacking, the process of freezing fermented cider and then removing the ice, increasing the alcohol content.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(drink)