[Closed] ok, WTF is going on with cider these days?

people with poor taste and who believe what the TV tells them...

There's a lot of them about...

The same people who buy Carlsberg and Carling - or if not the exact same people ones who are very similar. Look on the plus side - it means cider is becoming more mainstream which might mean there are more people drinking proper stuff (I'm a born again cider drinker after getting bought some for Xmas a couple of years ago - more often than not will choose to drink that rather than beer at home, though I've yet to order one in a pub).

white lightening and frosty Jack have been popular for years among a certain group, get over it sweet cheeks, nothing new. Just big brands jumping on the bandwagon after the ship has long since sailed. As said above, some will discover the good stuff, others will wallow for a bit and then go back to whatever pish they drank before.

Some people just want to get pissed. It's like driving an old banger or getting the bus for going somewhere, it's functional, whereas some, who can afford it or are connaisseurs would drive a V12

I ordered a koppaberg cider the other night. Turned out it was Pressed Metrosexual Berries or somesuch, it was pink and tasted of jelly. I think in some drinking establishments it would have got me stabbed. (but it was really nice)

It's not proper cider if it doesn't come in a jerrycan.

Cider is the new alcopops.

What fourbanger said.

Lambrini do a range ffs

Ooh, now your talking 🙂

Fourbanger is right; the alcopops generation have grown up without an ounce of descrimination over what they pour down their necks and their tastes are now changing; advertising gives cider an edgy urban chic so they are switching over. The drink must be expensive and must have silver foil on the bottle otherwise it can't be any good.

But it's garbage and it tastes like garbage.

Someone I know might really like the Stella cidre... 😳

DrP

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8125/8637072324_030c63b233.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8125/8637072324_030c63b233.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/92694523@N06/8637072324/ ]Really? Really?!?!?[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/92694523@N06/ ]tom.howard.562[/url], on Flickr

Cider should be bought in gallon plastic containers from farms with no health and safety from men you cant understand

Jesus! That Lambrini is a niche product aimed at girlie drinkers if ever I saw one.

It enjoys a lower tax rate than beer so if you sell it at the same price you make a lot more money.

Cider should be bought in gallon plastic containers from farms with no health and safety from men you cant understand

😳
This is exactly how I buy it, with the man being my cousin. All that's missing is a smock...

My mate makes the stuff on his farm .There are so many varieties of apples for real cider its great trying different sorts .Can induce the mother of all hangovers though !

Real cider production:
[img] [/img]

That's Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester = each a tiny 1200 gallons.
The biggest wooden casks at Westons are Pip, Squeak and King George V (42,000 gallons each)

The best names are Wallace, Grommet, Wendolene, Shaun and Preston.

This is my more modest Stoner's "Squirrel-Fondler" production facility:
[img] [/img]

[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6mfIpKK82ZQ/Tmo4kYp3kpI/AAAAAAAAAsA/HgmNkyunoWM/s400/IMAG0391.JP G" target="_blank">https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6mfIpKK82ZQ/Tmo4kYp3kpI/AAAAAAAAAsA/HgmNkyunoWM/s400/IMAG0391.JP G"/> [/img]

Made from a special blend of anything apple shaped, maggots and wasps. It brings tears to your eye, so it does. The perry is far more palatable though.

Living in deepest somerset has its plus sides
It's been a winter of night rides followed by a pint of rough on the way home

I like Stella Cidre. I hadn't realised only niche cider was acceptable (actually I tried some 'real cider' once and it was rotten).

I haven't had a good cider since I left Somerset. What is the name of the pub conveniently located on the Quantocks?

Proper cider should be opaque or cloudy. Normally pretty high %abv as well which is a shock when you order a pint at 8%

The Carew Arms ?in Crowcombe

The Head of Steam in Newcastle is starting to stock proper cider - lovely *falls over*

I recall the time I was holidaying in the West COuntry with friends, and we went into a small country store to buy cider - picked up a bottle of 'something' and the chap behind the counter said "you don't want to buy that - that's polished up for the tourists"
Of course we don't we thought, and bought a 'tub' of the cloudiest, most rancid rat urine substance he had.

Cue much wincing after only a few sips, we soon realised that, as tourists, we maybe made the wrong purchase...

DrP

I spent quite a while installing packaging machinery and conveyors at Thatchers at Sandford in Somerset a few years ago. Their generic "for public consumption" ciders were nothing special, but they had a little factory shop where you could by the "special cider" in gallon plastic bottles for a fiver a time. They did some called Mendip Dry which was like cloudy piss to look at but good god it got you battered...

I don't buy Carlsberg or Carling.

Stella Cidre is decent enough when drunk in a glass with ice. The best I have tasted is Aspalls.

Who'd have thought people have different tastes though eh? Just amazing.

Normal Lambrini has always been Perry - aka pear cider - so it's not really a big step for them.
I have Somersby many times in Denmark, it's not great but it's not been made as part of this latest cider fad, just new to this country.

The best cider is the colour and translucency of a first of the morning piss.

Having spent nine months working in the QC lab of a cider brewery, I feel many of the niche-mongers would be a little disappointed if they knew where and how some of the boutique brands were made. Oh and grum +1, "real" cider can be absolutely disgusting.

Cider should be bought in gallon plastic containers from farms

All the worst cider I've drunk has come like that. If you're after cider to get you battered are you really so far away from those drinking Carlsberg cider? I'm with DrP and sticking to stuff which comes in bottles, is quality controlled and not full of muck. Not a niche monger, just like something which tastes nice.

Westons Dry for me, 8% though, the stuff above is [b]what I call[/b] cooking cider, totally drinkable, there's a great cider and perry shop at Middle Farm East Sussex, well worth a visit if you ever in the area or on the South Downs

Henry Weston. It is the only thing that makes any sense.

I cant drink shit.
One sniff, and I get a flashback.
15 years old, local park, on my hands and knees, puking 2 litres of stongbow up.

My Mrs is a Cider buyer for Tesco! 😳

I get a LOT of freebies which is nice, but there is a lot of shite being sold.

It's a trend thing, Magners revitalised the Cider market for the masses, and you now see loads of people drinking it in the summer swimming with ice. Everyones jumping on the bandwagon trying to grab a share of the market. It's a HUGE one by the way.

Kopparburg naked apple is nice, it's no niche scrumpy, but a nice drinkable pint, it's alright.

Who buys this shite?

I've always drunk cider one of the very few alchoholic beverages I can stomach, but even with cider there's only a few that I like. Strongbow, westons, stowford press, thatchers* are all ok, like some french ciders, some perrys (perries?) don't like a lot of the new stuff tho and the red fruit ones just seem weird. I like some scrumpy, don't think I've tried and of the hardcore stuff people are talking about tho.

What's the deal with ice in cider? is that a "water it down to get the lager drinkers on board" tactic or is it a tradition in some places? Can't be doing with nu-style cider with ice myself, if I wanted to drink watered down pish I'd drink lager like everyone else 😉

*thachers do some pear cider at about 9% don't they? 750ml bottle too, tastes lovely but pure rocket fuel.

I worked for Bulmers for a while. The mill at Ledbury produces, processes and stores all their apple sludge as concentrate. As far removed from wood casks and fermenting vessels as it could be.

The rubbish that went through the mill was whatever was lying on the orchard floor. So the old joke of dead rats and rabbits are true if the guys manning the presses don't pull them out. The boiling and pasturising gets them in the end though.

i had glass of 'old rosie' on saturday.
now that is proper cider.....too strong for me.

'old rosie'

Yep, I got destroyed on Old Rosie at The Apple in Brizzle. I think it was only during the fourth pint that it hit me. Like a flipping juggernaut. 😆

Stowford press is a go to favourite of mine if it's on tap in a pub. But to be honest. Had a Black Rat the other day, was pretty good.

I'm not too fused on the brand, so long as it tastes nice!

the alcopops generation have grown up without an ounce of descrimination over what they pour down their necks and their tastes are now changing

I like Stella Cidre.

I like Black Rat mentioned above also or Thatchers Gold.

I also like Magners.

I've also been known to drink Strongbow.

Flat cider tastes like rat piss if you ask me!

Individual preferences innit?

+1 (to im above, you can't shorten his name) though I had meant to post it without needing support, my main tipple is stongbow & has been for 10-20 years. The rise of magners, et all has been brilliant in my book no more choice between just strongbow(yum), dry black thorn (grim stuff), or woodpecker <shudders> as the only cider you'd find in a pub, (those halcyon days eh?)... if you'd find any at all.

Fair enough if you want to drink fermented rat 😛 , your welcome to it, I'll happily enjoy the all the perry's I can find.

Look for the real picture

The reason all the big breweries are pushing cider, is that the duty is lower than beer, but retails for the same price.

Stella Cidre is great for Snakebite and Black, it makes it a much more classy drink when at a hockey festival

Not a huge cider fan, although I quite like the Spanish Asturian stuff... any "real" cider fans tried it and able to compare it to English cider? It's a flat, cloudy cider, no bubbles...

You all need to get to the Cider Bar in Newton Abbot. 3 pints of diesel and your legs dont work. Nice fruit wines too (14%) or mead if thats your thing. Nothing but cider, fruit wines and mead sold. Snuff available if that takes your fancy. All recommended apart from the Suicider. It tastes like burnt straw and whiffs like a farmyard. Made from a horsedrawn press in Wiscombe, Devon.

Henry Westons/Sheppys/Aspinals ARE better ciders than... Bulmers/Magners/Cidre

FACT

people may prefer the taste of the others, personal preference, yes . . .

but the FACT remains

I love cider but hate all that 'trendy' shite which has wormed it's way into the market. that's not cider!

Merrydown and Special Brew snakebite FTW

Aspinals

They'll do you a nice handbag, but Aspalls will do a nicer cider 😉

Tomorrow night I will be sampling some bee sting, in the 3rd pub on my Thursday night ride 🙂

Aspalls in the first, stowford in the second!

if you see a wobbly ciderinsport around the new forest say happy birthday 🙂

What Edric said. Thatchers stuff is all good but the Traditional is very good rural cider. Am currently drinking a gallon container of Rich's which is still fermenting. Awesome. Don't touch that Hereford pish BTW. Somerset all the way.

I used to drink Strongbow as a kid. But now it tastes a bit watered down. I wonder if they changed it to be a bit more like Magners.

Bulmers Original tastes like I remeber Strongbow tasting when i was little. (and its very cheap in Asda)

Is it true that the vats at Westons were bought secondhand when the company started up and have actually been in use since the Napoleonic wars? (I heard that on radio 4 once).

Get yerself to Roger Wilkins Mudgley proper stuff soaked up with a gert hunk of bread and a gert slab of cheese . Proper 'and some tis n all !

Someone presented me with a load of Koppaberg pear cider and even though I drink ale it's really quite palatable. Made a bit of a hole in it on Monday celebrating and all that, it was a bit biblical-like turning Koppaberg into Thatcher's.

As a recent returner to drinking (spent about 15 years T total), and only to cider (can't abide any other alcoholic drinks!), it does amaze me just how much piss is sold as cider...

Ok so some of the scrumpy's are probably better off being used as paint stripper, or being turned into vinegar, but all these trendy new ciders that either have stupid amounts of sweeteners added calling themselves mixed fruits or some such, or the likes of Stella Cidre which is basically just lager with a slightly apple-y hint, are total crap! Thatchers Gold is bearable in absence of nothing else, as is Stowford Press, but get hold of some Weston's Vintage, Wyld Wood organic, or some Aspall's organic or even one of the Thatcher's special varieties (such as Katy or Cox's) and you'll see what proper cider is like. It's not about being rough enough to turn your stomach inside out (though I know of scrumpy houses that will insist it is), for me its about 2 or 3 nice tasting pints with a meal, and a gentle relaxing evening. I still drink soft drinks when I go out generally, cos the availability of decent cider (not the piss the marketing people want you to drink) is crap in pubs, that and I don't want to be pressured into drinking more than I want to anyway.

Ciderinsport, have a good birthday, sounds a very genteel way to spend the day, a pint in each of a few pubs and a ride in between.

magners, swiftly follwed by bulmers, stitched us all up like kippers. 'serve over ice', so you can't taste it, and charge well over 3 quid at the bar for a pint with ice in it, they pushed the price of all other cider served in pubs up equal to, or even greater than, actual beer.
until they came along a pint of cider was usually by far the cheapest pint to buy in a pub. ba5tards. 😐

To be fair, Magners was sold in pint bottles and you got a glass with ice in it.

The Wilkins Diet, drink a gallon and lose 3 days!!

Thistly Cross still. Produced in Dunbar East Lothian. 7.2% of pure apple based voodoo..

.after my coeliac diagnosis I've become a cider drinker. It is now an affirmed vow of mine to make a trip to the West Countryand fill my boot with jerry cans of locally produced rocket fuel.

ciderinsport - Member
Tomorrow night I will be sampling some bee sting, in the 3rd pub on my Thursday night ride

You're unlikely to make it to the 4th pub. It's 8% but tastes like it's 2%.

Very sweet, but very smooth. Highly refreshing. 🙂

I too am an Aspall Premier Cru drinker. Also partial to a Bounders from Bath Ales.

Y'all might have seen that I'm away with work at the moment, and as I'm at a loose end this eve I went for a wander with this thread in mind, popped into a couple of boozers, pretty standard fare really, and nothing to speak of cider wise. On the way back to the hotel I nipped into sainsbos and found this one that's new on me

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8099/8637638117_25b7a6ff0d.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8099/8637638117_25b7a6ff0d.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/92694523@N06/8637638117/ ]Interesting[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/92694523@N06/ ]tom.howard.562[/url], on Flickr

Very drinkable indeed, though a little too fizzy really. That said, I've quaffed couple of bottles this eve....

Then, as I'm walking through the hotel bar, arriving back from my wanderings I see, nestled in the back corner of the fridge, three bottles with a label that I haven't seen for getting on for 6 long years. It's a drink that was by far and away the best thing I drank at uni (I drank a LOT) but since leaving uni and returning north, I've never seen it again in pubs or supermarkets. To be honest I thought they'd stopped producing it.

Ladies and gentlemen of stw I give you:

Henry Weston's Medium Sweet Oak Aged Herefordshire Cider
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8101/8637638165_d71421a811.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8101/8637638165_d71421a811.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/92694523@N06/8637638165/ ]Dear diary. Jackpot![/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/92694523@N06/ ]tom.howard.562[/url], on Flickr

Say what you like about it, this is without doubt, my favourite alcoholic drink. Possibly favourite drink full stop.

Not that I don't appreciate dirty great flagons of cloudy flat paint stripper with bits in, it's just this you can drink all day every day (would if I could...) and it won't kill you quite as quick at the latter!

Anyway, must dash, those remaining two bottle need drinking!

magners, swiftly follwed by bulmers, stitched us all up like kippers. 'serve over ice', so you can't taste it, and charge well over 3 quid at the bar for a pint with ice in it, they pushed the price of all other cider served in pubs up equal to, or even greater than, actual beer.

Too true. Its not even good cider.

P.S. I can't believe this thread is missing this.

[img] [/img]

And nobody has mentioned ....
[img] [/img]

Henry Weston's Medium Sweet Oak Aged Herefordshire Cider

Personally find it too sweet! It is without doubt, the sweetest cider I've tasted anyway... I can manage a bottle after I've already drunk a couple of very dry cider's, but on it's own, it's too much I find. Personally I way prefer the Vintage (goes down WAY too easily for something 8.2% strength alcohol!) and the Medium Dry, but my absolute favourite is the Wyld Wood.

Good find on the Thatcher's Rose though, I was expecting it to be way too sweet, but it's not. For something that looks like gay pink wine, it's a very nice drink indeed!

Oh forgot to say...

Mini PSA... If you've got a [url= http://www.homebargains.co.uk/ ]Home Bargains[/url] store near you then they did have Henry Weston's variety packs (4 bottles, 1 each of Vintage, Medium Dry, Extra Dry and Medium Sweet) on offer for £3.99! Yes, £3.99 for 4 bottles of lovely cider!

Anyway, sorry to those of you in Stourbridge, unless they've restocked since (doubt they will have as I think they were selling it off cheap cos it was short to sell by date) the GF and I cleared their entire stocks last weekend! 😉

[url= http://www.richscider.co.uk/home.html ]Rich's Cider Farm[/url]

Some of the nicest cider iv'e tried- and you can order it online 😉

+1 for Aspall's and Weston's Vintage (2 for £3 at the local co-op at the moment 🙂 ).. and the Welsh cider at Glyncorrwg last month was very tasty too (Taffy Apples and another)..

Pure North cider of the Holme valley. Believe.

Couple of pints of Black Rat went down a treat last night..
BUT!
There is nothing finer than Jack Rat from the Lyme Bay Winery - OMG is that seriously quaffable....

Got through quite a few bottles of Rekorderlig Strawberry Cider(?!) on my recent birthday - I was as lashed as a loon. Nice drink, but if I wanted that real cider taste I'd just sod-off to my mates place in Taunton and down a glass of Natch - cloudy and still and makes you blind...

LOL Natch!!

We used to drink bucketfuls of that as Devon teens.. 😀

Probably out of the bucket, too, eh...

🙂

If you ever get the chance visit the farm at Burrow Hill (get someone else to drive), you can easily walk away feeling a little tipsy!

[url= http://www.ciderbrandy.co.uk/index.html ]Somerset Cider Brandy[/url]

Bee sting...

Last night after about a gallon of normal draught cider I a few stings..

It made for a very interesting ride home 🙂

Just picked up a couple of bottles Weston's vintage for tonight's suppage. To go with the other 4 bottles of medium sweet that were liberated, yet not consumed, from the hotel bar last night 😀

There may be random posting from me tonight. Blame Henry Weston.

Ahh the joys of living in the West Country, drive 20 miles into Somerset, pick random lane, follow it until you find farm selling dubious orange cloopy liquid in 5 litre containers, pay farmer token sum of money for said liquid, return home, pour a glass and watch worldly problems fade to nought.

"when the moon shines...."

most of the main brands are dire... Magners in particular is a rip off ...expensive Woodpecker reformulated... Strongbow is nasty......

as for the Cidre, Kopen.... and the Carlsberg stuff its only fit to clean paintbrushes with..

the so called Perry being sold by the big firms is nasty too, real Perry shouldn't be a blend .......
there are lots of independents who produce create cider for all tastes...

Gwatkins are excellent as are Dunkertons (bit pricy though)

Anyone ever been to the Dorset Cider Museum on the Wareham road to Dorchester? Crickey I was terrified - got back to the car and had scary visions of the tank having been drained and getting stuck there to be invited for dinner in the dark and scary farmhouse - where the main course would transpire to be - US!

Makes me shudder thinking about it...

Another thing that makes me shudder - in my local shop the other day I espied Builmers Bold Black Cherry flavour "cider"... I know i shouldn't have - but i couldn't help it... I had to buy one... It was like drinking one of those Cherry flavour ice pop things they sold in thge school tuck shop...

Bleugh

Nice healthy pint of Aspalls in my local for me I think tonight, made of fruit and vitimins...