advertisement


Cider - recommend me some decent cider

gintonic

gintonic

50 shades of grey pussy cats
i like a cider but find the shop bought standard stuff like Aspalls, Magners, Thatchers, strongbow etc too sweet and not very good.

Bulmers is about the only exception

recommend me some nice cider (online purchase only) that is dry, possibly on the dry side of medium dry. Dont mind still or sparkling. (oh and nothing flavoured with daft fruit like mango, red berries....etc)
 
gintonic said:
i like a cider but find the shop bought standard stuff like Aspalls, Magners, Thatchers, strongbow etc too sweet and not very good.

Bulmers is about the only exception

recommend me some nice cider (online purchase only) that is dry, possibly on the dry side of medium dry. Dont mind still or sparkling. (oh and nothing flavoured with daft fruit like mango, red berries....etc)
Click to expand...
I also prefer Bulmers of the industrial stuff. But in fact I found it a touch sweeter than those others!
 
I suspect that you may be looking for something rather illusive - cider doesn't have any of the usual components that give the characreistic "dry" taste in other drinks, not least beer and wine, when all or virtually all sugar has been fermented out.
 
gintonic said:
i know all about the science of fermentation/brewing/distillation
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with that.

It has everything to do with the compounds that are within what is being fermented, or adjuncts such as hops, that become very obvious when there is little or no sugar - tannins in grapes being the obvious example. Fermentation does nothing to tannins.
In apples, I suspect that malic acid is what prevails, and probably one or two other acids, but I have not done any searches online.

That being so, you are probably looking for particular blends of particular apples/apple types to produce a preferred acid blend which particularly shows after fermentation.
 
The best cider I've ever tasted is bottle conditioned farmhouse cider. Regular still farmhouse cider (aka scrumpy) which has had sugar added and left for 12-18 months for secondary fermentation in the bottle. Very strong, clear, lightly sparking and dry without being like sucking a lemon. Dunno if you can get it in the shops. I've made it (from our own farmhouse cider made from a right old hodge podge of whatever apples we could get hold of - we used to make about 120 gallons a year) and been served it by other cider makers. It's a really fabulous drink, although the dryness varies wildly depending on the apples used.

I've given up trying to find a commercial cider that's similar, but would love to hear that there is one.

Unfortunately we no longer have access to cider making equipment. Although my dad used to make it in a spin drier.

Our freeze distilled calvados accident was not such a success.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top