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Cider - recommend me some decent cider

I have spent about a decade working on home brew to get close to that Normandy style. FWIW I have found if you ferment until dry, then bottle for a secondary fermentation with about 7g sugar per litre and leave it for a few months in the bottle, you can get close enough for Devon ... no messing about with chemicals, just fresh pressed apple juice and a little cider yeast to make it more reliable to start.
I do similar in plastic bottles from the cheap crap apple juice in supermarkets. Better results than from nice apple juice. No, I don't know why. But it's fun. I've not tried a longer secondary fermentation, I will next time.
 
Nice to see others share the love for Westons. If you are ever near Much Marcle in Herefordshire Westons HQ is also worth a visit - tour where they grow and make it, taste, buy, lunch etc. Really top cider a world away from Bulmers, Magners etc.

* Years ago Bulmers did one fabulous real still cider - Bulmers Traditional - I almost preferred it to Westons for a while but I think it got axed a long time ago.

Bulmers used to do a bottled cider called Number 7 which was excellent.
 
The best taste that I have had was French cider, I think from Normandy.
That was 30 years ago, and I can’t remember anything else about it, apart from the taste was amazing.

The last cider I had was from Aldi last year. I think it was Irish?
It was very nice.
I would start with Aldi/Lidl brands and work up.
 
well amazon failed to deliver. Apparently the package is heading back and a refund will be issued.....

Well that's annoying! Couriers relying and resting too easily on their lockdown laurels maybe. Round here they have all become quite unreliable, with the exception of the local UPS guy.

Should you have the opportunity to get a couple in person, they sell it in most branches of Sainsburys and Waitrose I think.
 
night bird and Falstaff - first had it in a bar in Cambridge

Given the ABV I appreciate this could be tricky ;), but can you remember which bar? We're going to Cambridge on saturday to collect my daughter from college, and we normally stop there for lunch somewhere before heading home.
 
It was a while ago - but i remember one of the branches of the Cambridge Wine Merchants (I think on Bridge Street)

seems they still have one on their menu (which might be out of date)

https://www.cambridgewine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BS-Menu-Summer-2022.pdf

Thank you. I just checked and Bridge Street it is, and they have 7 different Nightingale ciders in the shop. We normally walk into town from Newnham for something to eat after packing up, so I shall pop in for a few to take home and try while the washing machine gets to work.
 
I do similar in plastic bottles from the cheap crap apple juice in supermarkets. Better results than from nice apple juice. No, I don't know why. But it's fun. I've not tried a longer secondary fermentation, I will next time.
And with that in mind I've fired up a batch this afternoon. 10 days primary, does secondary to about 5V / litre, don't want it bursting, I'll see if it mellows after a few weeks. You can drink it at 10+10 bit it's a bit like the Australian Wine Tasting sketch or the country wine they brew in Calabria in the shed, a bit harsh and you need the malic acid to lessen.
 
Thank you. I just checked and Bridge Street it is, and they have 7 different Nightingale ciders in the shop. We normally walk into town from Newnham for something to eat after packing up, so I shall pop in for a few to take home and try while the washing machine gets to work.

excellent
 
The Wife got me a couple dozen of Thistly Cross traditional Scottish cider last week after we found it in a pub near Morpeth.

very appley, fresh tasting with a light dryness, no aftertaste. 4.4%vol.
I have had draft and bottled.
delicious.

I am not a big drinker of cider this century, but this is great - and it hasn’t given me any guts-ache!

https://www.thistlycrosscider.co.uk/
 


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