Exilian

Off-topic and Chatter: The Jolly Boar Inn => General Chatter - The Boozer => Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen => Topic started by: Jubal on April 01, 2016, 11:40:54 PM

Title: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 01, 2016, 11:40:54 PM
What are people's favourite sorts? How would you all rate various common ciders? I've been increasingly feeling like Birmingham is unusually bad for cider, many pubs in my bit of the city have Strongbow or Magners as their main or only tap cider, which definitely feels a cut below the Aspall's I'm used to in the East.

I had a Norfolk one called Monty's Double at the pub this evening though, two pints thereof. Was very good stuff :)
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Clockwork on April 01, 2016, 11:49:30 PM
I don't really drink it but magners is horrible, strongbow is slightly better and frosty jacks is gross but is possibly the most cost effective way to be sick from alcohol known to man.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 01, 2016, 11:49:42 PM
I like the stuff homemade by Amish that's not pasteurized. Different from the cider you mean but it's still my favorite. :)
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 01, 2016, 11:56:54 PM
Is the Amish cider flat or not? I've had a few homemade ciders and some of them are really nice, definitely a different taste to commercial stuff though.

And yeah, Aspalls is the sort of base rate OK tap cider - but when you get out to smaller regional or local breweries you start actually getting really nice stuff.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 02, 2016, 12:04:11 AM
You mean is it carbonated?  None of the traditional ciders we have are carbonated.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 02, 2016, 01:06:16 AM
Not artifical carbonation, but a lot of our ciders get some fizz/froth from the yeasts used.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 02, 2016, 01:34:12 AM
Oh yeah I guess there is that.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 02, 2016, 11:00:51 PM
I'm not quite sure how people get the 100% flat ones. Might be a different yeast...?
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 02, 2016, 11:32:43 PM
Pasteurize and filter?
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 02, 2016, 11:33:58 PM
Could be for the commercial ones, I've had really flat farmhouse ones though which I assume they didn't pasteurise.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 02, 2016, 11:35:37 PM
Dunno.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 22, 2016, 11:35:30 AM
Update; having drunk some last night in the absence of other options, can confirm that Strongbow is still basically equivalent to alcoholic rat urine.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Clockwork on April 22, 2016, 12:06:36 PM
It's really sweet. Cheap lagers are better if you're looking for a cost/quality thing. Becks, stella, bud, fosters. I like carlsberg but nobody else seems to so I won't recommend that.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Pentagathus on April 22, 2016, 12:09:34 PM
Lambrini is where it's at.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 22, 2016, 12:28:10 PM
Lagers tend to taste even worse in my view :P
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Pentagathus on April 22, 2016, 01:16:39 PM
That's why you should drink nothing but the best. Lambrini.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Clockwork on April 22, 2016, 01:23:41 PM
Isn't that a sparkling cider?
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Pentagathus on April 22, 2016, 01:36:41 PM
Yeah. Pear cider. It's mad cheap though, and tastes pretty decent in my humble opinion.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Glaurung on April 24, 2016, 09:34:07 PM
I'm not quite sure how people get the 100% flat ones. Might be a different yeast...?
I suspect it's simply a case of allowing the fermentation to go to completion in a vented vessel. That way all the CO2 comes out, so there's no fizz. "Real" or "traditional" cider is not pasteurised, as far as I know. I think most mass-produced ciders are artificially carbonated.

Also, some thoughts on terminology.
In the UK, "cider" always means fermented fruit juice - almost always apples. Sometimes it's also used for fermented pear juice (i.e. "pear cider"), but there is in fact an older word, "perry", for this, albeit little used now.
In the US, as I understand it, "cider" still refers to apple juice, but doesn't necessarily imply it's been fermented.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: comrade_general on April 25, 2016, 12:51:24 AM
Yeah for us cider is always apples unless otherwise specified, and then it just means apple juice with a little "zing" to it.
Title: Re: Cider?
Post by: Jubal on April 30, 2016, 09:35:06 PM
I'm not sure that perry is out of date as a term - I certainly know and would use it.