Apple and Rhubarb sour Cider in glasses
As you have read already, Chas is making cider. My views on this are pretty clear. Cider is not beer and therefore not as good. I’m prepared to change that view if there are ciders that can show their complexity and range.
This might just be the first cider to do that.
First, it’s not sickly sweet, or driven by sweetness, like a lot of commercial ciders.
Second, it’s for more than just one flavour. The majority of commercial ciders are apple flavour. There’s more range now but still it’s one flavour: pear, raspberry, strawberry, and any other berry you can think of.
Third, commercial cider has to be served very cold for it to be drinkable, but this one… no wait, it still needs that.
There is a lot of sourness here. And I do mean a lot. There’s just enough sweetness to prevent this becoming undrinkable. Keeping this cold helps a huge amount.
A quick note on the gravity. Original was 1.058, final was 0.994. That gives it an alcohol content of 8.9%. As a result there is a big body here that helps hold it all together and drives the big flavour.
My criticism is that:
- It’s not a beer.
- The sourness becomes a bit too much by the end of a glass.
- The alcohol level stops it from being a session drink.
- The flavours could be slightly better balanced.
Overall I’m pretty happy to drink this non-beer.
-Mikey
We make home brew 
Cheers mate. For the next batch I may try to up the sweetness a tiny bit to take the edge off. Although already quite high, I do think the taste would benefit from more alcohol to give it just a little burn. -chas
Oh, and not being sessional is not a valid criticism. Questioning sessionalability (that’s a word now) questions the very point of tasting beer for tasting sake.
I have tried this cider and for a first batch was very impressed. It is heavy yes, but the sourness combined with the alcohol content gave it a very handmade feel and reminded me of traditional barn brewed ciders I drank during my time in the UK.
This first batch gives you an indication of modifications to the process that can be made for the future, but that is exactly the point of this first batch cider.
Cheers mate. Once I get the sweetness and alcohol right, I’ll also look at playing with different apple types to get some subtle flavours in there. Of course I’ll also post recipes as I go.
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