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