October is Cider Month
Cider you have heard of, but unless you are devotee of fermented fruit juice you probably haven’t tasted a perry or fermented pear juice. While I have yet to find a pub serving real perry, I did find one pub in England serving real cider.
The White Horse in Oxford had a firkin of real cider when I was there in September and I just had to see what the difference between real cider and that fizzy stuff that is sometimes called hard cider. I had Addlestone’s Cask Conditioned Cider (5.5% ABV) brewed by (William Gaymer) Gaymer Cider Company in Shepton Mallet, Sommerset. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Addlestone’s is owned by a large company—the same company responsible for Blackthorn Cider. Even though Addlestone’s might be one of the big “artisinal-like” cider producers, I had never had a cask conditioned cider before and was amazed at home much more flavor Addlestone’s had as compared to the ciders with which I am more familiar (the fizzy kinds).
The English are serious about their ciders and perries. While we here in the US are still trying to pretend it’s Oktoberfest, our friends across the pond are hoisting pints of cider and perry this month since CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) has declared October to be Cider Month. Here’s a quote from CAMRA’s official press release about Cider Month:
Gillian Williams, CAMRA’s Director of Cider and Perry campaigning, said: “In the early 90s large manufacturers flooded the market with cheap, high alcohol and low quality cider, thus ruining its reputation. Now people are starting to come back to cider, but unfortunately much of the cider available is fizzy and pasteurised.”
“Real cider and perry are amazing drinks, bursting with flavour without the need for any additives. Anyone who tries a glass of real cider or perry in their local pub through October will be surprised and delighted. It’s best to begin by using the bandings of “dry, medium or sweet” to work out where your taste buds are happiest. You can then be amazed at the range of colours and overtones or notes which include citrus, floral, spicy and many others.”
Interesting cultural observation: I was horrified to see that the English have the habit of pouring their fizzy cider over ice. The first time I noticed this was in London. I saw a man walk out of a pub with a bottle of Magner’s and a pint glass full of ice. I asked my friend, “What’s he doing with the pint of ice?” Before my friend could answer the guy upended the Magner’s and poured it all over the ice. I saw this repeated at just about every pub I visited—people drinking cider on the rocks. What next Stella on ice?
The cider-over-ice thing is a marketing gimmick from the company behind Magners, which is a fizzy cider that’s been very heavily promoted as a more sophisticated alternative to alcopops. It’s back to this thing of trying to disguise the taste, I suppose - alcohol for people who want to get drunk but don’t like the taste. The lager parallel is supercold and ultracold draught lagers - beer sold so cold that you get frost forming on the glass.
There’s quite a few real ale pubs that also stock a real cider in the UK (not just England - very fine cider is also made in Wales, for example). There’s even a few surviving “cider houses” - pubs which *only* sell cider, no beer.