Hard Cider

[lord of the mark]

Tried it for the first time this weekend. Woodchuck, from Vermont.

Not bad, like a cross between beer and apple juice. Not something id likely make a regular thing of, though.

[Ecthy]

Semolina pudding in a few minutes here.

[chequita guevara]

Try Strongbow. It's much more beer-like, and not so sweet.

[Starchild]

Try proper scrumpy brewed in some forsaken West Country farmer's bathtub. If you go blind, its cause you're a big nancy boy.

[DanS]

Homemade hard apple cider is the best.

[chequita guevara]

scrumpy!

[Arrian]

Strongbow Ugh.

I'm not a huge fan of Woodchuck, either. If I had to pick one, I'd go with Cider Jack.

-Arrian

[Spiffor]

Clearly, Breton ciders pwn you all.

[Ninot]

We have some awesome Apple Jack up here

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Semolina pudding in a few minutes here.

Pudding?

[Dinner]

If it hasn't had bits of raw meat festering in it for at least a month then it isn't worth drinking.

[lord of the mark]

IIUC, in England, West Country cider is a different style from East Anglia cider.

New England, which, IIUC, is the heart of cider country this side of the pond, was originally mainly settled from East Anglia. Would that account "for the difference between WoodChuck and the "scrumpy" of which some of you speak?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

That and the absence of rotting meat, yes.

This is no joke. Scrumpy is not a drink for vegetarians. The other differences (for the real purists) is that it should be filtered only through hay, and use only the natural yeasts present on the apple-skins.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

And the pips should be crushed too. I think this might actually be illegal now, because it's the pips that cause the blindness and insanity.

[Blaupanzer]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Clearly, Breton ciders pwn you all.

Probably true.

Here on the East Coast, you can procure a wide variety of flavors just among the retail hard ciders. I also like Cider Jack. Not sure I'd trust local brews unless I had a friend who'd already tried this brewer a few years in a row and had sampled this batch at least as long ago as yesterday. Not as dangerous as some corn liquors, but festering meat contains its own horrors.