I am a cider drinker

I drinks it all of the day. Well, when I say 'all of the day' I mean 'occasionally'. Though when I say 'occasionally' I mean 'once'. I was at Thatchers Cider though so it would be rude not to. 

The IBD had a meeting down there the other week. I was bleedin' miles from civilisation, which is perhaps why fruit based beverages are popular there instead of more wholesome malty alternatives. The company dates from 1904, which my impossibilist readers will realise makes it the same age as Britain's oldest Marxist party.

Though they do grow apples there but many also come from elsewhere, it's a pretty hefty operation, similar in size to a large regional brewery.

There's some very large kit, if I calculated rightly they make about 300,000 bbl worth of cider each year. Some of the ciders are made with tannin rich cider apples, others with culinary apples and some are a mix.

I think this was for filtering the juice out of the pulp

And they've got a robot too

Having seen all the shiny modern kit I was rather blown away when we entered a modern warehouse and saw a load of old oak vats used for their vintage cider. Much as I'm reluctant to let the cider makers get one over on the brewers I have to say they beat the Greene King 5X vats.

 

As to drinking the cider, instead of being a balance of malty sweetness and hop bitterness it's sweetness and tannic astringency that are balanced, or of course, not. I found them all quite palatable but it won't be enough to make me stray from the path of righteousness.