Manchester Cider Club

The first rule about Manchester Cider Club is…..

I actually don’t know. I don’t think we have rules exactly.

Drink cider?

Which obviously I did. Recently you may have noticed me revisiting cider. It began with a chat with Dick Ashton and Steve from Beer Nouveau on Twitter, and evolved into a couple of tasting sessions at Stretford Cider Festival with Cider Buzz Manchester, then a dinner at the Marble Arch. And now Manchester Cider Club.

A big turnaround for someone whose abiding memories of cider involve it being at a super strength, as palatable as paint stripper and something to be enjoyed with underage friends on the swings.

We’ve definitely made progress.

Manchester Cider Club meets on the second Thursday of the month, in the Crown & Kettle pub (the the one with the beautiful ceiling). Host to Beers without Beards, a great beer list, a select few gins (very well selected for all that), the Crown & Kettle is now helping support another resurgence.

This month, we sampled ciders from Dunham Press Cider, and new kids on the Liverpool block, Brennan’s Cider. It’s worth saying that before I start, cider is in the early stages of renaissance, like beer once was. We still have the commercial producers, but smaller producers are increasing in number – the obvious difference in this renaissance is time. It can take several years for an apple crop to fruit. Even those like High Peak Cider (previously the Moss Cider Project) and Brennan’s who scrump many of their apples have to factor in the rest of the process. Harvesting/scrumping, pressing, fermentation – the process takes time. But the results are very much worth it.

Dunham Press took us from apple juice (Katy apples, planted in 2011), through to their Red Eye Cider, through their Dabinette (8%) to their Vilberie (not quite ready yet, but showing some tannin led promise). Before a brief break, we tried their Tom Putt cider, which initially had a big farmyard nose, that gave way to pear drops and an almost blue cheese acidity.

What I loved through this part of the evening was being able to taste the origins of the cider in the apple juice. I might not be the world’s biggest apple juice fan (often the intense sweetness hurts my teeth), but being able to follow an ice wine style crunchiness from the apple to the fermented cider. It’s akin to when a brewer lets you sample the mash, and you can compare it to the resulting beer. Real true provenance.

At this point, we were joined by Brennan’s Cider. These gents from Waterloo brought their Black Hill Cider. Made using a blend of  apples (50% scrumped from gardens and the coastline of Liverpool, 50% Harry Masters Jersey apples from Broome Farm), this bottle conditioned cider was crisp and light. At one point, it was compared in style to a prosecco and rightly so. Cider uses a lot of the same methods as wine, even down to the yeasts in this case.

Finally we sampled some more from Dunham Press. Porters Perfection – gentle dryness, a little fruity acidity, and a medicinal note, a little TCP. The kind of flavour you’d get from a peated whisky, but far, far more gentle.

In a brief switch from cider, our penultimate was the Peterloo Perry. Made using Thorn and Huffcap pears, you might want to keep an eye out for this one, it was a real easy drinker. Blink and the glass is empty.

We completed the evening with Dabbler – a signature cider from Dunham Press. Made with 100% Dabinett apples, there’s no added sugar. All the flavour comes from the apples and the fermentation process. Fruity, a soft funkiness, it’s got a little dryness for balance, but we finished on a great quaffable cider.

Manchester Cider Club is open to anyone – experienced cider drinker, novice, or learner like me. You can find details and buy tickets for the next meeting on the Crown & Kettle Facebook page, or via the  Manchester Cider Club Twitter account.

And I might see you there.