Apples up North

Another long overdue write-up this one, especially considering I was given these by the producers themselves. Sorry Andy and Dave!

Tempted have featured on this blog before but they have undergone a re brand and consolidation into 4 regular ciders. The new labels certainly stand out on the shelf, making good use of single colour and white space.

Summer Sweet is up first 5.7% and a hazy pale greenish gold. Dusty apple loft aroma and highly fizzy carbonation, which continues long after pouring. Fairly sweet apple fruitiness, some demerara sugar, coxs apples and a spicey apple compote finish.

The dry is also the same ABV, fizzy pale gold with slightly sulphurus tart lambic like nose. Lacing of white head with steady stream of bubbles. Spiky carbonation, dry tannic apple, slightly dusty, apple lofts, horse nosebag, old hay. Apple comes through more on the nose as it warms and a residual sweetness counteracts the tanins to make a moreish drop.

Special reserve differs from the previous releases by including cider apples in the mix alongside the cookers and eaters. Still 5.7% though. Pale golden cider with medium sweetness and a dry tannic finish. More complex than the regular dry and very drinkable. Probably my favourite of the core range.

Strawberry is as you'd expect, fairly sweet but with a real strawberry flavour rather than anything cloyingly artificial as you might expect. Its a little more sessionable at 4% and hinging on bronze in colour (perhaps from the juice). Daisy was a fan too.

Finally the XL was an 8% monster barrel aged special at Belfast Beer Festival this year. Its no longer available but was such a good drop that I will share my thoughts anyway, in the hope that Davy will make another batch! Fantastic rich molasses nose on this ochre-yellow cider. Smooth with no sign of the ABV rich rum marries fantastically with dry apple pulp and caramel to produce a superb cider. I certainly contributed to it selling out by Friday night.

Tempted? Cider

@Tempted

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Kilmegan are a relatively new concern who I hadn't heard of until coming across them at the beer festival. They're the closest thing to Somerset cider I've come across so far on this island. Andy is based inDundrum, County Down

Kilmegan Dry: Pale yellow with good mix of tannins and dry apple juice, yet not astringent and very drinkable. Bottle even drier than it was on draught but effervescence actually increases the drinkability.

Pale yellow, steady stream of carbonation, light apple and floral aroma, dry cider playing well against unmistakable elderflower, not stupidly sweet like some flavoured ciders can be. Would be fantastic with food too.

@KilmeganCider

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Its great to see ciders of this calibre coming out of Northern Ireland, it shows we can compete with the best in Somerset, Herefordshire and elsewhere in the world.  I tried to put the idea in the producers mind of producing a collaboration for next year's Beer Festival, we'll have to wait and see if they act on it or not!

Unlikely Places

Sometimes you bump into people in the most unlikely of places. 

A trip down to the Linen Green craft village last week ended with a coffee in the cafe : who should bump into me but Davy from Tempted Cider. He'd been delivering juices to  the farm shop on site and was refuelling for the journey back to Portadown.

Davy (right) with Mac's cider's Seán
at Hilden Beer Fest August 2011

A cry of "cider!" led me to recognise him and we chatted a while about the apple harvest for the year just gone (pretty poor) and the year to come (signs are good at the moment) and success of his cider south of the border. Some orchards which had produced 16 tonnes in 2011 barely managed a tonne after last years wet weather.

For the first time; some cider apples have been included in the blend, sourced from orchards in the Republic. This should bring more tannin to the mix to make ciders more reminiscent of Somerset which I grew up on.

He's recently secured a large order for a well known large pub chain for their summer cider festival. It will be the first time that a Northern Ireland producer has been featured alongside those from across the water and another great sign that an area that was once dominated by the big boys South of the border is coming into its own with artisinal production. Hopefully they'll take their rightful place in Pete Brown's and Bill Bradshaw's new World's Best Cider.