Woe for our pub!

[Kathy]

Our Local Pub has just been sold! Usually, it has a selection of finely-kept beers, including OP, Broadside, Tribute, London Pride, and something by Dartmoor whose name escapes me.

Sadly, from tomorrow, it will be a Shepherd Neame pub!* The most tragic part of this is that the Stowford Press cider will be replaced by Strongbow. 

I will be going along tonight to say farewell to my sparkling mostly-apple friend. 

I might have a bit of a headache tomorrow, so go easy on me. 

*Shepherd Neame beers are undoubtedly fine, but I'm not terribly fond of excessively-hopped beers, and all their beers are heavy on the hops. And SN aren't very willing to let their pubs stock guest ales. I have put a request in to the landlord for the new SN Mild, but I don't know how good it is.

[Wascally Weasel]

Noes!

I used to drink Stowford Press* when I was a cider drinker (growing up in Herefordshire) so I feel your pain.


*Well, I was a poor student-to-be so more often than not I was drinking cheap pints of Rough from either the Lamb or the Sun but I was aware that there were other more expensive brands that didn’t have quite so many floaty bits in them and were cloudy for good reasons.  Think scumble.

[Adrian]

Have you ever read the ingredients on a tin of Strongbow? Sweeteners. What is that about then?

[Kathy]

Have you ever read the ingredients on a tin of Strongbow? Sweeteners. What is that about then?

I'm proud to say I have never bought a tin of Strongbow.

On the plus side, Thatcher's Vintage cider was half-price in Sainsbury's last night. 

[Wascally Weasel]

Last year I visited a quite small, organic cider maker out near Ocle Pychard in Herefordshire.  The owner, as well as explaining how he produced his own cider and perry, much of which we got to sample, explained how the market works and how a lot of the other products are made.

The best of it, organic or otherwise is still made in the traditional way. 

The more mass produced stuff is made in different ways – a lot of the popular brands are made from a highly alcoholic base mixture which is diluted with fruit juices for consumption – the higher alcohol base cuts down on storage requirements of the mass produced item.

The lower end of the market isn’t strictly cider at all, it’s often corn alcohol which is then diluted and flavoured to taste like cider.

[Kathy]

We once visited the Westons factory.

We walked in to the shop at about ten in the morning to be greated by a happy woman who said "Itsh my birfday! I've been here sinsh half-eight. Come an' havva drink!"

So we did.

Several times.

 

That was fun. 

[Charlotte]

Think scumble.

From Wikipedia:

Scumble

An alcoholic beverage made mainly with apples and drunk in very small cups some months apart (or served to strangers in pint mugs, as a sort of initiation test).

It was first introduced in Mort which tells us:

"A lot of stories are told about scumble, and how it is made out on the damp marshes, according to ancient recipes passed down rather unsteadily from father to son. It's not true about the rats, or the snakes' heads, or the lead shot. The one about the dead sheep is a complete fabrication. We can lay to rest all the variants of the one about the trouser button. But the one about not letting it come into contact with metal is absolutely true..."

In Mort it was drunk on the Sto Plains, but in later books it is associated with Lancre, where it is distilled by Nanny Ogg (whose particular variant is known as "Suicider"). The word scumble is a pun on the West Country cider known as scrumpy, but scumble is clearly stronger than cider and distilled, therefore it is the Discworld version of applejack.

When scumble is mixed with dwarfish beer, it creates a highly intoxicating cocktail known as "Fluff".

[FatBloke]

Oh Lord!!  Oranjeboom and Hürlimann!  


Is it too late to organize a protest sit-in?  

[nicknack]

Even though I'm a life long Shepherd Neame drinker (bitter, not the poxy lager), I feel your pain. A variety is good.

A serious bugger about the Stowford Press. 

[Jaded]

I picked hops for Shepherd Neame once.

Much fun

[redshift]

Scumble


..."A lot of stories are told about scumble, and how it is made out on the damp marshes, according to ancient recipes passed down rather unsteadily from father to son. It's not true about the rats, or the snakes' heads, or the lead shot. The one about the dead sheep is a complete fabrication. We can lay to rest all the variants of the one about the trouser button. But the one about not letting it come into contact with metal is absolutely true..."

Long ago in my yoof, when I served behind a bar, we had a special mini bar type thing (one man operation) at one end of the building, which sold bottled and canned beverages only (Oh, the drinking habits of stoodents...).  This bar was only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
One Saturday afternoon I came into work, and the bar manager and I went in to open up this bar, only to find that Thursday's delivery of cider cans had leaked.  A small puncture in one can had allowed the contents to leak, and it had eaten through the aluminium can bases of the entire tray (24 cans).  We spent over an hour cleaning up, and I'm glad to say that I haven't drunk cider since.   

That was 1986. 

[Butterfly]

Well, at least you'll get Late Red, which is rather yummy.

*not really a beer drinker, but grew up in Faversham, with Shepherd Neame*

[keepontriking]

A serious bugger about the Stowford Press. 

I thought that was an unreal keg cider shunned by the old dead rat in apples juice protectionists.

[nicknack]

A serious bugger about the Stowford Press. 

I thought that was an unreal keg cider shunned by the old dead rat in apples juice protectionists.

Quite possibly, but it's a hell of a lot better than Strongbow or Magners.

[Tim]

The best that's going to be on the pumps regularly looks to be Whitstable Bay (I like hoppy).

At least they keep their beers well.