I've often said that the thing which annoys me most about cider is that very tart dry cider seems to be in the overwhelming majority, whereas my taste runs more to sweet cider.
A lot of the very nasty mass-market cider is sweet because it helps hide slightly unpleasant flavours. So people get the idea that real cider ought to be dry. Plus (assuming you start with decent apples) it is easier to finish a cider dry than sweet: you don't need to worry about fermentation restarting and putting you over-strength; also, just as it hides nasty flavours, sugar masks the nice flavours too, so you need more or stronger tasting fruit.
(And, to be honest, sweet alcohol in general; for example I'll always pick sweet sherry over dry even if the former is cooking-grade and the latter really poncy, and I'm a great fan of mead.) This was illustrated particularly graphically at the cider bar last night, where they had about thirty different ciders available of which about five were sweet – and yet, when I went back to the bar for my second pint, all the sweet ones had sold out first and I had to make do with medium-sweet. What's with that?
The same thing is very common with wines too: someone did a test with non-wine-drinkers, and the most popular "red" was hock with cochineal. We are programmed to like sugar, and dry wines etc. are literally an acquired taste. Unfortunately, everyone knows that dry wines are better, smarter, more elegant, etc. and drinks them even if they're not really keen on them. Of course, this doesn't help the quality of either the dry wines (because a lot of the people drinking them don't like them anyway), or the sweet wines (because, with a few exceptions in the smart dessert wine area, they're cheap and nasty).
Everyone appears to want to drink sweet cider, but nobody seems interested in making it. Aren't market forces supposed to sort this kind of thing out?
Not sure, but I'd suggest that the people who drink cider at a beer festival are (mostly) the ones who don't like or want a change from beer, which tends to be fairly dry and bitter, rather than the ones who would buy small-production ciders given free choice. The other possibility that occurs to me is that it's still fairly early to be drinking last autumn's cider, and the light, dry ones will mature faster than a richer, sweeter brew. Do the beer festivals later in the summer-autumn have a better range?
As usual with beer festivals, I felt hung over this morning in astonishing disproportion to the number of units of actual alcohol I had. Never quite sure what that's about.
How much non-alcohol did you drink, what did you have to eat, and how hot was the hall? I've never been ill from my own homebrew, or the cider from our local farm, when I've been drinking at home with plenty of water and a decent meal; parties in stuffy rooms with a shortage of real food and soft drinks seem a recipe for headaches.
Do the beer festivals later in the summer-autumn have a better range?
I couldn't say, I'm afraid: beer festivals have always been things I'll consider going to if one crops up conveniently near me, but not things I'd travel any distance for the sake of.
How much non-alcohol did you drink, what did you have to eat, and how hot was the hall?
Hall? :-) The Cambridge beer festival is held on Jesus Green, mostly outdoors; there's a big tent containing the bars, but most people don't spend all their time in there unless it rains. I was outside in the fresh air for all of the evening I didn't spend queuing at the bar. I had eaten a sensible meal (rice, lots of veg, tomato-based sauce, a little meat) before coming out, and I drank plenty of water both before and after spending a couple of hours at the beer festival. On a normal Thursday evening I'd expect to do pretty much exactly the same thing with the beerfest replaced by a pub, in which case I'd be in a stuffy indoor room and probably drink more actual alcohol; and I usually wouldn't feel nearly so bad on the Friday morning as I did this time.
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A lot of the very nasty mass-market cider is sweet because it helps hide slightly unpleasant flavours. So people get the idea that real cider ought to be dry. Plus (assuming you start with decent apples) it is easier to finish a cider dry than sweet: you don't need to worry about fermentation restarting and putting you over-strength; also, just as it hides nasty flavours, sugar masks the nice flavours too, so you need more or stronger tasting fruit.
The same thing is very common with wines too: someone did a test with non-wine-drinkers, and the most popular "red" was hock with cochineal. We are programmed to like sugar, and dry wines etc. are literally an acquired taste. Unfortunately, everyone knows that dry wines are better, smarter, more elegant, etc. and drinks them even if they're not really keen on them. Of course, this doesn't help the quality of either the dry wines (because a lot of the people drinking them don't like them anyway), or the sweet wines (because, with a few exceptions in the smart dessert wine area, they're cheap and nasty).
Not sure, but I'd suggest that the people who drink cider at a beer festival are (mostly) the ones who don't like or want a change from beer, which tends to be fairly dry and bitter, rather than the ones who would buy small-production ciders given free choice. The other possibility that occurs to me is that it's still fairly early to be drinking last autumn's cider, and the light, dry ones will mature faster than a richer, sweeter brew. Do the beer festivals later in the summer-autumn have a better range?
How much non-alcohol did you drink, what did you have to eat, and how hot was the hall? I've never been ill from my own homebrew, or the cider from our local farm, when I've been drinking at home with plenty of water and a decent meal; parties in stuffy rooms with a shortage of real food and soft drinks seem a recipe for headaches.
Do the beer festivals later in the summer-autumn have a better range?
I couldn't say, I'm afraid: beer festivals have always been things I'll consider going to if one crops up conveniently near me, but not things I'd travel any distance for the sake of.
How much non-alcohol did you drink, what did you have to eat, and how hot was the hall?
Hall? :-) The Cambridge beer festival is held on Jesus Green, mostly outdoors; there's a big tent containing the bars, but most people don't spend all their time in there unless it rains. I was outside in the fresh air for all of the evening I didn't spend queuing at the bar. I had eaten a sensible meal (rice, lots of veg, tomato-based sauce, a little meat) before coming out, and I drank plenty of water both before and after spending a couple of hours at the beer festival. On a normal Thursday evening I'd expect to do pretty much exactly the same thing with the beerfest replaced by a pub, in which case I'd be in a stuffy indoor room and probably drink more actual alcohol; and I usually wouldn't feel nearly so bad on the Friday morning as I did this time.