Wise Owl Cider

So many bottles arrive at the door (no, I don’t expect you to sympathise) that it sometimes takes me a while to get round to tasting them but this week I finally got to try Wise Owl’s sparkling cider which they’d been patiently nudging me about.

And it’s delicious.

Cidermakers Richard and Paula Wise, who are based in Ashford in Kent use a 8 different apple varieties, some from a friend’s farm and other bittersweet varieties from near Bodiam Castle, all of which they mill and press themselves.

It gives the cider a really intense natural appley taste - gentler than a West Country cider but at a robust 6% by no means too sweet. After only one year of commercial production they were nominated as Cider of the Festival by their local branch of CAMRA in the Kent & East Sussex Railway Beer Festival last year

You can buy the cider direct from their online shop for £38 a 12 bottle case including VAT and postage. It’s also widely available in Kent and Sussex - see their stockists page for details.

For some inspiration as to what to enjoy it with see my Top Food Matches for Cider. I'd go for a chicken pie myself!

Toast Ale

Sometimes a good story is all it takes to make you buy a bottle and who could resist a beer that makes use of food waste - unused bread in the case of Toast?

It’s brewed by Hackney Brewery and made to a Belgian recipe from bread crusts that would otherwise be discarded, along with malted barley, hops and yeast. All profits go to the charity Feedback which campaigns against global food waste. (According to the website 44% of all bread produced in the UK is thrown away.)

I wouldn’t say the taste was toasty, more emphatically malty - slightly more bitter than a lot of the craft beers out there (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing). When I tasted it I felt it needed food - maybe a cheese toastie or cheese on toast which would enable you to use yet more surplus bread and leftover bits of cheese.

You can buy it from the end of this week from the Toast Ale website at £18 a 6 bottle case (+ £6.99 delivery). Look out for it too at River Cottage, E5 Bakehouse, Poco, Fifteen and Tiny Leaf.

The Durham Brewery White Stout

I had a conversation on Twitter before Christmas with Elly from The Durham Brewery about whether there was a perfect beer for Christmas pudding.

She reckoned their 9% Belgian Tripel-style Bede’s Chalice would do the job and offered to send it to me to try.

What with one thing and another I didn’t catch up with it until well after Christmas was over so can’t try out the combination. My feeling is that it’s slightly drier and more savoury than is ideal for Christmas pud - a barley wine I think would be better

I was however very taken with their White Stout which I tried at the same time. As they explain on the label “Before porter brewers commandeered stout to mean a strong porter, a stout beer was a strong beer. It did not have to be black. We have recreated the style using modern hops and a full malt body.”

I find it a big, savoury brew, well-suited to meat (they recommend it with roast lamb with garlic and rosemary), shepherd's pie or cheddar cheese. It’s not as sweet or aromatic as many IPAs, more like a full-bodied red like a malbec. Watch out though: at 7.2% ABV a 500ml bottle will gobble up 3.6 units, over a quarter of your weekly 14 unit (ha!) allowance. You could happily share it between two though.

Disclosure: I was sent a selection of beers to try by The Durham Brewery.

Cider Find: Angry Orchard Crisp Apple Cider

A departure this week - a cider not a wine - and an American cider at that. I tasted it in Oddbins at the end of a wine tasting and was really blown away by it

It comes from Cincinnati Ohio, its called Angry Orchard and proudly trumpets that it’s gluten free (isn’t all cider?).

It’s not like a traditional English cider - I’m pretty sure it’s not made from cider apples but it has a really deep appley flavour. 'Crisp apple' describes it perfectly but don’t think Granny Smith.

Hard cider doesn't mean that it's solid - it's simply what they call cider in the US.

Angry Orchard also has a great website with some nice cocktail and cider pairing suggestions (they match it with cider-braised clams but I think it would be really great with Genevieve Taylor's overnight pulled pork recipe I’ve just posted).

Oddbins is selling it at £2.25 a bottle or 3 for £6. Perfect for this lovely summer weather.