Scrumpy Hangover

There's cider and then there's cider. The normal mass-market stuff can be a bit sweet and, as someone recently commented about beer, there's stuff that's manufactured and stuff that's brewed. Cider is really pressed and matured so 'brewing' may be a bit of a misnoma, but you know what I mean.

Last night after a can of Strongbow, one of the big brand 5.3% vol ciders, I realised there was some real cider in the fridge. Hence the seeds of my destruction and great scrumpy hangover.

First up a bottle of Henry Weston's oak conditioned special vintage cider at a rather heady 8.2%. This bottle actually came from a local supermarket so all credit to them for bringing in the good stuff. It was a bit sweet but tasty stuff and at 8.2% I didn't really notice it go down - the sign of a good draught.

That was the last and only bottle of Westons so I had another rummage around in the fridge (it's big in there!) and, how could I miss it, there was a big 2.5 litre jug of Jack Ratt scrumpy cider, named after Jack Rattenbury, notorious Lyme Bay Smuggler. This bottle I got direct from the Lyme Bay Winery near Axminster in Devon. Cheers Dad ;)

Now this brew is only 6% but boy is it cloudy - it's the real thing and you get the real distinctive taste of the apples, no sediment either so it's been filtered. Needless to say, after purging my system of filthy Pop music with a good dose of Kerrang TV I found myself asleep on the sofa (no change there) but at 6 in the morning - blimey, that was almost a full night's sleep for me. So I crawled off to my proper bed...

Now just a few hours later I have scrumpy hangover, quite different from ale, wine, spirits, everything-mixed-together or crap lager hangovers, but a nice warm fuzzy feeling nonetheless.

I love scrumpy cider.