Industrial cider
From Ukcider
Most cider served in pubs and sold in supermarkets is made by one of the industrial cider producers, listed below. Please note that these drinks are not generally 'real cider'; a listing on this page doesn't imply any recommendation by ukcider. Forewarned is forearmed. ;)
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Aston Manor
Thimblemill Lane, Aston, Birmingham B7 5HS: 0121 328 4336
The edit history suggests that some of this section may have been written by Aston Manor. In addition, someone keeps returning to this page to delete both this paragraph and the "non-corporate puffery" added by ukcider contributors. You may decide for yourself whether this person's activities reflect well on Aston Manor!
Aston Manor Brewery, based in Birmingham, is the UK's no. 3 cider producer and the largest independent. The company began cider packaging in 1987 and cider fermentation in 1996. AMB produces around 500,000 hectolitres of cider & perry a year and its sister company – Highgate & Walsall Brewery - produce award winning beers and ales for both the on & off trade. Principal brands are:
- Frosty Jack’s White cider; the biggest selling White Cider by Volume and Value (AC Neilson)
- Kingstone Press Premium Amber; sold in the on trade and Off trade.
- Hereford Orchard Farmhouse Dry Cider
- Golden Valley Cider
- Chardolini Perry.
The company has an active marketing programme including on pack promotions, consumer/ Trade press advertising, a £¼m TV comedy sponsorship, sports team sponsorships, Viral marketing campaign and a Cider promotion tour.
Additional information on Aston Manor's products are available at:
www.astonmanor.co.uk www.frostyjacks.co.uk www.kingstonepress.co.uk
The following section was added by genuine ukcider folk to retain objectivity:
Aston Manor Brewery claim to be the "UK's no. 3 cider producer" and the largest independent. Its plastic-bottle products are widely available in supermarkets with names like Hereford Orchard, Amber Harvest, and Golden Valley. Its Kingstone Press keg cider is reasonably common in West Midlands pubs, particularly the Worcestershire/Staffordshire area, and surprisingly, in the North-West through Thwaites Brewery.
A director of the company gained notoriety when he was convicted of attempting to contaminate Bulmer's cider, out of frustration at the larger company's success. The BBC news report on this can be searched on the BBC website.
Principal brands are:
Kingstone Press (dry: marketed as a premium product, but decidedly less pleasant tasting than its nearest competitor, Weston's Stowford Press. Made from a blend of Michelin and Dabinett apples) Frosty Jacks (white) However, a very large part of Aston Manor's output is sold as supermarket own-label drinks, or under fairly anonymous brands ('Hereford Orchard', 'Harvest Oak' etc.) whose origin can only be discerned by looking at the address on the label.
Also incurred the wrath of real cider enthusiasts by attempting to stop Herefordshire cidermaker Dennis Gwatkin from using the name 'Kingston Black' to describe his cider made from the Kingson Black cider apple, on the spurious grounds that it was too similar to Astons Manor's Kingston Press cider. Malicious bullying of a small producer? Naive stupidity? They backed down in the end.
Bulmers (UK)
The Cider Mills, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 0LE: 01432 352000
HP Bulmer is the world's largest cider producer, best known for Strongbow and Scrumpy Jack. Based in Herefordshire, it is now owned by brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle.
Throughout the years, Bulmers acquired a succession of smaller cider makers, among them Symonds of Stoke Lacy, and Inch's of Devon. Inch's, which had grown to be one of the largest independent producers, was acquired principally for its White Lightning brand. Inch's once-popular Stonehouse cider is now available only in keg form, and even then only in very limited circulation. Similarly, Bulmers' own real cider brand, Old Hazy, once had good distribution through Hogshead and similar pubs, but was dropped in the mid-1990s.
Principal brands are:
- Strongbow (dry)
- Strongbow Sirrus (bottled competitor to Magners)
- Bulmers Original (another bottled Magners-a-like - is this anything like the old Bulmers Original which Westons produced for a while?)
- Scrumpy Jack (dry)
- Woodpecker (sweet, usually bottled)
- GL (sweet, sold in the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire area only)
- White Lightning (white)
- Jacques (flavoured cider produced in Belgium by a S&N sister company, apparently)
- Inch's Harvest Dry (a reasonably palatable drink that does actually taste of cider apples - probably the best of Bulmers' output)
- Symonds Original (in 2L plastic bottles, appears to be the pre-Magners Bulmers Original rebranded)
Magners Irish Cider
C&C Group plc, Kylemore Park, Dublin 10, Ireland: +353 1 616 1100
Irish cider-maker William Magner of Clonmel entered into a joint venture with HP Bulmer in 1937. Though the partnership was dissolved just 12 years later, Magner retained the right to the brand 'Bulmers' in the Republic of Ireland. The cider known as Bulmers in Ireland, where it commands 80% of the market, is known as Magners in the rest of the world.
Magners Irish Cider is now the subject of a high-profile introduction in the UK. Sports sponsorships and carefully-targeted regional launches, themed around the conceit of serving 'Magners over ice', are making it a major challenger to Strongbow. So far, it has successfully been launched in Scotland and Southern England.
Gaymer Cider Company
Kilver Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 5ND: 01749 334000
Larger Image
Gaymers roadside sign near Wisbech, Cambs
Formed from the merger of several large regional companies (Taunton Cider, Coates, Gaymers), the 'Matthew Clark Taunton' company has now been rebranded as part of the multinational Constellation Brands group.
Dry Blackthorn was once a serious challenger to Strongbow on the national stage, but its market share has seriously slipped back in recent years, not least due to heavy discounting by Bulmers during its latter years as an independent company. However, Blackthorn and its sister brands (e.g. Natch and Special Vat) are still popular in the south-west.
Brands are:
- Blackthorn (dry, carbonated)
- Addlestones (cloudy, still - the nearest to real draught cider made by any of the industrial manufacturers, though it contains artificial sweeteners)
- Gaymers Original (yet another bottled Magners clone)
- Taunton Traditional (cloudy)
- Diamond White (white)
- Olde English (dry, carbonated)
- Special Vat (medium dry, carbonated)
- Natch (traditionally popular in the Bristol area)
- K
- Red C
- Orchard Reserve (traditional, bottled cider)
- A new range of 'Single County' ciders includes Devon and Somerset varieties.
Intercontinental Brands
4 Sceptre House, Hornbeam Square, Hornbeam Business Park, Harrogate HG2 8PB: 01423 872747
Independent company that ships a lot of its "Ready-To-Drink" stuff through supermarkets.
- St Helier Pear Cider
- various dire-sounding 'perry' (Lamvino, Lamvino Blush, Lieberwein)
Kopparberg
UK distributor: B O Times1 Limited, 1 Kingfisher Close, Thamesmead, London SE28 8ES: 0870 777 7035
One of the largest breweries in Sweden, Kopparberg is now sending its industrial cider across to Britain (with extensive distribution through Wetherspoons) for us lucky, lucky people. The bottles are produced in apple, pear, strawberry and elderflower 'flavours'.
Merrydown
Castle Court, 41 London Rd, Reigate, Surrey RH2 9RJ: 01737 735007
Manufactures unusual, strong but heavily filtered cider from cooking and dessert apples. The company produced its ciders in Sussex for many years, but has now moved production to Belgium. It is currently owned by the SHS Group.
Merrydown's Vintage Cider is generally sold through supermarkets and off-licences, though they now produce a weaker, 5% bottled variant (website here) for pubs and clubs - "tastes best over ice".
Apart from cider, the company is also known for the Two Dogs alcopop, and the rather less offensive 'grown-up soft drink' Shloer.
Brands are:
- Merrydown Vintage Medium
- Merrydown Vintage Dry
- Merrydown 5%
Samuel Smith
Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, High Street, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire LS24 9SB: 01937 832225
Produces its own-label 'Cider Reserve', a dry keg cider which is the only cider available in its pubs. Perhaps a little more palatable than Strongbow or Dry Blackthorn. The pubs are well-known for selling beer at surprisingly cheap prices and the cider follows in this tradition.
Saxon Cider
La Cantina, Unit 4B, Saxonmill, 218 Bradford Road, Batley Carr, Dewsbury WF17 6JF: 01924 457979
Though significantly smaller in scale than the major cidermakers listed above, Saxon Cider has made a name for itself producing distinctive ciders from apple concentrate. Saxon Cider is also often to be found at un-enlightened Beer Festivals including (and embarrassingly) many run by CAMRA... Whenever you come across it at such places, please point out to the organisers it's origins. From experience, it would seem that the main reason for festivals stocking Saxon is a mixture of ignorance and the fact that it's very cheap when compared to more favourable fare.
