Review of Hogan’s Medium Cider, from the UK.  This is the first cider I’ve tried from them, although I’m a fan of English cider.

Cider:  Medium Cider
Cidery:  Hogan’s Cider
Cidery Location:  Alcester, England
ABV:  5.4%
How Supplied:  500ml bottle
Style:  English craft medium dry cider

 

Availability:  UK, U.S. (including at ShipCider.com), Russia, Hong Kong, Finland, Australia, Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, and Germany.

Cider Description:  Hogan’s Bottled Cider is fermented from only 100% fresh pressed English cider apples. Our cider tastes so good because we do not use apple concentrate and we do not add any sugars prior to fermentation. Containing more than 85% cider apple juice our premium bottled cider is made only from fresh pressed cider fruit and precious little else. Hogan’s bottled cider brings you the authentic taste of the English orchard.

Hogan’s Medium Bottled Cider is golden, well balanced, slightly sparkling cider with caramel, butterscotch and dried fruit aromas.

Cidery Description:  Hogan’s ciders and perries are fermented from just fresh pressed English apples and pears, no sugars are added prior to fermentation and no apple or pear juice concentrate is used.

We think cider should be made only from fresh pressed apples.  What we do is source fruit in the Autumn from lots of apple orchards in the counties of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

Price:  $7.25
Where Bought:  Full Throttle Bottles in Seattle WA
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  Browsing.  I’m a big English cider fan and hadn’t seen this one before.  Their Dry Cider can also be found in my area.

First Impression:  Light pumpkin orange amber.  Ring of foam and large bubbles.  Smells of rich ripe apples, yeast, and tannins.

Tasting Notes:  Between semi-dry and semi-sweet.  Mild tannins.  Moderate acidity.  Mild tartness.  Hints of bitterness and sourness.  Still.  Medium bodied.  Slight richness with notes of caramel, brown sugar, and yeast.  Quick finish.  Moderate apple flavor.  Moderate sessionability.

My Opinion:  This was a bit disappointing; I’d call it average.  That slightest bit of sourness threw me off (I’ve never tasted that in English cider and I’m not a fan of sour in a cider at all).  I also found the depth of flavor just wasn’t there vs. other English craft ciders I’ve had.  I find it odd that they use sugar to back sweeten (vs. juice or stopping fermentation early) and list water as an ingredient (usually water is only required if a cidery uses concentrate, and they said only fresh pressed apple juice was used…so was it used to water down the cider to a certain ABV?).

Most Similar to:  Other English ciders, such as from Aspall and Sheppy’s, both of which so far I like better.

Closing Notes:  English ciders are one of my favorite categories.  Maybe I’ll have to give another variety from Hogan’s a try.

Have you tried Hogan’s Cider?  What did you think?