Cider from a brewer... whatever next? Mind, Stella do it (although since the review someone else has described it as the same texture and tang as lucozade... which despite being a bit damning is not too far from the experience I had with it!)
Anyway, this one isn't like that - although reading the website they started making cider for similar reasons... not just because cider is a decent market to make some money in (well, I guess there has to be some of that), but also because they saw the main brands and wanted to do something better... sounds a bit like the press releases I have read about Stella - albeit that Black Rat has been with us since the late 90's.
At 5.5%, I suspect it has been cut and controlled a little (tamed may be a more appropriate word for a black rat). However, even at 5.5% it still deserves respect. It is from Somerset too, so there ought to be plenty of bittersweet and sharp apples going on under the cap.
Well, it smells of cider fruit - deep fruit flavours with tannin and maybe a little sulphite sitting at the back somewhere. It is also pretty uniformly fizzy, the kind that comes from carbonation as opposed to bottle conditioning of any kind. This fizz continues through the drink.
To taste, it is a good drop with tannins hitting the mid range on my personal scale and with an acid that is pretty well balanced against it. The bubbles are a bit annoying and I would say do get in the way of the flavour somewhat. However, its a good blend and just a little morish! The aftertaste is tannic - which makes the cider generally less sweet overall (not a bad thing).
I have knocked a couple of points off for the sake of the over carbonation, but this still leaves a respectable bronze apple... 77/100
Try the draft at 7%. it is not carbonated and quite different from the bottled stuff.
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