Upper House (Dry) Draught Cider

Another festival review for you - and another dry cider! Yup, in total there were 5 dry ciders on offer at this festival, although I had already tried a couple and reviewed them so there isn't much point in repeating the exercise just now. I confess, I did try them and they were every bit as good as I remember:-)

Upper House are a heritage cider producer from Herefordshire, although I don't recall ever coming across them before now. All I can find out about them online is that they started in 2006, so have been going for a few years and that they are from Wormslow... I cannot find a website to plagerise or glean any useful information from. But here it is, at my local beer festival - so it must be tried! Again, apologies about the quality of the photographs - they aren't going to get any better I am afraid.

So, its a 6% cider, and when it is sat in front of me I have to say my first thought is 'filtered!'. It is crystal clear... well, its golden but very clear for it (as the image can actually attest). It doesn't have much of a smell though - not just because its a draught, still cider but also because of the filtering (no doubt).

And then there is the taste. Odd is the first thought that entered my mind. Sure enough the cider is a western style, tannic cider. But most of the tannin is missing and its left with little depth to it. It also has a fairly sharp edge to it - again, I suspect much of the sharpness has been filtered out along with much of the taste. It is quite dry - pretty dry in fact... which may explain the heavy filtering. It could be that it was simply too dry, too unweildly for the general population and therefore was pulled back. But it hasn't just diminished the tannin, its everything else too - and some of it is still tasting, well, odd!

There is only a short aftertaste, which is tannic and a bit fruity. This is a shame as it was clearly made with love and care. I do get that people don't want to drink hard core dryness, but it could have been blended with a lighter cider. Mind you, I am assuming that this is the reason for its filtering. Such a shame.

As for the score: 62/100. Sorry Upper House, will try more:-)