Devil's Bit Cider

marco_polo

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Flaggons of Bulmers used have bits of apple floating around in them and came in 2 pint glass bottles with a bull on the label.
Then they watered it down and put it 2litre plastic bottles.
I think they stopped the 2litre flaggons in the late 90s.

Ah the good old bulmers flagon, Grown man in 30s now but still had to sheepishly confess long hidden secrets to the auld lad a few years ago when he found a few dozen of them behind the shed a few years ago doing a cleanup .

I didn't even know they had been discontinued because frankly I haven't been able to look at the stuff since.

berger89

i quite like druids..though it does give me heartburn no other drink gives me that.
bulmers is sickly sweet, and is very bloaty

eternal

Apple wine in Germany is lovely but it's low in alcohol.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Any Garda on here has climbed the Devil's Bit, there's not much else to do with your down time in the Templemore area.

suicide_circus

Bulmers is probably the worst cider available in Ireland today. The power of marketing, eh?

fedor.2.

I don't drink. Sounds like I'm missing out.

fuerte1976

Devils bit is rough tack but miles better than that poison linden village.
That Stella cidre is damn good, Aldi tarus is a good bet too. Bulmers too sweet & fizzy.
Any one try that French cider in aldi 8 in a box for €8.99 ? St. Eitheane I think ?

harry Bailey esq

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Try Woodgate Cider from Lidl, now that'd put hairs on your eyeballs.

sweet Jesus that's rough,aldis version Taurus is equally vile.Devils bit on the other hand is fairly drinkable,its certainly nicer than bulmers as the op mentioned.It has to be cold,but its the perfect choice for a hot day,whether it be a bbq with the family or a mad session down the canal.
Its a favourite tipple of tramps because its cheap,strong and the bottle can be opened and closed at will.Perfect for a man about town whos always on the move.

Dog of Tears

IMO people who like cider tend not to have very developed taste-buds.

Most people have grown out of cider by their late teens.

Phil Mitchell

I drank a bottle of it recently and found it ok. Much nicer than bulmers. I'm not a regular cider drinker either.

Kidchameleon

fussyonion wrote: »

I'm waiting for Angus von Bismarck to give his opinion.

No doubt it'll be the usual drivel involving being better than everyone else. It has become very boring.

harry Bailey esq

Dog of Tears wrote: »

IMO people who like cider tend not to have very developed taste-buds.

Most people have grown out of cider by their late teens.

People who make statements like that tend not to have very developed taste.The main 'ciders' on the Irish market are not really proper cider at all.Try a nice scrumpy from England or any one of the amazing ciders from Normandy and come back to us

mikemac1

Bulmers
Linden Village
Devils Bit

What do they have in common?

All from the Premier County, hon Tipp!! :cool:

harry Bailey esq

Phil Mitchell wrote: »

I drank a bottle of it recently and found it ok. Much nicer than bulmers. I'm not a regular cider drinker either.

I thought vodka no ice was your poison Mr Mitchell :pac:

deise08

Ah, those were the days. buying a bumbler of bulmers. remember them?
Or
having a canary when you went to Dublin and asking for a bottle bulmers and being handed this tiny little long neck. wtf? the same price for half the amount!

Billy bulmers was my best drinking buddy. couldn't touch the stuff now. would cut the stomach out of ya.

Wang King

mikemac1 wrote: »

Bulmers
Linden Village
Devils Bit

What do they have in common?

All from the Premier County, hon Tipp!! :cool:

Homeless shelters in Tipp must be bursting at the seams!

mikemac1

Nah, we send our citizens to Dublin to steal jobs and wimmins :P

fuerte1976

Dog of Tears wrote:

Most people have grown out of cider by their late teens.

I only started drinking cider in my 30's ....

fleet_admiral

the evasion_kid wrote: »

Bulmers used to be considered a scumbags drink,I know publicans who years ago if you ordered it would nearly tell you to get out straight away! Nothing wrong with devils bit or depth chargers as i used to call it

I used to work with a bloke who managed a pub in Rathmines and he did that. If you ordered Bulmers you were out the door

RhubarbCrumble

fuerte1976 wrote: »

That Stella cidre is damn good

Absolutely agree. Can't believe no one else has mentioned this yet. Miles nicer than Bulmers. Impossible to get in most pubs though

the evasion_kid

Strongbow is some god awful cider! Anyone here tried woodpecker cider? Its brewed by bulmers

Banjo String

Best cider is a Dickins.....

I like my Dickins cider i must admit.

rubadub

keanosbeard wrote: »

Bulmers / Magners is a cider. It is made from apples

French Cider must be made from 100 % apple juice. As you would expect of the french. And bloody good stuff if you get a bottle of the Normandy stuff.

However, in the UK, a drink needs to consist of only 30 % apple product to be called Cider. Some of the leading white ciders, the 2 litre alco juices, are made from anything but apple. Just cheap sugar to ferment. I have read waste pasta, waste bread and glucose-fructose syrups.

Bulmers can be put into the heavily watered down "cider" too. Its highy priced, cheaply produced alcohol -a lot of added costs will be the marketing. The marketing by bulmers is incredibly misleading, I don't know how they get away with it, especially when they are such cheeky fuckers about it.

They had an advert for pear cider and said that it was made from 100% pear juice. This however meant there were no other juices in it, they did not declare the low % of juice in it. They did not add in cheap juice like apple to make up the missing sugar -no they just added back sugar and water. So they try and sneerinlgy disregard the other ciders which do us other juices -which in fact is seen as better practise by most brewers, it is certainly more expensive.

"don't you hate being misled" was the start of the advert, it showed a guy going into a burger joint and the photo looked nothing like the burger he got.

6. What are the ingredients / from what is Bulmers Pear made?
Bulmers Pear is made from 100% quality Pear Juice. The Bulmers Pear recipe is a safely guarded secret.

Bulmers Pear contains a significant level of high quality, pear juice

Significant presumably means the bare minimum to get over the legal limit. Just like their apple cider is -otherwise why would they not openly declare it? like proper cider producers might do.

Dyr

Did devils bit used to be called devils spit back in the day?

Also bulmers changed their logo from a bull to a cask around the time they tried to overcome their public image of being rocket fuel for flagon wielding head cases

Mint Aero

Lets face it if they packaged it better, raised the price & spent 100's of millions making ads , all the apple fanboys would be here acting like fine connoisseurs of devil bit cider.

Hans Bricks

Stonehouse apparently puts hair on your ribs

deise08

Banjo String wrote: »

Best cider is a Dickins.....

I like my Dickins cider i must admit.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha


that's a slow burner. you're too clever banjo

BetterThanThou

As far as cheap cider goes, I'd choose Taurus, it's the only one that's even mildly drinkable to me without already being drunk. Not a fan of cider in general though, absolutely hate the stuff, not a single thing I can think of that I wouldn't take over cider.

the evasion_kid

rubadub wrote: »

Bulmers can be put into the heavily watered down "cider" too. Its highy priced, cheaply produced alcohol -a lot of added costs will be the marketing. The marketing by bulmers is incredibly misleading, I don't know how they get away with it, especially when they are such cheeky fuckers about it.

They had an advert for pear cider and said that it was made from 100% pear juice. This however meant there were no other juices in it, they did not declare the low % of juice in it. They did not add in cheap juice like apple to make up the missing sugar -no they just added back sugar and water. So they try and sneerinlgy disregard the other ciders which do us other juices -which in fact is seen as better practise by most brewers, it is certainly more expensive.

"don't you hate being misled" was the start of the advert, it showed a guy going into a burger joint and the photo looked nothing like the burger he got.




Significant presumably means the bare minimum to get over the legal limit. Just like their apple cider is -otherwise why would they not openly declare it? like proper cider producers might do.

You know the way it says made with 17 varieties of apples on the bottle,well one year they ran out of apples so had to use some cheap apples from China and various other places,a rep from c & c told me that,plus the pear cider was running the guts out of everyone so they changed the recipe unfortunately no one went back for round two of it,I've heard stories of lads literally sh*tting themselves standing at the bar from it.

weldoninhio

the evasion_kid wrote: »

You know the way it says made with 17 varieties of apples on the bottle,well one year they ran out of apples so had to use some cheap apples from China and various other places,a rep from c & c told me that,plus the pear cider was running the guts out of everyone so they changed the recipe unfortunately no one went back for round two of it,I've heard stories of lads literally sh*tting themselves standing at the bar from it.

Happened me with the pair cider (ran the guts out of me, not the sh*tting myself at the bar) Haven't touched it since.

hatrickpatrick

In terms of nice strong cider, personally I'd go for Druids over Devil's Bit any day. I think, although I could be wrong about this, that the difference is Druids is made with red apples and Devil's Bit is made with green ones? Anyone know if this is the case?
Either way, Druids I find has a slightly less tangy flavour than Devil's Bit. It's more subdued. I think perhaps Devil's Bit is just a bit fizzier - too fizzy for my liking anyway.

hatrickpatrick

weldoninhio wrote: »

Happened me with the pair cider (ran the guts out of me, not the sh*tting myself at the bar) Haven't touched it since.

Is that in any way comparable to the Guinness Sh!ts, which I only recently discovered were a universal phenomenon and not an indication that something was seriously wrong with my arse?

suicide_circus

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

In terms of nice strong cider, personally I'd go for Druids over Devil's Bit any day. I think, although I could be wrong about this, that the difference is Druids is made with red apples and Devil's Bit is made with green ones? Anyone know if this is the case?
Either way, Druids I find has a slightly less tangy flavour than Devil's Bit. It's more subdued. I think perhaps Devil's Bit is just a bit fizzier - too fizzy for my liking anyway.

The red/green apple thing sounds like a myth. I'd say theyre all made from the apples that are too bruised/mouldy/deformed to be sold for eating

Aongus Von Bismarck

Devil's Bit is absolutely vile stuff. I've only ever smelt it, and that was more than enough. A cheap and vulgar drink that is drank by trashy individuals.

I'm not much of a cider drinker myself, but if I was having one, I would choose a decent upmarket English or Scottish cider like Thistly Cross or Samuel Smith's organic. Drinks that taste like a refined adult beverage instead of a child’s juice box, with just enough sweetness to go down easy.

Wang King

Google is a great ..tool isn't it

Mister Vain

My name is URL wrote: »

Are there any other beverages that are commonly ignored or ridiculed because of one thing or another, but are actually very nice to drink?

Pretty much every fecking drink I like seems to be ridiculed. :rolleyes: I used to always get slagged for drinking Bulmers because apparently its only for women and sissy boys who can't handle a real drink. Coors Light was another one I got slagged for. I drink Despardos now. I haven't been slagged yet but its early days. Why is it that all the so called man's drinks taste like piss?

mikemac1

Governor Cider

Loved this cider. But I haven't seen it in about two years, not since Tesco were trialling their beers of the world

It may have gone the same way as Vanilla Coke

It can be bought in restaurants but I don't know anywhere in Ireland that has it. Saying that I didn't try outside supermarkets

weldoninhio

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Is that in any way comparable to the Guinness Sh!ts, which I only recently discovered were a universal phenomenon and not an indication that something was seriously wrong with my arse?

Not really, the first batch of Bulmers Pear was literally like a laxative. A strong, quick-working laxative.

Mister Vain

Ohh God yeah the Bulmers Pear is awful. Stick with the apples for feck sake.

Son Of A Vidic

My name is URL wrote: »

Why does this stuff have such a bad name?

Because anything classified as a cider is usually complete píss.

Duck's hoop

I've had them all. Blackthorn and scrumpy were great. I didn't mind Strongbow at all.

We could get Merrydown, White Lightning and TNT up north back in the day. Woodpecker too was nice.

Lightning was cheap as and at over 8% you can imagine the tomfoolery after a 3 ltr. And maybe a tin of Tennents extra to chase it.

But nothing beats a crisp Breton or Norman cidre. Out of a bowl with a smoked salmon crêpe.

fuerte1976

weldoninhio wrote:

Not really, the first batch of Bulmers Pear was literally like a laxative. A strong, quick-working laxative.

Yes, yes it was.... I can back it up.. The pear wasn't long on the market and the effects weren't widely known. I was heading on a flight to Lisbon surfing after necking 4 pint bottles of this beauty. OMG is all I can say... My throat nearly fell out the other end... I hadn't a clue what was Goin on... Lucky I was in the tide for a few days to cleanse my self...
Tis fixed now tho ! No more squirts !

Dyr

Remember a girl i was seeing back then had a fondness for koppaberg pear and when we were having a night away in a hotel she tried the bulmers pear. No fun sexeh time for me that night, thanks bulmers :mad:

Putin

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

My name is URL wrote: »

Why does this stuff have such a bad name?

Because anything classified as a cider is usually complete píss.

Amen.

Tin Foil Hat

Mister Vain wrote: »

Ohh God yeah the Bulmers Pear is awful. Stick with the apples for feck sake.

It was nice at the start. But it gave loads of people the squirts, so they had to change it. Now it's awful.

siblers

I love Rekorderlig and Kopperberg, Rekorderlig is a fecking pain to try and get down in Kerry though.

My name is URL

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Because anything classified as a cider is usually complete píss.

I wouldn't disagree with that. It's part of the reason I was so surprised that Devil's Bit was actually quite nice!

It tastes nothing like the sickly sweet stuff that passes as cider for most people, like Bulmers or Scrumpy etc. It's a lot more similar to old English ciders than it is to those drinks.

As someone else said, they could start producing less of the stuff, up the price and do some rebranding and swanky marketing and a whole other demographic of people would soon become fans of it.

hatrickpatrick

weldoninhio wrote: »

Not really, the first batch of Bulmers Pear was literally like a laxative. A strong, quick-working laxative.

Ah yes, whereas the Guinness sh!ts are a ticking time bomb which an unexperienced drinker can remain unaware of until hours after it's too late to stop the carnage

hatrickpatrick

My name is URL wrote: »

I wouldn't disagree with that. It's part of the reason I was so surprised that Devil's Bit was actually quite nice!

It tastes nothing like the sickly sweet stuff that passes as cider for most people, like Bulmers or Scrumpy etc. It's a lot more similar to old English ciders than it is to those drinks.

As someone else said, they could start producing less of the stuff, up the price and do some rebranding and swanky marketing and a whole other demographic of people would soon become fans of it.

Exactly, it's all about marketing as always. I'm consistently amazed at how genuinely better tasting and stronger "knacker" beers (IE, non-Diageo brands you only get in Aldi or Lidl) are. I'd happily pay Heineken / Guinness prices for Perlenbacher for instance.