Cider Guide
Beginners guide to craft cider to explore all the styles and fun facts that will help you make great choices on all things cider!
There are many different types of cider available and it can be confusing to know where to start. This guide includes fruit ciders, organic, gluten free, vintage, ice, perry, farmhouse and much more!
Find out the real difference between craft cider and commercial cider.
The secrets revealed between proper fruit cider and those sweet, commercial alcopops you find in stores.
Discover the best cider known to man! It’s the question we get asked the most and is the easiest one to answer.
Our personal top tips on curated cider, tasting kits and subsciptions.
Fun facts in the guide
What’s the most popular cider?
The most popular cider isn’t necessarily the right cider for you – although it does provide a useful place to start. The most popular styles of craft cider are medium and medium-dry and more people prefer sparkling to still.
What’s the strongest cider?
If we had a pound for every time someone asked us this! Alcohol is basically fermented sugar so the strength of a cider depends on how much sugar is in the apple. This is turn depends on the variety of apple and how much sunshine there was.
Are cider apples special?
You can make cider out of any apples and this will have a big impact on the resulting flavour. Eastern Counties cider tends to be made from eating apples and less tannic than West Country cider but tends to be stronger (sometimes up to 8%!)
Are cider and cyder different?
There's no difference between cider and cyder it's just a different spelling. Some producers think that cyder is a more traditional spelling but the earliest recorded use of the word cider spells it with an 'i' so we're going to stick with 'cider'!
10 years of award winning knowledge in cider.
Bristol Cider Shop has been showcasing the very best in local, independent cider since 2010. We’re on a mission to introduce people to the world of proper cider and we’ve been named the UK’s Independent Cider Retailer of the Year twice. We’re based in Bristol but we deliver all over the UK.