I recently spent a weekend at FyneFest, the annual festival run by lauded Scottish brewery Fyne Ales. The event has been running since 2010 and, since its inception, has grown from a small gathering of around 300 people, to a crowd almost 10 times that. Each year, festivalgoers descend on Glen Fyne from all over the UK, Europe, and even the United States, each of them seeking the special blend of revelry and tranquillity this event uniquely offers.

At its heart, FyneFest is a beer festival – this is an event run by a brewery after all – and features many beers from guest breweries, plus a plentiful supply of its own award-winning beers such as Highlander, Vital Spark and its highly praised flagship, Jarl. There’s much more to this event than beer alone, however, with live music, organised hikes, quiz nights, and even a range of informal meet-the-brewer panel discussions (which I have dutifully hosted for the past three years).

Among the impromptu swims in the river, slurping down fresh Loch Fyne oysters and dancing to a covers band playing classic rock hits late into the night, there’s one other element to FyneFest its organisers clearly put a great deal of thought into – cider.

Cider and perry have both featured prominently at the festival for a number of years and have their own dedicated space on its main bar. The majority of this offering is served via the popular bag in box format, where it is dispensed via gravity from a 20-litre container. A host of producers were represented this year including Oliver’s and Ross on Wye of Herefordshire, Nightingale’s of Kent and Ascension Cider of Sussex.

There was an incredibly broad offering of full-juice cider available, from single-variety ciders such as Oliver’s always exceptional Yarlington Mill, super dry acid-bombs like the opinion splitting Ross on Wye Foxwhelp (which I love, dearly) along with sweeter ciders for those with palates that prefer them. Also among this selection was a permanently available core cider, a medium blended cider from Ascension, known as Pilot, served via Keykeg. These clever containers allow real ciders to be served slightly colder, with higher levels of carbon dioxide, without the liquid inside coming into contact with any extraneous CO2, unlike a regular steel keg.

While some revellers sampled ciders throughout the weekend, when the sun finally sets for some reason demand suddenly seems to increase. Perhaps this has something to do with jaded palates, subjected to a pummelling of hop-bitterness over several hours, looking for something a touch sweeter and more refreshing. Or it could simply be the fact that people do love cider and are more easily persuaded to give it a try once inhibitions have been lowered.

This was when I found myself in the queue, seeking the pint of Ascension Pilot I had knowingly been looking forward to all day. Pilot is an ever-changing blend made using apples that have been rejected by supermarkets, preventing them from going to landfill. While its blend changes, the cider remains beautifully consistent, with a medium sweetness that has an inherently fresh and juicy character. This makes it a sure bet if you’re recommending it to someone who doesn’t usually drink cider, as it lacks the grippy tannins and bone-dry quality that can be challenging for some.

Ascension’s founder and cidermaker Matt Billing tells me that the FyneFest keg blend featured nothing but the juice from Magic Star, Russet and Bramley apples. It tasted fantastic as always, but the slightly lower temperature and extra belt of fizz suited it to a tee. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so, as it seemed remarkably popular among beer and cider enthusiasts alike throughout the weekend.

Several times I stood in that queue and was asked for a recommendation, and this is one of the directions I pointed them in. Each and every time I did, the first sips were met with smiles of delight. This is a boundaryless cider.

It’s not the first Keykeg full-juice cider I’ve tried. But each time I do I am reminded how the way they are served and presented removes one of the barriers that might prevent cider from being a drinker's first choice on the bar. A lot of cider is consumed in the UK – around 800m litres per year – but we must respect that the majority of this is mass-produced from concentrate and, regardless of your opinion of it, is very easy to enjoy.

At FyneFest, I suspect a handful of people may have enjoyed a glass of Ascension Pilot on keg and considered they might try a wider variety as a result. There’s never been a better time to be a cider or perry drinker, honestly, but real cider remains a very niche product – much more so than real ale. With small steps like this, I believe a great deal more people will discover real cider and perry for themselves, and that, surely, is a very welcome thing indeed.

Matthew Curtis is an award-winning writer and photographer based in Manchester. He’s the co-founder of Pellicle Magazine. His latest title, Manchester’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars will be published by CAMRA Books in autumn 2023.