Crab apple

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Arne

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Gettin close to that time. last year I waited til the little apples were falling. In the last month or so, this stuff has gotten to be really good. In the early tastings, i always had to add sugar to get it down. Now dry, it is starting to be an easy drinker. It still leaves a pucker factor, but not as bad as it once was. I started it last Nov. 20. Only used 10 lb crab apples frozen and thawed.
Next, 2 gal old orchard apple cranberry juice.
3/4 tsp acid blend
2 1/2 tsp tannin
5 tsp yeast nutrient
starting s.g. was 1.990
ending s.g. was 0.996
Stabalized in Nov.
Racked a couple times since then, added k-meta
First time I made this stuff I really didn't like it. Kathy did so I tried it again. Waitin til the crabapples start fallin on their own and gonna get enough to try it again. The old tree is loaded this year, so shouldn't be a problem gettin enough to make a batch. Don't know what breed the crabapples are, but they are a fairly small apple, most of them no larger than a quarter. Very tart, never thought a fella would be able to drink the stuff without backsweetenin. Gonna bottle it in the next few days, if it gets bad tart, can always give it a little sugar in the glass. Arne.
 
It's funny, I have noticed some apple trees that are loaded lately in my normal travels that I never really noticed before. All I think of is apple wine when I pass them now. :HB
 
Regular apple wine is great. I have been using only juice for it. have made enough of it i have a pretty good recipe for it. It has to be sweetened up some tho, in my opinion. Still can't believe the sour ol crabapple doesn't need any sweetening. Arne.
 
Yeah the big crab apples called Dolgo's mame a real nice wine by itself or for blending. It especially makes a real nice sparkling wine!!!!!
 
Bet it would be great sparkling, but that is something to be saved for sometime in the future. Only ones I have had sparkling have not been on purpose. Sometime I am going to get the equiptment to force carbonate. Just have not quite gotten around to it yet. Arne.
 
I used to do crab apple as I used to have one in the back yard. They made pretty good wine. I planted a new one so am waiting 5 years to do some more. I also did a cranberry it was a good desert wine. So I think the apple backsweetened with the cranberry juice would be really good.
 
I have never made crab apple wine but I have 5 gal of apple cider wine that I made last October that I am looking forward to trying when the weather gets cold and the nights get long. I like to sit by the wood fire and sip a little. what else can a poor man do? I back sweetened my 5 gal with two cans of apple juice concentrate and added a quart of Apple Pie Moonshine to give it a little character.
 
I did about 100 pounds of crabapples last year. I blended a bunch of it with my apple wine I make from apple cider. I also did a crab apple cherdonnay that is very good. You can blend almost any high acid fruit with apple wine. I have used cranberry and raspberry which were both good.
 
I did about 100 pounds of crabapples last year. I blended a bunch of it with my apple wine I make from apple cider. I also did a crab apple cherdonnay that is very good. You can blend almost any high acid fruit with apple wine. I have used cranberry and raspberry which were both good.

Your doing and talking about the crabapple helped keep my interest in it. Gonna get it bottled and start a new batch. Think goin to the lake and fishin is gonna interfere with doing wine stuff this weekend, tho. Well, won't stop the drinkin, tho. LOL, Arne.
 
I have 4 gallons of crab apple and 5 gallons of regular apple. What's a blending ratio that anyone has had success with?
 
BILL :ft:ft:ft Do your bench trials. I showed you the basic equipment you need and a sugar chart to use. Thats the science of it. Now kick in the art of testing and trying. You can do it! If the acid is high don't be afraid of adding more sugar to balance it out.
 
Claude Jolicoeur's lovely book - The New Cider Maker's Handbook (2013) discusses the best balance of acidity and sugar for a good hard cider. He suggests a TA of between 4.5 to 7.5 (malic not tartaric) and apples with a sweetness of 1.060 - 1.070 being ideal for cider (Tartaric = 75N*K/L g/L , whereas malic = 47N*K/L g/L, where N = the normality of the NaOH , and K = the volume of the NaOH used to neutralize the acidity and L = volume of the cider used in the test, both in mL).
 
Dan, I am having paralysis by overanalysis.

Bernie, I used fresh Dolgo's and took the must to 1.070 and fermented to 0.990. It's quite tart as expected. I'd like to add in the apple or I have some Riesling (which may be too acidic). I have some Moscato to blend in, but I'll just have to try to bench test it tomorrow...
 
Hokaspig, have you tried backsweetening the crabapple on its own yet? Our crabapple was pretty acidic bit as it's ages it's mellowing out. However we did backsweetening trials a few days ago and it not only made it palatable but easy to drink and tasty on its own. Almost as if it were made from regular apples. It has a very nice round and robust apple flavour. Ours was just too dry and acidic not to backsweeten. So just waiting for the main batch to degas some more and it's still clearing and will backsweeten it prior to bottling. It's going to be good.
 
Dan, I am having paralysis by overanalysis.

Bernie, I used fresh Dolgo's and took the must to 1.070 and fermented to 0.990. It's quite tart as expected. I'd like to add in the apple or I have some Riesling (which may be too acidic). I have some Moscato to blend in, but I'll just have to try to bench test it tomorrow...

My usual qualification - I am NO expert but I think that the sugar content of the apples is very different from the sugar content of the must if you chaptalize (add sugar to increase the gravity). Apples which if when pressed produce a juice with gravity of about 1.060 produce a sweetness that has strong apple flavors and aromas. Apples that when pressed produce a juice with a density of about 1.045 to which you add sucrose or dextrose to increase the gravity don't necessarily contain the flavor or aroma molecules that make for a really good cider. That said, ONE possible way of increasing the sweetness without chaptilizing the juice is to freeze the apple juice (prior to any addition of yeast) and draw off the first thawed liquid. That liquid contains apple sugars and acids in far greater concentration and far less of the water from the apples than regularly pressed apples.
I have not tested this myself but I believe that crab apples (despite their tartness) contain far more sugar than eating apples.
 
Interesting... I just remembered that we froze this batch of crabapples because we had too much fruit to go through and dons want them to go bad. So we thawed and crushed the apples when ready then put them in strainer bags with pectic enzyme for a few days before adding some water and sugar and the yeast. This must have cut down on some of the acidity. We didn't test TA and PH on it but should have.
 
We like crisp cider, I cant imagine how bland .45% cider would taste. You always have the option of MLF. We are going to have a few Dolgos in our small orchard, definely going to love these things, 100% crabapple juice and then MLF, going to have so much apple flavor and hoping that would bring the acid levels down to crispy levels. WVMJ
 
Mine has some water in it - not 100% juice and it's in no way bland, this is bursting with flavour. But we didn't use that much water enough to cover our apples. But this isn't cider either. When we make our cider it's all juice and has many different types of apples we can use
 

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