Crab Apples

[Madmac]

Hi,

can anyone confirm if this is a crab apple tree?





If it is it looks like I've found a plentiful supply for my Cider.

[BumbleB]

Yes it looks like crab apples to me - I have them dropping everywhere!

[littlemark]

They look a bit like John Downie from here. I've pressed some of these many years ago, and got a lovely pink juice that fermented out to be so tannic it was undrinkable! Might be worth adding to a blend though.

Mark

[Madmac]

The quantities I'm thinking of using are;

One measure of crab apples, (7.5kg)
two measures of cooking apples (15kg)
four measures of eating apples (30kg)

Hopefully should give me a nice blend and about 5 gallons of cider.

[littlemark]

That seems about right. People often recommend adding crab apples to dessert/culinary apples to add tannin to the cider, but it's always best to give the crabs a taste first. Some crab apples are not only high in tannin, but also viciously high in malic acid. If you make your cider from sharp cookers for example, adding crabs may improve the tannin level, but could also boost the acid to unnaceptable levels. The tannins in crab apples are frequently of the 'hard' variety, and may give a very astringent (mouth-drying) quality to the cider rather than the 'bittersweet' character you get from the better cider apples.

John Downie should be ok, but I would recommend pressing and fermenting the crab apples seperately if you can, then blending into the bulk of cider when fermentation is finished and you can judge what (if anything) the crabs are bringing to the blend.

Best of luck, Mark

[Madmac]

Thanks for the info, I'll do just that.

By the way, has anyone tried the John Bull Premium Cider kit?

[Madmac]

Talk about luck, I've stumbled across a cider apple orchard that the owner doesn't want any from this year, and said i could have as many apples as i like.
Going to trade him some blackberry wine.

[Nelly]

That astringent quality would be why my first batch of cider was like sucking lemons then... I've avoided adding crab apples since then and there has been a marked improvement!

[Madmac]

Went to see the apple trees the other day, they are Kingston Blacks and will be ready to pick in the next few weeks. Just enough time to build a press.

The Crab's are indeed John Downie.

I think I'm going to ferment each type of apple separately and then blend to taste before bottling, or should it be after bottling?