# What Apple Varieties To Blend For Cider ?



## brett mccluskey

Just curious whether anyone crushes their own apples for cider,and if so,what varieties do you use as a blend.(Pink Lady,Grannys,etc)?


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## Muggus

Grannys and Pink Lady's are both pretty decent for making cider, so long as they're fresh with good acidity and flavour.

I've heard of traditional cider (possibly British?) recipes calling for 1/3 each of sweet, tart and bitter apples, to get a proper balance and good flavour. As far as varieties go, i'm not so sure which fits into which, but bitter apples arn't the sort you'd get from the supermarket, possibly even refers to crab apples.


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## brett mccluskey

Muggus said:


> Grannys and Pink Lady's are both pretty decent for making cider, so long as they're fresh with good acidity and flavour.
> 
> I've heard of traditional cider (possibly British?) recipes calling for 1/3 each of sweet, tart and bitter apples, to get a proper balance and good flavour. As far as varieties go, i'm not so sure which fits into which, but bitter apples arn't the sort you'd get from the supermarket, possibly even refers to crab apples.


I know there's a couple of cideries in WA that make a 100% pink lady non-alcoholic cider,and know a few ppl around my area that have done the same,albeit alcoholic.I've just started work for a small company that currently makes sauces,soft drinks,apple juice,and cider vinegar.Their intention is to eventually make a commercial cider (hopefully soon :super: ). Crab apples i can get,though not in very large(commercial) quantities.They're used as a pollinator for PL's. Manchurian crab apples from memory.Granny's are a tart one and PL's are a good balance between tart and sweet,so it's going to be a bit of research(and personal taste testing :drinks: ) needed i think to get the right balance


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## KenJohnson

Im also looking to do a cider from apples, been having a look at the local markets today but i dont really know which types of apple are good. Can you blend pears with the apples as well?


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## Muggus

KenJohnson said:


> Can you blend pears with the apples as well?


Yeah, of course. Seems to all the rage these days with all these 'Pear Ciders' and Perrys appearing on the market.
It'd certain add some complexity, especially if they were quite flavoursome ripe pears.

As far as proper cider apples go, i'm not sure how you'd go buying them from the markets and what not. It seems most of traditional ciderys grow their own cider apples, which are very different from the commercial varieties.

Ahh...just found a bit of info on it on Wiki..


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## Airgead

My usual blend is 60% table apples (Pink Lady/Gravenstein/etc) and 40% Granny Smith. Makes a nice tart cider. If the crab apple tree fruits well I juice them up and add as well.

If you don;'t want quite as much acidity, drop the granny percentage down to maybe 20%.

Cheers
Dave


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## gap

Muggus said:


> Yeah, of course. Seems to all the rage these days with all these 'Pear Ciders' and Perrys appearing on the market.
> It'd certain add some complexity, especially if they were quite flavoursome ripe pears.
> 
> As far as proper cider apples go, i'm not sure how you'd go buying them from the markets and what not. It seems most of traditional ciderys grow their own cider apples, which are very different from the commercial varieties.
> 
> Ahh...just found a bit of info on it on Wiki..




Check out this thread from a few days ago.
I have ordered some from him.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=52609&hl=

regards
Graeme


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## KenJohnson

Airgead, 

so the regular eating apples turn out ok? Im gonna try this for sure! do you use any particular yeast/any other things added?


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## Airgead

KenJohnson said:


> Airgead,
> 
> so the regular eating apples turn out ok? Im gonna try this for sure! do you use any particular yeast/any other things added?



They work really well when blended with the grannies. I use the WY4766 cider yeast. I comes out quite dry with a fantastic flavour. I sometimes add in a little honey when I keg for a tiny touch of sweetness and just a hint of honey flavour.

I get my apples from the Bilpin pick your own place (Bilpin Springs Orchard). If you tell the guy you are looking for damaged or windfalls for cider he will give them to you real cheap.

Cheers
Dave


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## peas_and_corn

The apples for the club apple press tend to be a mix of Pink Lady, Royal Galas, and Red and Golden Delicious, with a few grannys thrown in as well. The balance seems to mainly be tilted towards a large % of galas.


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## brett mccluskey

KenJohnson said:


> Im also looking to do a cider from apples, been having a look at the local markets today but i dont really know which types of apple are good. Can you blend pears with the apples as well?


Nothing wrong with adding pear juice,a lot of the commercial ciders use a % ,usually about 10%,i think.As for it adding complexity,i don't think it'll do very much at all in that department. Straight pear juice has a neutral/very delicate flavour.I used to work at SPC,now owned by a certain Yank mob who make a certain "cola" drink.All the canned fruit ppl buy ,that's "in natural juice" is actually pear juice,not the juice of the fruit in the can.Because pear juice is so delicate in taste ,it actually takes up the flavour of the fruit in it .Granny's and Pink Lady seem the easiest to buy if you're making cider at home,if you've got access to other varieties,culinary or dessert,then thats great.Unfortunately there's bugger all if any 'real' cider apples available here,unless you know someone with a few old variety trees in their backyard.In the area i'm in ,the main apples i can get are Granny's,Pink ladies,red and golden del's,Jonothans,and Gala's. I'm hoping to talk the company into producing 'cubes' of pasteurised,blended juice,ready for fermentation by Hb's Would there be a market for such a product? :unsure:


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## peas_and_corn

toper1 said:


> Nothing wrong with adding pear juice,a lot of the commercial ciders use a % ,usually about 10%,i think.As for it adding complexity,i don't think it'll do very much at all in that department. Straight pear juice has a neutral/very delicate flavour.I used to work at SPC,now owned by a certain Yank mob who make a certain "cola" drink.All the canned fruit ppl buy ,that's "in natural juice" is actually pear juice,not the juice of the fruit in the can.Because pear juice is so delicate in taste ,it actually takes up the flavour of the fruit in it .Granny's and Pink Lady seem the easiest to buy if you're making cider at home,if you've got access to other varieties,culinary or dessert,then thats great.Unfortunately there's bugger all if any 'real' cider apples available here,unless you know someone with a few old variety trees in their backyard.In the area i'm in ,the main apples i can get are Granny's,Pink ladies,red and golden del's,Jonothans,and Gala's. I'm hoping to talk the company into producing 'cubes' of pasteurised,blended juice,ready for fermentation by Hb's Would there be a market for such a product? :unsure:



:icon_offtopic: Coca Cola Amatil is an Australian company.


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## brett mccluskey

peas_and_corn said:


> :icon_offtopic: Coca Cola Amatil is an Australian company.


Whatever Wiki says...They're a semi, American company, controlled by the Yanks ,ask any fruit grower in the Goulbourn Valley


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## Greg.L

You can make cider from any apples. The most important thing is the ripeness, apples for the markets are picked earlier so they will keep better, but the flavour won't be as good. If you have a tree let them ripen till quite a few have fallen. It's good if you want a more complex cider to add some crab apples for tannin. Acidity is important, this year has been cool in apple areas so the acidity is better than usual, but the brix(sugar) is a bit lower. Traditional british bittersweet varieties are high in tannin but will be hard to source in oz so dessert varieties are the usual thing (with a bit of crab).

Pear juice is fine but low acid so best blended with apples. I don't really think pears bring much to a blend, but if you have them they are fine to use. Perry pears are different but pretty rare in oz.

Greg


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## Airgead

toper1 said:


> Unfortunately there's bugger all if any 'real' cider apples available here,unless you know someone with a few old variety trees in their backyard.In the area



I have heard a rumour that out at Orange there are some people growing cider varieties...

If anyone is in the area and can confirm...

Cheers
Dave


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## DanRayner

Airgead said:


> I have heard a rumour that out at Orange there are some people growing cider varieties...
> 
> If anyone is in the area and can confirm...
> 
> Cheers
> Dave



Yup, his name is James Kendell and he and his wife Gail own Small Acres Cyder company. James is a lovely bloke and is producing, probably Australia's best cider and has his own orchard of different cider apples. He's got four(?) styles that are available at places like Plonk in Canberra and Platinum in Sydney plus a whole bunch of other good liquor stores (mostly in NSW & Canberra) and a few other seasonal releases including Perry. The styles he makes tend to be still cider in 750mL wine bottles and reflect the styles from cider producing regions in the UK and France. Two are fairly dry (Somerset Still and Norfolk Still), one is tart-sweet (an "Appscato" like a a Moscato but with apples) and one, Pomona ice-cider, is more like a sticky dessert wine.

He likes visitors and I'm sure he would be more than willing to offer help to homebrewers wishing to make their own and give advice on the different types of cider apples that are good for different flavours - plus, if there are wholesalers/retailers of cider apples that he knows of he might put you in contact with them.







Disclaimer: other than through Plonk, I am not in any way affiliated with him, I just like good people when I meet them


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## Greg.L

At Orange there is also the ag research station(institute), they have a lot of trees of different cider cultivars. Lester Snare is the person to see, you can probably buy fruit from them as well as scion wood for grafting. They also have some perry pears. David pickering has done some research there into cider varieties in Oz, you can see his info on the web, very useful.

I currently have a good crop on my sweet alford tree, about 250kg. Its not a bittersweet variety but is good cider fruit. If anyone wants to come to Bathurst they can get some juice (see my ad). I also have plenty of egremont russet, its reputed to be very good for cider though I have never used it before.

Greg


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## KenJohnson

also found this page, it has a little bit on choosing apples, but lots of other stuff too. http://www.wineworks.co.uk/content/cider-making-made-easy/


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