Crab Apple Cider

[Airgead]

Folks

I have a large crab apple tree.



For the last few months it has been covered witr hundreds of lovely looking crab apples -



My intention was to make a crab apple cider. Not 100% crab apple, I think that would be too tart. I was thinking maybe 10-20% with granny smith to make up the bulk. The first job though was to juice the crab apples. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the federal government, I now own a rather nice cold press juicing machine. Today I decided that the time was right and I'd give the machine a try.

First job - pick the apples. 20 minutes later I had a 10l bucket of crab apples and a tree that still had 2/3 of the apples on it. I figured that 10l of fruit was enough to give the machine a try so I've left the rest of the apples on the tree for now. Here's what 10l of crab apples looks like -



And off to the juicer. The machine performed beautifully. It grinds them up cores, stems and all and extracts a huge amount of juice. Here's the juice straight out of the juicer -



Pretty cloudy but after letting it sit for a few minutes -



Lovely. Checked with the hydrometer and its a shade under 1050. I wasn't expecting a juge amount of juice. Crab apples aren't exactly known for their juiciness. I was expecting maybe 1-2l but after the pulp had settled, I had 3l of juice and another 2l of pulpy stuff. I treated the pulp with pectinainse and it looks to be dropping out a good bit more clear juice. I'll let it sit overnight but by the end I will probably have 4-4 1/2l.



Its beautiful stuff. Tart, tannic. I'm thinking 4-5l in with 20l of granny smith juice and I'll have a great cider. I'll store it in the freezer until I have everything I need.

Next step - get 20l of granny smith juice. Stay tuned...

Cheers
Dave

 

[randyrob]

Hey Mate,

nice work!

I've been experimenting with cider as well and having quite a bit of success. From my reading Crab apples are used to to add that tannin
bite that regular 'cooker' and 'table' apples lack. I'm not to sure if i would go all granny smith for the rest tho, i know they are cheap but
it might be better adding a mix of 'table' apples as well like red delicious, gala etc.

I have heard that LC's Pipsquek Cider only uses up to 30% Granny Smith apples, now i know your not trying to clone pipsquek but they could
do this for a reason.

What yeast are you going to go with and are you going to add a campden tablet to kill off any wild yeast?

looking foward to see how you go

Rob.

 

[pdilley]

Will be anticipating the results. Got a crab apple and a couple
Grannies that were not sprayed when I moved in. May have to ensure they get on a spraying schedule for the next season. Have a red apple but it was the lowest fruit set followed by the crab. The grannies just go gang busters though.

Did you core the apples or grind them up seeds and all?

Been looking at fruit presses but they are in the same ballpark as a juicing machine. Your looks to be a cork screw type extractor, slow but gets all the juice

 

[Bizier]

I am jealous, great work.

 

[Airgead]

Folks

4.5l of crab apple juice is in the fridge. Not bad for 1 bucket of fruit.

Pete - Yep my juicer is one of the screw type. Its an Oscar 900 and it does a great job. The pulp it spits out is nearly bone dry. I just chucked the fruit in whole (which is why I got so much pulp through). I couldn't be stuffed coring a bucket full of crab apples. I'll probably core and slice the regular apples when they go through.

Rob - To me a granny smith is a table apple. i like them tart but you're right with the crabs it may be too much in a cider. I might go 20% crab 40% granny and 40% something else. The 4l of crab juice I have is conveniently 20% of a 25l batch so that's cool. I'll use wyeast 4766 as I have that in the yeast bank already and it does a good job. I wasn't planing on killing the wild yeast. My wife is allergic to sulphur in wines etc so that rules out campden tabs. I'll bung in a big pitch of 4766 and let it go. That should overwhelm the wild stuff and if I do get some wild yeast flavours so be it. Apparently a lot of traditionally brewed cider is done with the wild skin yeast so that should be OK.

Cheers
Dave

 

[sinkas]

dont crab apples have some toxic component?

 

[Sammus]

supposing you did use campden to kill of wild yeast, how do you get rid of the sulpher so it doesn't kill whatever yeast you end up pitching?

 

[Airgead]

dont crab apples have some toxic component?

Having just quaffed a big glass of juice I certainly hope not!

Nahhh they are eatable. They are very tart and astringent so you probably wouldn't want to (unless you're a loon like me who eats them off the tree).

Besides grannies have been making crab apple jelly out of them for generations.

Cheers
Dave

P.S - Sammus - the suplhur dissipates over a few days so the idea with the campden tabs is to add, leave for a few days then pitch. Unfortunately my missus is allergic to the trace amounts left behind.

 

[pdilley]

mmm *passes* Dave a healthy large glass of Syrup of Ipecac in case he doesn't want to use the two fingers down the throat method.


For Malus sylvestris domestica, see Apple. The fruit of the other species is not an important crop in most areas, being extremely sour and (in some species) woody, and is rarely eaten raw for this reason. However, crabapples are an excellent source of pectin, and their juice can be made into a ruby-coloured jelly with a full, spicy flavour[2]. A small percentage of crab apples in cider makes a more interesting flavour. As Old English Wergulu, the crab apple is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century.

OT:

Did you ever do pasta or mince meat and make sausages with that Oscar?
I've been meaning to get a new mixer too, but the new Mix Masters are said to be rubbish compared to the old ones and kitchen aids cost more than most peoples complete brewing setups

 

[Airgead]

mmm *passes* Dave a healthy large glass of Syrup of Ipecac in case he doesn't want to use the two fingers down the throat method.


For Malus sylvestris domestica, see Apple. The fruit of the other species is not an important crop in most areas, being extremely sour and (in some species) woody, and is rarely eaten raw for this reason. However, crabapples are an excellent source of pectin, and their juice can be made into a ruby-coloured jelly with a full, spicy flavour[2]. A small percentage of crab apples in cider makes a more interesting flavour. As Old English Wergulu, the crab apple is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century.

OT:

Did you ever do pasta or mince meat and make sausages with that Oscar?
I've been meaning to get a new mixer too, but the new Mix Masters are said to be rubbish compared to the old ones and kitchen aids cost more than most peoples complete brewing setups

I'm still fine...

No I haven't' done anything but the crabs through the oscar. I only picked it up last week so give me time ;-)

Having just bought a new mixer (last year) I can tell you that Sunbeam mixmasters are crap. They would have disintegrated in a few weeks with some of my sourdough mixes. OK for somple cakes and stuff but nothing more. Kitchenaid are OK but overprcied (very trendy you see). They can be hard to operate as you have to lift the head manually to raise and lower the beater and that's where the motor is so its heavy. my wife struggled. The lower model kenwoods are plastic and flimsy. We ended up going for a mid range Kenwood chef. One of the stainless ones. Handles a big sourdough no problem, easier to use than the kitchenaid and cheaper.

Cheers
Dave

 

[pdilley]

I'm still fine...

No I haven't' done anything but the crabs through the oscar. I only picked it up last week so give me time ;-)

Having just bought a new mixer (last year) I can tell you that Sunbeam mixmasters are crap. They would have disintegrated in a few weeks with some of my sourdough mixes. OK for somple cakes and stuff but nothing more. Kitchenaid are OK but overprcied (very trendy you see). They can be hard to operate as you have to lift the head manually to raise and lower the beater and that's where the motor is so its heavy. my wife struggled. The lower model kenwoods are plastic and flimsy. We ended up going for a mid range Kenwood chef. One of the stainless ones. Handles a big sourdough no problem, easier to use than the kitchenaid and cheaper.

Cheers
Dave

OT:
Kitchenaid is bog standard overseas, not trendy at all. There you pay $199 for the same model they charge $799 over here for! - Probably the biggest reason I can not stomach coughing up so much money for something so bog standard -- add that that overseas you also have the Kitchenaid Pro with a massive big wattage motor is not even sold over here, but there was close to $399. Over here I grew up with Mix Master, but alas everyone says the new one is rather poor, especially at kneading bread dough. Kenwood Chef I looked at, but it was still in the $720 range the model I was looking at. Most of the $400 range models aren't crash hot. All of these would probably butcher a sponge if you didn't keep up on them to make sure things are not whipped into rubber.

 

[Airgead]

OT:
Kitchenaid is bog standard overseas, not trendy at all. There you pay $199 for the same model they charge $799 over here for! - Probably the biggest reason I can not stomach coughing up so much money for something so bog standard -- add that that overseas you also have the Kitchenaid Pro with a massive big wattage motor is not even sold over here, but there was close to $399. Over here I grew up with Mix Master, but alas everyone says the new one is rather poor, especially at kneading bread dough. Kenwood Chef I looked at, but it was still in the $720 range the model I was looking at. Most of the $400 range models aren't crash hot. All of these would probably butcher a sponge if you didn't keep up on them to make sure things are not whipped into rubber.

So far the Kenwood (and I think the one we have is in the one you were looking at) has done pretty well with everything we have thrown at it. No sponges so far but bread, slices, biscuits and cakes do fine.

Cheers
Dave

 

[troopa]

I coughed up the money for a kitchen aid for the wife last year
It hurt looking at the US price compared to the Aussie dollar but in the end it was worth it

The pain in the arse thing is that even the accessories are a pain to get over here in aus
Like the steel mincer.. Ive looked a fair bit up till recently and they only sell the plastic one over here
But after looking at teh osacr i think ill get the juicer for it soon too

Tom

 

[rockyddinosaur]

G'day,

I undertook my annual cider pressing about three weeks ago. My apple bill consisted of:

3.5kg of crab apples
10kg of Granny Smith
36kg of Jonathan

This gave me 22l of juice. This year was the first time I have added crabs and the results were fantastic. Nice, tart and plenty of tannins. I used an aromatic white wine yeast from LHBS and a few tea spoons of yeast nutrient. I ferment in a glass demijohn and I bottle into champaigne bottles under crown seal.

I also have a kenwood chef mixer and a few attachments (mincer, sausage filler) which has never let me down. Ours is used nearly every day for mixing dough, batter, whipping cream, mincing meat, mashing potato, and will even kneed tough dough like for fresh egg pasta.

 

[Airgead]

G'day,

I undertook my annual cider pressing about three weeks ago. My apple bill consisted of:

3.5kg of crab apples
10kg of Granny Smith
36kg of Jonathan

This gave me 22l of juice. This year was the first time I have added crabs and the results were fantastic. Nice, tart and plenty of tannins. I used an aromatic white wine yeast from LHBS and a few tea spoons of yeast nutrient. I ferment in a glass demijohn and I bottle into champaign bottles under crown seal.

I also have a kenwood chef mixer and a few attachments (mincer, sausage filler) which has never let me down. Ours is used nearly every day for mixing dough, batter, whipping cream, mincing meat, mashing potato, and will even kneed tough dough like for fresh egg pasta.

Cool. I've cheated a bit this year. I bought 12l of commercial organic juice rather than have to run 30kg or apples through the juicer. With the 4l of crab apple juice I have that will give me 16l so I'll get maybe 8-10kg of grannies and juice them up to make it up to the 22.

How do you juice yours? Or do you have a proper press?

Cheers
Dave

 

[Schooie]

Hiyez,

I've go this year's cider batch in primary so I'm finding this an interesting thread.

I used 2l of crab apple juice from our 3 year old tree and the rest wildings from the paddock next door - nice acidic little (free!) apples. I have had really good results using Pink Ladies in the past - the best was with wild yeast but it doesn't always work (I've been told 1 in 10 works - not great odds...). Using Wyeast 4766 this year for the first time.

Just out of interest, a commercial cider maker told me using crabs was a great idea but to limit them to no more than 10%. I think the tannins might be a bit much otherwise.

I'm fermenting pretty warm, 20C as recommended, but will chill it down once the primary's done. Anyone have any hints on fermentation for best results, cold conditioning etc. Smells fantastic! I'll keep you posted.

 

[Airgead]

My cider has been waiting for some fermenter space to free up. I'll put it on this weekend. At the moment the recipe is 5l crabs, 10l commercial apple juice (good organic stuff) and 10l home crushed granny smith juice. I'll ferment with the 4766

I'll keep everyone posted.

Cheers
Dave

 

[bconnery]

At the moment the recipe is 5l crabs,

DOes this make it the cider equivalent of an oyster stout?

 

[Airgead]

DOes this make it the cider equivalent of an oyster stout?

Boom tish. :lol:

 

[rockyddinosaur]

Cool. I've cheated a bit this year. I bought 12l of commercial organic juice rather than have to run 30kg or apples through the juicer. With the 4l of crab apple juice I have that will give me 16l so I'll get maybe 8-10kg of grannies and juice them up to make it up to the 22.

How do you juice yours? Or do you have a proper press?

Cheers
Dave

Pre bought juice does save you a bit of work! Most apple juice made for drinking is made from low tannin apples so your addition of the crab apples sould balance your cider our nicely, plus the Grannys will add quite a bit of acid as well.

I don't have a press, I just use a bench top juicer. Mine is the 1200w "Breville Commercial" which was a little more expensive than the standard one but can whip through 50kg of apples without a blinking. It came supplied with a little jug to catch the juice and seperate the foam but when I am doing a batch for cider I slip a piece of hose over the outlet nozzle and run it straight down to the bottom of the fermenter. The nozzle is quite wide, and the foamy liquid dosn't flow well so I have used a large piece of reinforced dishwasher tubing.

The Breville can handle whole apples at a time and I usually fill two fermenters, let them settle and draw off the liquid underneath the foam when most of it has settled.

I try to ferment at around 12-16 degrees and use white wine yeast - but this us mainly because I prefer my cider to be more like a sparkling wine (dry, crisp and tart).