100% Dolgo Crab

DaGilb · 09-15-2007, 11:42 PM

Got 20 gallons of ripe Dolgo crabs and in the hope that this will help crushing them tomorrow morning froze (they are thawing right now). I am curious about making a batch with only these little ones. Will add pectinase and has decided to sulfite them.
1118 yeast it will as this is all I have. Wyeast cider coming only next week.
I will do other batches with a mixture of Lobo, MacIntosh, and Paula Red. Any comments about procedure will be appreciated. Will keep the list posted on results.
I can harvest those crabs by the 100 lbs, nice resource to spice up batches, or 100% batches?

Tx

Gilbert

**Adolphus79** · 09-16-2007, 05:48 AM

I don't know about a 100% crab, I think it might not have the complexity (read: flavor) that a good variety would. I think crabs are mostly used just to mellow out the mix if you are using a large amount of acid or subacid apples. I personally am using mostly Duchess, Honeycrisp, and Golden Russet, with a few pounds of truely wild apples and some wild crabs.

Check out http://www.pickyourown.org/apples.htm for a (short) guide to some of the different varieties, or just Google it...

mgayer · 09-17-2007, 02:46 AM

You might want to do some acid testing on these before pitching the yeast. The PH may be very low and give the yeast some issues. try to keep the PH between 3.5 and 4.0 with 3.7 giving a bit to play with when it drops during fermentation. I only wish my Crabs would have came on this year, I only have what looks like less than a pound and the sweet apples only about 10 or 15 total apples.

DaGilb · 09-17-2007, 09:00 PM

Thanks for the comments. I ended making 3 five gallon batches. Each had 1/3 Dolgo (sg: 1008!, pH 3.38) and 2/3 of a mixture of MacIntosh, Paula Red, and wild apples. Final sg 1,062, pH 3.41.
We did an experiment:

1-One batch with nothing
2-One batch with EC-1118 Champagne
3-One sulfited (2 campden/gal), then tonight EC-1118

My wife is an old "back to earth freak", and wants to do things without the "evil" sulfites. I argued for the insurance when using sulfites. We'll see.

By shaking Dolgos trees with a large net under the tree, we got 5 gallons for one or two trees. Folks have planted those as ornemental left and right and are quite willing to let us harvest them. Finally, freezing turned out not to be necessary for crushing them, although the heayy duty drill that I have attached to the shaft of the crusher did heat a little after a while, something that I never see with normal apples.
More experiments next weekend: Likely a more potent (Lobo and Mac as sweating) + Dolgo + sugar + raisins. Could get about 4 gallons of elderberry and I am wondering if mixing the extracted juice with apple juice would be an idea?

Cheers!

Gilbert

**Adolphus79** · 09-18-2007, 01:22 AM

Anything is an idea, we won't know if it's any good or not til you try it though. Really, you can mix almost anything with the apples, take a look back through the forums to see what all has been done...

Explain to SWMBO that sulphites are normally evil, but they're the good guys when it comes to brewing. They're keeping out the evil vinegar bugs (and worse), especially when dealing with fresh pressed apples.