adding tartness

Is there a way to add tartness to a cider? I just tasted a batch I bottled 10 days ago (I know it needs another 10 days at least to finish carbing) and I love how light it is. I like the flavor so far but I couldn't help but wish it finished a bit tarter.

Is there a way to add that for those of us who don't have access to an apple press (or room to make one)?

My wife suggested using her steam juicer this year on crab apples but I thought getting juice that hot might set the natural pectins and make it cloudy (which if the only side effect is aesthetics, I'm ok with it).

Anyway, Suggestions welcome.

Also, What I made is a "normal" cider.

5gal juice
2 cups dextrose
Montrachet


That's it.

add some acid to it when you are making it. A lot of people use acid blend, which is a blend of the three most common acids found in fruit: citric, malic and tartaric. However for cider I prefer malic acid alone because it is the acid in green apples.

Thanks!

agreed, try some malic acid, readily and cheaply available from wine making shops, or the juice from tart apples like granny smiths which unlike crabs you can get year round. crab apples will give you a nice hit of tannin, but may or may not be tart. it can be hard to tell when you taste them since the astringency of the tannins tends to overwhelm your whole tongue. and each variety is different so you never know until you try. they juice very well in a kitchen/centrifugal juicer but i don't know about a steamer.

dinnerstick said:

... or the juice from tart apples like granny smiths which unlike crabs you can get year round.

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Pretty sure you can get crabs year round too, if you aren't careful.

UpstateMike said:

Pretty sure you can get crabs year round too, if you aren't careful.

Click to expand...

Boom!

I love using tart cherries in my cider and cysers. My locak health food stor sell tart cherry juice concentrate wich works well.

Just juiced 3#'s of sour pie cherries using my wife's steam juicer. Took me about 30min from frozen. Almost no clean up. Was great. I got almost 2 full quarts of juice from them. No pulp, at all! It's beautifuly clear!

Will let you know how it turns out

Any suggestions as to how much malic acid to add per gallon? I'm also guessing that this would be in the bottling bucket.

depends on the desired tartness, how tart the apples were and how much back-sweetening you will be doing. Basic rule I follow is 1/2 to 1 tsp per gallon. I use less if the juice is some what tart and more if I am back-sweetening. I add it before I ferment but could easily be added in a bottling bucket after. The biggest advantage to adding it at the beginning is a higher acid must is less likely to get an infection.