Malolactic fermentation - yes or no?

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jpk

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Hello all,

I am trying my hand at some cider/apfelwein. I'm doing several small batches to see what I like: EdWort's, Graham's English, Brandon O's Graff, et al. that I have found on this forum.

My question is whether you want malolactic fermentation or not in these things. (Obviously its not gonna get a chance in the Graff, but I'm referring to the traditional ones). I am an ex-winemaker, so I know what to do with grapes. But that doesn't help me with apples. So maybe some of you cider pros could help me out?
 
I always do a mlf, I find it easier with cider than wine. Maybe one way to decide is to get some sour candy, taste you cider then taste the candy. Sour candy is made from malic acid so it would help you identify whether you want to keep that sour flavour or not. Unripe apples also taste strongly of malic acid.
There are other considerations like do you want to drink your cider soon, do you want to backsweeten, or carbonate. If you backsweeten the malic sourness may balance the sweetness, if you want to drink it sooner a mlf will help, if you carbonate the carbonic acid will only add to the sourness. If you don't want a malo you need to use camden tablets to stop it happening wild.
 
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