I forgot Malic Acid

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smjohnson316

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I am attempting to make my first hard apple cider from a recipe I found. The recipe I am using is Johnny Jump Up Cider. I forgot got to order malic acid like the recipe calls for. I did not realize this until I started adding stuff to my primary. Is this a big deal? Should I get some and add it after fermentation has started?
 
So I realize that malic acid is used to adjust the pH, but what flavor difference would it make to my cider? Can I just use taste to tell if I might need malic acid? Like I said earlier this is my first attempt at making a cider.
 
smjohnson316 said:
So I realize that malic acid is used to adjust the pH, but what flavor difference would it make to my cider? Can I just use taste to tell if I might need malic acid? Like I said earlier this is my first attempt at making a cider.
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Sometimes a cider or wine will taste "flabby", without the cider "bite". Adding acid makes it tastes sharper. It will probably be fine without additional malic acid, as apples are high in malic acid anyway and some people actually do MLF on the cider to reduce malic acid!
 
Thanks for your replies. My new plan is to taste it and then determine if I should add any malic acid. Thanks agian.
 
yep - taste it....

Cider from sweet, dessert apples can be really bland stuff - apple scented alcoholic water..... Blah!

Malic acid is the chief agent that produces the characteristic "Sour Apple" flavor.... and you frequently see it added to cheap chinese apple juice concentrate to make their golden colored sugar water taste like apple juice...

Thanks
 
I've used citric acid in several of my cider to produce a green apple like taste.
 

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