Good evening, I am new to making cider. I was wondering if anybody has made a dry hard cider with granny smith apples. These seem to be available year round and I like the slight tart flavor they have if anyone has a recipe that would be appreciated as well.
Granny smith apples for cider
- Thread starter jcrenfroe
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I'll let you know in a month or so.
I have just put down a small trial batch after finding one of our Granny Smith trees with a few apples left on it, now that all the leaves have fallen off. It is a mix of two Granny Smiths to one Pomme de Neige using EC1118 yeast. I am hoping for a fairly light "summer" cider but don't really know what I will get.
The apples were juiced on 18 May and let sit for a couple of days with 1/2 campden tablet then pectolase because the juice was fairly "pulpy". Before fermentation the juice tasted quite good, slightly tart with some sweetness.
I am also trialing a couple of other mixed batches using the last of the other apples from our small orchard (the mixed juice is Pippins, Pomme de Neige, Crab Apples and a few Red Delicious to make up 2 litres per batch). One batch has Nottingham yeast and the other EC1118, just to see what difference the yeasts make. So it was a toss-up as to which yeast to use with the Granny Smiths.
I started primary fermentation of the Granny Smiths on 21 May at SG 1.060 with a starter of 50:50 water and juice and 1/2 tsp each of EC1118 and nutrient. I would welcome any comments from others about this approach.
Fermentation was slow to start as I had it in our outside coolroom which was only 8 degrees C (46 F) so it was moved to an inside cupboard at 12-15 C (54-60 F) where it was happily bubbling away by 23 May. So, after another week or so (when it gets down to 1.000) I will rack it off the lees into secondary for a month or so, then bottle it with sugar up to around 1.003 for carbonation and maybe a bit of Xylitol if the flavour is too tart.
Like I said, this is an amateur "experiment" but I will update the post after bottling.
Just for fun, I have attached some photos of the bedraggled apple trees that have lost their leaves but still have a few apples. You can just see a few Granny Smiths on the tree in the background of Pic 3.
Cheers!
I have just put down a small trial batch after finding one of our Granny Smith trees with a few apples left on it, now that all the leaves have fallen off. It is a mix of two Granny Smiths to one Pomme de Neige using EC1118 yeast. I am hoping for a fairly light "summer" cider but don't really know what I will get.
The apples were juiced on 18 May and let sit for a couple of days with 1/2 campden tablet then pectolase because the juice was fairly "pulpy". Before fermentation the juice tasted quite good, slightly tart with some sweetness.
I am also trialing a couple of other mixed batches using the last of the other apples from our small orchard (the mixed juice is Pippins, Pomme de Neige, Crab Apples and a few Red Delicious to make up 2 litres per batch). One batch has Nottingham yeast and the other EC1118, just to see what difference the yeasts make. So it was a toss-up as to which yeast to use with the Granny Smiths.
I started primary fermentation of the Granny Smiths on 21 May at SG 1.060 with a starter of 50:50 water and juice and 1/2 tsp each of EC1118 and nutrient. I would welcome any comments from others about this approach.
Fermentation was slow to start as I had it in our outside coolroom which was only 8 degrees C (46 F) so it was moved to an inside cupboard at 12-15 C (54-60 F) where it was happily bubbling away by 23 May. So, after another week or so (when it gets down to 1.000) I will rack it off the lees into secondary for a month or so, then bottle it with sugar up to around 1.003 for carbonation and maybe a bit of Xylitol if the flavour is too tart.
Like I said, this is an amateur "experiment" but I will update the post after bottling.
Just for fun, I have attached some photos of the bedraggled apple trees that have lost their leaves but still have a few apples. You can just see a few Granny Smiths on the tree in the background of Pic 3.
Cheers!
VasDeferensly
Active Member
Bushwhacker has a fully dry 100% Granny Smith cider on tap most of the time. The flavor is nice, but it's too tart for me. It sells really well.
