Malolactic cider? Quick response plz!

[Barley-and-Hops]

So I'm at a dire stage of an experimental cider batch I made. Started with 4 gallons treetop juice + 2 cans frozen concentrate. I like tart ciders so I decided to add acid and added 30g tartaric + 30g malic to bring the pH down to 3.3. It seemed fine with all the sugar at the beginning but towards the end of primary bam, it was sour as hell! I added 3 more cans of concentrate which kicked up the ferm and seemed to take a little edge off. I'm thinking of running it through malo but I need to decide that now because I'm already past the optimum inoculation time. I know malo is a white wine thing but could it be good or gross in cider? I have a ton of malic in there so it would make a lot of diacydel (butter) but could take most of the edge of (lactic=1/2malic acidity.) Anyone ever done this???

 

[ajdelange]

I'm not a cider guy but apparently malo-lactic fermentation takes place automatically in cider.

Also at pH 3.3 lactic acid's acidity is 8.6 mEq/gram and malics is 11.5 so no, more like 3/4 than 1/2 (at pH around 4 it is close to 1/2) but more to the point lactic's tartness is much less assertive than malics so you should still get appreciable softening but that pH is still pretty low.

 

[gregbathurst]

There isn't really an optimum inoculation time, you can do MLF at any time. You just need to keep the cider above 60F for a couple of weeks after pitching. You will get a bit of an off-taste while the cider goes through MLF but that quickly fades afterward.