Apple selection

[KSch]

I have a cooking apple tree at my parents place. I just juiced two apples that I froze and thawed and the yield was 6 oz. Will cooking apples make good cider? I have plenty to chose from. Past years we hauled several wheelbarrow loads away. Thanks Kurt

 

[Chalkyt]

The short answer is "probably". Depending on the variety, they tend to be not as sweet as eating apples, i.e. they are often quite tart a bit like "proper" cider apples.

I have an old unknown apple tree that we use for cooking apples (we think it is some sort of pippin) and I use it as the base load for blends and get good results.

 

[Dgallo]

just go for it. That way you know the taste of the apples if you don’t know the variety. After your first cider with it you will know if you like them in solo ciders or if you’d want to add sweeter or tarter apples next time

 

[KSch]

Thanks for the responses, I think that I will spike it a bit with frozen concentrate, ferment, sorbate it, and sweeten with concentrate to taste. then force carb.

 

[madscientist451]

Will cooking apples make good cider? IThanks Kurt

Maybe, but probably not. It would be better to get some other apples of a different type to put with it. Look around your neighborhood for other yard trees, if you ask, people are usually glad to give them away. Small orchards usually sell "cull" apples pretty cheap, but you have to ask for them. Also, I didn't like the results when I used a juicer. It just introduced too much air into the juice and created a foam that wouldn't go away. I thought the juiced product tasted much different than my pressed version of the same apples. There are all kinds of cheapo ways to get juice out of your apples using a 2x4 or even a 4" tree limb to smash them and a bucket with holes drilled in it and a car jack as a simple press. Look on you tube for ideas on how to make a cheap DIY apple press.
If you put close up photos of your apples on here someone might be able to identify it.

 

[wasully]

Thanks for the responses, I think that I will spike it a bit with frozen concentrate, ferment, sorbate it, and sweeten with concentrate to taste. then force carb.

If you're doing that, it'll probably overwhelm any character of the base fruit. Could be a good thing, could be a bad thing. So why worry about the variety in the back yard?