Best apple varieties for calvados and recipe

[GGBlackMamba]

Hello there guys, hope you are all having a great and productive time.

Recently I was wondering could I brew up with apples and I came up with the idea to brew me self some calvados. Now I did some digging around and found one recipe which goes a little something like this:
1. (This should be quite obvious) fully grown fruits:
- 10% bitter,
- 70% bitter-sweet,
- 20% sour.
2. Sugar: 2kg for each 10 liters of apple juice
(Optional - honey could be added depending on taste)
3. Leave in an oak barrel until the fermentation is complete or use tannin to get that wood taste.
4. This produces a cider that is later distilled.
5. Put it back again in a barrel to age depending on the taste again.

What do you guys think could the recipe get better and which are the best varieties for the calvados?

 

[TGFV]

For sugar, don't go by amount but by abv. For apple Brandy you don't want to have too high if a starting abv, 10max, unless you have a recipie with a very strong flavour.

I would ferment in normal fermenters, save the parking for the finished product. Extra variables can change the distillates taste until you have a few attempts with the recipie.

Otherwise it looks good to me!

Also, I would o ly do a single slow spirit run, no stripping, as alot of the flavour will be lost as it is in the middle to late tails and middle heads as well as the hearts. Tons of small containers for blending would be key here.

 

[odorf]

ewww Tasty.
i would like to try your recipe using crab apples,

 

[GGBlackMamba]

Thank you guys and you are absolutely right TGFV about the abv. But isn't 10abv. a bit too low for apple Brandy? Also what really bothers me is the selection the right varieties of apples. I am not very good with that. I am not sure which variety tastes like? Do you guys know any good websites where I can check this?

 

[TGFV]

10abv is for the wash not the finished product.

Since it is going to be distilled to between 50-80% depending on your still, the flavour will be concentrated by 5-8 times but fractured between the cuts, not including what remains in the boiler after your run.

For finished product it's best between 35-55 depend on the flavour profile you are going for and what additives etc you use.

Edit: As for apples I am the wrong person to ask, I generally use high quality juice and mashed crab apples and an assortment of grocery store apples/pears for my ciders to give the tannins and complexity.

 

[madscientist451]

If you are in France or the UK, you may be able to round up some apples for proper Calvados.
In the US, you may be able to find something close in the New England area, but any commercial growers will be selling all they have to established cider making companies.
So if you really want to make good Calvados you need to plant some trees and grow your own apples. Note that French apple varieties planted in a place like Ohio, USA (for example) will probably produce fruit with different characteristics compared to what grows in Normandy.
The best you can do is make the best cider you can with what is available, let it age, then run your distillation and barrel aging.
Your apple brandy won't be the same as French Calvados, but it might still be good and you might even like it better.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

which are the best varieties for the calvados?

Weird ones that you won't normally see outside Normandy. For instance, Dupont uses :

Bittersweet varieties:
• Bisquet
• Binet rouge
• Frequin
• Douce Moën
• Mettais
• Noël des champs

Sweet varieties:
• Rouge duret
• Douce Coetligné

Acid varieties:
• Petit jaune
• Rambault
• Cidor

Bitter varieties:
• Judor
• Avrolles

"The poor soils of the Pays d'Auge region, consisting of marl and chalky marl of the Oxfordian (secondary era) limit the growth of the trees and this leads to the production of small apples. The aromatic intensity is thereby increased and the ratio of skin to pulp helps to favour the extraction of tannins. Nitrogenous fertilisers (which swell the fruit by water retention) are not used - giving priority to quality rather than yield.
The harvesting extends from September to November, because some varieties mature earlier than others. Apples are only gathered when at full maturity, which necessitates at least three visits to each apple tree."