Honeycrisp single variety cider?

[JonClayton]

I picked up 20 bushels of honeycrisp apples today. Has anyone tried a single varietal cider from honey Crisp? I plan to pasteurize and freeze at least half of the juice to blend with other varieties later in the season. I will do smaller batches of 100% HC using Belle Saison, T-58, and Safbrew Abbaye


If you have worked with honeycrisp, how did it turn out?

 

[MNFirefly]

I started a batch with honeycrisp, but still waiting for it to finish. It is so far doing very well.

 

[NicoleBrewer]

I'm not sure what variety apple I have but I made a cider with just that one and it came out very bland. I personally liked ciders I made with a blend of different varieties

 

[butterpants]

No but the apples are friken delicious.

 

[bernardsmith]

As eating apples , Honeycrisp are great, but for cider, I don't know that they have enough acidity or sugar or tannin. I think you want to use apples grown for cider rather than for eating, and I think you want to use a variety of apples.

 

[DrKnow]

I did one a few months ago. I used a lower attenuating English yeast and it turned out pretty well. I think it quit around 1.010 so there was a touch of sweetness but it was a very delicate flavor. If it had gone to dryness (like most ciders I've done before) I'm afraid it wouldn't have tasted like much of anything. You could always back sweeten but that kinda defeats the single varietal idea. Or sulfite and sorbate to arrest fermentation. You have the apples, you may as well give it a try.

 

[gilliganmc]

how did it turn out? I just bought 100% honeycrisp apple cider from trader joes...

 

[dmtaylor]

I find Honeycrisp apples to form a good solid base for a cider. Throw in some crabapples and McIntosh, and you're in pretty darn good shape. Cote des Blancs is the best yeast, Cote des Blancs. I'm playing with US-05 again, it makes a very good clean cider as well, and even more tart maybe but I'm not sure why.

Copyin' and pastin'.......

 

[bmd2k1]

Curious how folks using Honeycrisp only like their ciders?

Cheers [emoji111]

 

[MarkKF]

I don’t even like honey crisp juice or apples to eat.

 

[AzOr]

I don’t even like honey crisp juice or apples to eat.

Agreed. And they are so popular for eating, they are usually too expensive to make cider unless you have a cheap source.
I have been curious about Fuji and jonagold though.

 

[dmtaylor]

I have been curious about Fuji and jonagold though.

I'll bet both of those make an outstanding cider.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Last year I found a couple of gal of honey crisp juice. It made a great cider, but I added some juice from crabs, about 1 to 4 ratio if I remember correctly.