juicing crab apples and adding them to FAJC

[twd000]

I picked about 10 gallons of crab apples from a neighbor's yard yesterday.

Any tips on how to process them, and use them in a cider?

Should I pickup a second-hand Breville juicer, or go for a steam juicer?

How much volume to expect from 10 gallons of fruit (1.5" diameter)?

I have been using FAJC and adding acid and tannin. Hoping to replace the acid and tannin with crab apple juice. What percentage of the batch should be crab apples?

 

[SirHC_]

first question is how do they taste fresh? They will typically make a VERY tart cider.
I have a tree with tiny 3/4" crabapples I've used in an apple ale. made graff before I knew what graff was...
I quartered, seeded and froze mine. the seeds can impart alot of bittereness, might be just the thing to replace the tannin.
Also crabapples are very high in pectin, FYI.

Good luck

 

[ten80]

If you can eat more than a couple without puckering your face or smashing your tastebuds with tannin bitterness, than there's a chance you can use the juice from these without additions. Otherwise, you may have to make a graff or cyser to give some residual sweetness to balance the acid and tannins.

Don't steam juice them, that will set the pectins and you'll get jelly-esque juice. Plus heated apple juice will taste "cooked."

A Breville or Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer type juicer will work but will be slow as you'll have to empty out the fiber tray/container often. You don't have that much to juice so it's not a crazy idea. You can pick up a good juicer on Craigslist for $30-60 ish.

Otherwise, see if a local homebrew shop rents apple presses and you'll be done in 30 minutes.

I get about 1.5 gallons of juice from 5 gallons of ripe, soft apples. So I'd hazard a guess that you might get 2-3 gallons out of your batch.

 

[twd000]

first question is how do they taste fresh? They will typically make a VERY tart cider.
I have a tree with tiny 3/4" crabapples I've used in an apple ale. made graff before I knew what graff was...
I quartered, seeded and froze mine. the seeds can impart alot of bittereness, might be just the thing to replace the tannin.
Also crabapples are very high in pectin, FYI.

Good luck

They taste pretty tart and tannic. But the tannin doesn't linger on your tongue for days afterwards. I suppose I could eat a whole one if you dared me.

Yes I'm planning on rinsing them, then freezing to burst the cell walls. Was hoping not to de-seed by hand, as that will take a long time. Did you squeeze them for juice, or toss the crushed pulp in as-is?

I'm aware of the crab's reputation for high pectin from reading jelly recipes. How does the pectin affect brewing hard cider?

 

[twd000]

If you can eat more than a couple without puckering your face or smashing your tastebuds with tannin bitterness, than there's a chance you can use the juice from these without additions. Otherwise, you may have to make a graff or cyser to give some residual sweetness to balance the acid and tannins.

Don't steam juice them, that will set the pectins and you'll get jelly-esque juice. Plus heated apple juice will taste "cooked."

A Breville or Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer type juicer will work but will be slow as you'll have to empty out the fiber tray/container often. You don't have that much to juice so it's not a crazy idea. You can pick up a good juicer on Craigslist for $30-60 ish.

Otherwise, see if a local homebrew shop rents apple presses and you'll be done in 30 minutes.

I get about 1.5 gallons of juice from 5 gallons of ripe, soft apples. So I'd hazard a guess that you might get 2-3 gallons out of your batch.

I'd be thrilled to get 2-3 gallons of juice. I'll pick up a used centrifugal juicer. My 7-year-old son has been asking for odd jobs to earn some cash, I can set up a juicing station for him with a compost bucket for the pulp.

Once I juice them, I can test for OG and acid, but I don't know of a measurable test for tannins. Wouldn't that help me decide what % of crab apple juice to use in my cider batch?

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

I've used a juicer attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. The last time I did it, I spent 4 hours getting almost 2 gallons of juice. I just needed to quarter them, not deseed them.

As for the juice itself, I'm no expert, but "they" say that a blend of sweet, bitter, and sharp juices is a good thing. I would probably start out with 50%, 25%, and 25%, but your mileage will very.

Depending on how much juice you get, I would make a couple of batches and vary the percentages. Experimenting is fun!

Good luck!
-Joe

Ps., If you juice your apples, you'll see why I'm saving every penny I can find to buy a cider press for next year.

 

[mwilcox]

I'd be thrilled to get 2-3 gallons of juice. I'll pick up a used centrifugal juicer. My 7-year-old son has been asking for odd jobs to earn some cash, I can set up a juicing station for him with a compost bucket for the pulp.

Once I juice them, I can test for OG and acid, but I don't know of a measurable test for tannins. Wouldn't that help me decide what % of crab apple juice to use in my cider batch?

There is no easy test for hobbyists to measure tannin, unfortunately. Nobody's going to do a Folin-Ciocalteu Colorimetric reaction on a few cups of crab juice. If I were you I'd just plan on using a small % of the juice. I like 10%, and with some only moderately tannic varieties have gone to nearly 25%.

 

[ten80]

Agreed, I shoot for 10-15% of highly tannic apples in my blends. I've made pure crabapple cider before that was completely undrinkable due to the acidity and astringency of the tannins. Face-puckering!

 

[Wovensummers]

. If you juice your apples, you'll see why I'm saving every penny I can find to buy a cider press for next year.

I used the grater attachment on my KA to grind and built my own press. Took about 4 hours from start to finish for 75# of apples.

 

[madscientist451]

I'd be thrilled to get 2-3 gallons of juice. I'll pick up a used centrifugal juicer. My 7-year-old son has been asking for odd jobs to earn some cash, I can set up a juicing station for him with a compost bucket for the pulp.

Once I juice them, I can test for OG and acid, but I don't know of a measurable test for tannins. Wouldn't that help me decide what % of crab apple juice to use in my cider batch?

When using standard apples that I let sweat for a few weeks or a month I get about 2.5 gallons from a bushel, that's about 40-50 lbs of apples.
You might get a couple of gallons, depends how juicy the crabapples are.
I'd go for a 50-50 mix of crabapple juice/whatever other juice you can get. If it comes out to tannic, you can make another batch with plain juice and do some blending when everything is finished.
Since you are putting so much time and work into the crab apples, I'd try to find a better juice to use with it. Frozen apple juice concentrate is pretty blah. For $3 or so you can get "Simply Apple" in the cold juice section of your local grocery store, it makes a pretty decent cider by itself. Any orchards up in the mountains that have fresh cider?

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I have frozen cut up crabs and just added them to FAJC as is. The taste bump was noticeable and worth the little effort. I plant to harvest a bunch of crabs this fall and do this again in a month or so.

 

[Scrumpy!]

Don't blend the juice from these apples into your main batch of cider until you have fermented them. Then try various blending proportions until you arrive at something that you like. Tannins can overwhelm your cider. Moreover, these are very likely highly acidic. Typically, crab apples and seedling apples go over 20 or even 30 g/liter total acid while domestic apples are closer to 5 g/l. Anything over 7 or 8 g/l in a finished cider will be very sour even if you can preserve some sweetness.