Hey y'all. Looking for some advice on a pretty flat and lame cider. Was told I could use malic acid and wine tannin to help.. I used 3 gallons of pasteurized honeycrisp cider. I added 3lbs of dextrose and fermented all the sugar resulting in a high and dry cider at 11.2% abv. Its been bulk aging in my carboy for a month now and I also plan to back sweeten it with a half gallon of the original honey crisp cider. I heard I could use malic acid and wine tannin to round it out but whats a good starting point for the quantity of either one?
Malic acid and tannin amount
- Thread starter WadeNasty
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Acid and tannin are often helpful to improve flat cider.
What is the pH? (Or even better, the TA if you are equipped to measure that). If it is lacking acid, adding some malic acid would probably help.
Or do it by taste. Bench test by taking a small amount of cider and adding a small amount of carefully measured malic acid. Once you determine how much gives a flavor you like, you can scale that to figure how much to add to the batch. For measuring small amounts like that, I prefer an accurate digital scale. Go light on adding acid. Sometimes it will take a day or two for the acid to integrate fully with the cider.
To this point, most of my ciders have been made with grocery store apple juice. They are usually lacking in both acid and tannins. I age on oak chips in the secondary to add some character and tannin. If you add oak or powdered tannin, be prepared to bulk age it for a few months longer to allow the flavors to blend and mature.
What is the pH? (Or even better, the TA if you are equipped to measure that). If it is lacking acid, adding some malic acid would probably help.
Or do it by taste. Bench test by taking a small amount of cider and adding a small amount of carefully measured malic acid. Once you determine how much gives a flavor you like, you can scale that to figure how much to add to the batch. For measuring small amounts like that, I prefer an accurate digital scale. Go light on adding acid. Sometimes it will take a day or two for the acid to integrate fully with the cider.
To this point, most of my ciders have been made with grocery store apple juice. They are usually lacking in both acid and tannins. I age on oak chips in the secondary to add some character and tannin. If you add oak or powdered tannin, be prepared to bulk age it for a few months longer to allow the flavors to blend and mature.
I find that adding tannin and malic acid is pretty much a case of "suck it and see". However there are some guidelines that might help. I went down this path on tannins last year so if you use the search option at the top of the forum you will find my posts and the inputs from others (around Nov '21). The Cornell University study re adding tannins to dessert apple cider is worth reading.
Tannin powder is a bit tricky as a little bit goes a long way. You will find that some people use oak chips, cubes etc, as they can be removed when the taste is right. The Graham's English Cider recipe (see Freezblade 6 March 2009 or search the recipes tab) uses black teabags and limes to add tannin and acid. I have used this approach adding a teabag in half a cup of boiling water and the juice of 1/4 lime per gallon with some success.
As far as malic acid is concerned, the general recommendation is half to one teaspoon per gallon. If you can measure the pH and TA of your cider it will give you a bit of a starting guide. In any case take a sample and start adding the acid and you will soon notice an improvement.
Most cider (but not all) made with eating type apples will have a high pH in the order of 4.0 (i.e. be less acidic) and a somewhat low TA in the order of 6 g/L (or 0.6%). Adding acid should bring the pH down and increase the TA. The only thing that I could find about Honeycrisp is that the TA ranges from 0.3 - 0.7% ... not much help if you can't actually measure what you have (a TA test kit is needed for this). Nevertheless a target of 3.6-3.8 for the pH and 0.7% for the TA would be a good place to start.
I have number of red delicious trees in my small orchard and had found that a straight cider from these was quite bland. Adding malic acid at half a teaspoon per gallon does wonders and resulted in a pH of 3.8 and TA 0.7%. But really it is a matter of "taste, taste, taste".
Have fun!
Tannin powder is a bit tricky as a little bit goes a long way. You will find that some people use oak chips, cubes etc, as they can be removed when the taste is right. The Graham's English Cider recipe (see Freezblade 6 March 2009 or search the recipes tab) uses black teabags and limes to add tannin and acid. I have used this approach adding a teabag in half a cup of boiling water and the juice of 1/4 lime per gallon with some success.
As far as malic acid is concerned, the general recommendation is half to one teaspoon per gallon. If you can measure the pH and TA of your cider it will give you a bit of a starting guide. In any case take a sample and start adding the acid and you will soon notice an improvement.
Most cider (but not all) made with eating type apples will have a high pH in the order of 4.0 (i.e. be less acidic) and a somewhat low TA in the order of 6 g/L (or 0.6%). Adding acid should bring the pH down and increase the TA. The only thing that I could find about Honeycrisp is that the TA ranges from 0.3 - 0.7% ... not much help if you can't actually measure what you have (a TA test kit is needed for this). Nevertheless a target of 3.6-3.8 for the pH and 0.7% for the TA would be a good place to start.
I have number of red delicious trees in my small orchard and had found that a straight cider from these was quite bland. Adding malic acid at half a teaspoon per gallon does wonders and resulted in a pH of 3.8 and TA 0.7%. But really it is a matter of "taste, taste, taste".
Have fun!
