For those that would like a more "wine like" flavor, what would be the recommended amount of tannin or acid blend to use? Obviously this recipe is more of a "quick and dirty, but good tasting" recipe, but most of the specifically wine-making forums recommend acid blend/tanninf or apple wines (using real fruit). Since we're using mostly juice, the skins aren't contributing any tannins.
Ciders made with fresh fruit and cider made from bottled apple juice do have one major difference, besides being treated with pectin enzyme. Bottled apple juice usually has it's PH adjusted with ascorbic acid. AKA, vitamin C. The reason that's done is to lower the temperature the juice has to be pasteurized at to be deemed safe by the FDA. Pasteurize apple juice over about 160f and it loses a lot of flavor.
So, the acid content is probably closer to optimal then you might anticipate from the figures being used with fresh pressed juice with no other treatment. It is still less then perfect, but not nearly as far off as you might think.
I personally dislike tannin. It's really rare for me to use it in my brew. So, I can't really comment on using it in apfelwein.
I think it was Irongolem who reported good results "dry-hopping" his apfelwein with several Granny Smith's.
Lead, not Iron, but yes.
2 lb of apple solids per gallon of cider seems about right to me. Washed, quartered, cored, and dropped in a cold 1:10 solution of water and lemon juice. So they don't brown while you are processing the rest of the apples.
If you don't want to use lemon juice solution then you can lightly steam them instead, but that's more of a pain. Then add just the apples to the cider after it's hit FG. Leave them in for two to three weeks.
If you want a clear cider you will need to add pectin enzyme according to the instructions for fruit solids.
Freezing the apple first will get you a faster flavor extraction. The ice crystals that form when the fruit is frozen perforate the cell walls and allow for a faster liquid exchange. Doing that you can cut the time with the apple solids in the liquid to one week. The down side is the apples tend to disintegrate when you try to take them out. That makes it rather difficult to the clear the resulting cider.
Any tart apple is ok for this. The milder apples don't contribute very well to the flavor. They aren't bad, they just don't add anything. The sugar is going to ferment out, so you want to find something that's going to have a lot of flavor after it's sugar is totally gone.
Crab apples are actually the best for this, but the trees aren't usually taken care of. So, the fruit is in bad shape and it takes a lot of work to get much that's usable out of them. A close second would be early green apples. They are usually a lot larger and don't require as much work. Neither of those are sold as food. They are really only marginally edible, but they make for a great flavoring.
That's what I like for solid apple additions. Happy brewing.
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