Pixie Crunch apple cider?

[escher007]

Hey all,
I have a few pixie crunch apple trees, and wanted to make a couple gallons of hard cider from them. The apples are similar to honeycrisp in that they are really sweet and crunchy. I'm somewhat questioning that even though the cider and apples are delicious, that after fermentation it wont taste like much. I prefer a sweeter hard cider, and I'm not sure I'll get it from these. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for this type of apple?

 

[ncguire]

I don't know much about pixie crunch apples and how they would do in cider, but wouldn't hurt to try. Might end up liking it. But most really good ciders are a blend of apples. Not many are really great on their own, but there are a few. Do your apples have a lot of sugar? If so, might make a decent base for a blend with other apples. My first batch of cider was made mostly using apples from one of my trees which was so loaded with fruit I didn't know what to do with it. Not sure what variety it is but if I had to guess I would say gala. Wasn't sure how gala would turn out by itself so I went to the store and got some granny smiths to make a blend with a little more acidity. Not the best cider I've ever tasted, but I was pleasantly surprised how it came out. So you could always add a small percentage of tart apples or crab apples to try and make it more interesting.

But if you like a sweeter cider, the quality of apples won't be as apparent as it will be in a dry cider, depending how sweet you like it. There isn't really a type of apple that produces a sweeter cider, as apple juice will usually ferment to dryness every time without some sort of intervention, like pasteurization or chemical stabilization. To make a sweeter cider there are probably many threads out there already with the details, but your best bet is to ferment it dry and use artificial sweetener or non fermentable sugars. Or stabilize it somehow and back sweeten with the real stuff. Many like using frozen apple juice concentrate as it also adds apple flavor.