Crab apple comedy experiment

For any alcoholic brew that doesn't fit into any of the above categories!
Post Reply
boingy

Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by boingy » Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:44 pm

So, free ingredients presented themselves. As an experiment we picked half a carrier bag of crab apples.

As we all know apples = cider.

I don't particularly like cider but the only other options were crab apple jelly and crab apple wine.
So, courtesy of the posh juicer attachment on my equally posh Magimix I ended up with about a pint and a half of crab apple juice. It smelled amazing but a quick taste revealed what I though was possibly the most sour taste know to mankind. Despite this, a hydrometer showed a respectable OG of 1040. So, into a pop bottle it went along with some generic wine yeast. Two weeks later and the gravity is 1005, it's beautifully clear and it smells like cider.

I took a sip. Mouth puckering comes nowhere near describing the experience. When I had recovered I put a few tablespoons in the bottom of wine glass, added about a quarter of a teaspoon of table sugar and swilled it until it dissolved. Still pretty sour but just bearable. At this point I gave it to my lovely other half, with a warning to only take a small sip. I'm worried that I may have damaged her looks forever. The pucker was so extreme that I think her lips may have swapped sides. She says she will tell me what it tastes like when the saliva returns to her mouth.

So, crab apples then. Just say no. :shock:

Dr. Dextrin

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by Dr. Dextrin » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:30 pm

Should have gone with the crab apple jelly. I've just made a batch and it's lovely. :D

It's green tomato chutney time next week. They don't make good cider either!

boingy

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by boingy » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:05 am

However, green tomato wine is an option:

http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.ph ... mato-wine/

Dr. Dextrin

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by Dr. Dextrin » Sun Oct 07, 2012 11:58 am

Nooooooooo! I will not be tempted into a green tomato comedy experiment. :-&

fatbloke

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by fatbloke » Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:51 pm

Ah, but a bit of research would have led you to adding the crab apple juice to 3 or 4 litres of supermarket apple juice (one with no preservatives), mixed together, then use a pound or two of honey stirred in well. Hit that lot with some Lalvin 71B and you'd end up with a nice apple wine, without having to pry your lips apart with a nail bar !

Just because it's dogs arse puckeringly sharp, doesn't mean it's low in sugars, just that the small type, so called "crab apples" (there's not many "true" crab apples, most of them are just ones that haven't been tended to properly and have reverted to type).

You'd probably get something closer to proper west country cider taste by adding it to a Kentish type mix of sweet and sharp apples (eaters and cookers), which normally yields a more "wine like" taste to the cider (whereas "proper" west country cider is usually made from bitter sharp apples, with some bitter sweet (hardest to grow/farm, apparently) type apples).

Dr. Dextrin

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by Dr. Dextrin » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:06 pm

Doesn't malolactic fermentation come into it somewhere, when your juice is a touch acidic?

Don't know if it would handle crab apples, though.

User avatar
Laripu
So far gone I'm on the way back again!
Posts: 7158
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:24 am
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by Laripu » Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:59 pm

from what I've read crab apples can be used as a small percentage of the whole batch.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Evan Williams bourbon, Dewar's Scotch (white label), VO Canadian whisky. Various Sam Adams beers.

boingy

Re: Crab apple comedy experiment

Post by boingy » Mon Oct 08, 2012 7:25 am

Laripu wrote:from what I've read crab apples can be used as a small percentage of the whole batch.
Yeah, I've read that too. But I didn't have any other apples and the crab apples were free. TBH if the hydro had not shown such a decent gravity I'd probably have just tipped the juice. I will bottle it and keep it forever...

Post Reply