Acid and tannin

[Ron Bell]

When I first planted my orchard, I wasn't thinking about cider - so unfortunately, I have no genuine cider apples - just about twenty different varieties of eaters plus a very old large Bramley tree which still produces hundreds of apples every year. I have a large surplus of apples this year and am wanting to build on my successful but small scale cider brewing last year. I have two questions:-
1. Acid. The books say that Bramleys are not really ripe till about November, whereas I will be wanting to start my first cider batch fermenting earlier than that, in October. Would I do better to use under-ripe Bramleys - or experiment with an "eaters only" batch?
2. Tannin. Last year, I tried adding Medlars to get some tannin - but I only managed to extract a small amount of juice and I couldn't tell the difference between a batch of cider with medlars and one without. So I've given up on Medlars this year - but I have located a good source of crab apples. And then, of course, there is the "tea" option or, I believe, you can buy tannin from home brew shops. How much difference does tannin make - and is it definitely an improvement? Are crab apples better than tea or a purchased product?
Any thoughts on these issues will be very welcome. Thank you.

 

[Moonraker]

Hi Ron, I have 2 mature Bramleys and am selectively picking the biggest and ripest ones at the moment and leaving the smaller ones for later. I got 2 gallons of apple juice from 14kg of crab apples mixed with normal apple juice which is currently fermenting. Too much of a newbie myself to have an opinion about tannin, but am throwing in a cup of strong tea as this seems to be what everybody else does.... :^)

 

[Ron Bell]

Hi Ron, I have 2 mature Bramleys and am selectively picking the biggest and ripest ones at the moment and leaving the smaller ones for later. I got 2 gallons of apple juice from 14kg of crab apples mixed with normal apple juice which is currently fermenting. Too much of a newbie myself to have an opinion about tannin, but am throwing in a cup of strong tea as this seems to be what everybody else does.... :^)

Well I now have 23 litres of fermenting juice bubbling away nicely. I did include about 30% of the ripest looking Bramleys into the mix as you suggested. The pH, according to my indicator strip is about 2.8 which is very acid. Would you (or anyone else reading this) think that that's a problem and take steps to reduce the acidity? Maybe 30% Brameleys is too much - reduce to 20% next time perhaps?

 

[Cwrw666]

Top tip - when you pick your apples don't juice them straight away. Leave them a few weeks in buckets etc. Starches turn into sugars and acidity levels fall. Ok, a few will go rotten so around week 3 you might need to take action.
Don't do this with windfalls though - no matter how gently they fell off they'll be bruised and will go rotten on you.

 

[Ron Bell]

Thanks for that. So, yes, for the next batch, I'll pick the Bramleys a few weeks in advance. The books say you can reduce acidity with potassium carbonate. With a pH of 2.8, is it worth doing that?