Cider Varieties - Adelaide Hills

[Simon]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks for all of the combined wisdom on these pages - I have learned a lot. I am interested in planting a few more cider apple trees in the Adelaide Hills (Australia). So far I have the following planted on a fairly steep clay slope:

Yarlington Mill

Five Crown Pippin

Sweet Coppin

Kingston Black

Antoinette

Frequin Rouge Amer

Clozette

Yates

Sturmer Pippin

Dabinett

Gravenstein

Granny Smith

Plus two unknown varieties

I have room for perhaps four more trees. Any suggestions as to what I should try? I have heard that acidity levels can be an issue in Australia - do I need more sharps or bittersharps?

Thanks for any advice.

Simon

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Depends on the style you want to make.

In West Country, the cider makers often try to have about half bittersweet and half higher acid (sharp and bittersharp) to yield blends with the right balanced acidity for the style.

Probably than in Australia the same mix of varieties would yield a blend of lower acidity because you have more heat, hence maybe you should use relatively more trees with higher acidity than in UK.

Claude

[Ray Blockley]

Hi Simon, 

I assume you've contacted other Australian cider makers for advice & possible pointers? 

Ray. 

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[Simon]

Dear Claude and Ray - thanks for your replies. I haven't yet contacted local cider producers as I was under the impression that they mostly use dessert apples rather than cider apples. Happy to be corrected here. Categorising what I have so far, I get the following:

Bittersweet

Yarlington Mill

Dabinett

Clozette

Frequin Rouge Amer

Antoinette

 

Bittersharp

Kingston Black

 

Sweet

Sweet Coppin

 

Sharp

Five Crown Pippin

Gravenstein

Granny Smith

Gravenstein

Yates

Sturmer Pippin

So would a few more bittersharps be appropriate?

Thanks,

Simon

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Le lundi 6 avril 2020 19:42:16 UTC-4, Simon a écrit :

So would a few more bittersharps be appropriate?

yes I think so... probably what I would do in your situation.

[David Pickering]

Morning Simon,

I don’t know what stage of development your trees have reached but when they do start bearing you will find that Frequin Rouge (Frequin Rouge Amer) is in the French class “amere” - bitter - not bittersweet. Very useful to add tannin where the other apples in a blend need a bit of help. We don’t exactly know which Frequin Rouge we have in Australia but it’s one of them! You can see the cider apples we have in Australia split up into their classes at:

http://www.cideroz.com/cider-apple-varieties-in-australia/

I agree with the rationale that what you should plant depends on what cider you like or what you want to make. If you do want to go with more acidic/sharp varieties then think about Browns Apple and/or Verite

Try some of the Australian or imported ciders that use “cider” apples and then talk to the people producing them. The grey area is of course that most commonly they will have blended apples from the various classes to get the result that they wanted.

When you decide what varieties you want you can contact the various nurseries

http://www.cideroz.com/cider-apple-trees/

to see what they have available for this coming winter or to place an order for delivery winter 2021.

Cheers - David

David Pickering - "Linden Lea" 681 Huntley Road, ORANGE NSW 2800

http://www.cideroz.com/
http://www.cideraustralia.org.au/

dav...@cideroz.com
mobile: 0427 271 477
home: 02 6365 5275

[Simon]

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply. The trees I have so far are only 1 and 2 years old, so no crops yet. I should have said earlier that have a preference for making a West Coutry-ish cider - still, tannic and potentially aged in old oak.

Those links are very helpful. I will take a look through.

Best,

Simon