Can crab pollinators make cider?

[Wayne Bush]

The orchard that produces much of the fruit for my cider has four varieties of crab apples used as pollinators:  professor sprenger, red sentinel, everest, and "hilarie" (possibly hillierie by another spelling).  Does anyone know whether any of these can be used successfully in cider making?  I've tasted some great crabapple cider (in particular Wes Cherry's @dragonsheadcider, and that's not a paid promo!), but I have not seen these particular varieties in cider.  Appreciate any insights!

[Kirk Evans]

I'm not familiar with those crab varietals but you should definitely try adding some in a blend. Crabs in general tend to have high sugar content (higher final ABV), higher acid and lots of astringency in my experience. I've had really good success using about 10-15% crabs in a blend. All that being said, they are usually small and a pain to pick!

Good luck with your experiments!

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 1:47 PM Wayne Bush <butter...@hotmail.com> wrote:

The orchard that produces much of the fruit for my cider has four varieties of crab apples used as pollinators:  professor sprenger, red sentinel, everest, and "hilarie" (possibly hillierie by another spelling).  Does anyone know whether any of these can be used successfully in cider making?  I've tasted some great crabapple cider (in particular Wes Cherry's @dragonsheadcider, and that's not a paid promo!), but I have not seen these particular varieties in cider.  Appreciate any insights!

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[Les Price]

Just make varietals on each one to get an idea of what the potential would be.

During my time at WSU we did varietals on all of our crabs. Most were just too small of fruit to be practical and some were off the scale in tannins. We did do Everest and I know that cider data is still available on the WSU site. I have a large Everest tree myself. Beautiful specimen tree and scab imune.

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 1:47 PM Wayne Bush <butter...@hotmail.com> wrote:

The orchard that produces much of the fruit for my cider has four varieties of crab apples used as pollinators:  professor sprenger, red sentinel, everest, and "hilarie" (possibly hillierie by another spelling).  Does anyone know whether any of these can be used successfully in cider making?  I've tasted some great crabapple cider (in particular Wes Cherry's @dragonsheadcider, and that's not a paid promo!), but I have not seen these particular varieties in cider.  Appreciate any insights!

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[Wayne Bush]

Les and Kirk, thanks for your replies!  Les, do you have a link to the cider data you mentioned on the WSU site?  I searched but haven't found it...

[Les Price]

On 7/16/23, Wayne Bush <butter...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Les and Kirk, thanks for your replies! Les, do you have a link to the
> cider data you mentioned on the WSU site? I searched but haven't found
> it...

I looked for myself Wayne and I am sorry to say that the information
is no longer available. The new powers in charge have decided to re
invent the wheel so have disposed of all the hard earned data from
when I was there and gather their own.
Sorry bout that.

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[dave pert]

I've got Everest(e) and Red Sentinel as pollinators, can confirm they're useful in cider. SG pushing 1.070 in a good year and very sharp, fruity and astringent. Less is more in a blend, though higher concentrations can be entertaining in small batches.

[Nick MacLean]

Don’t mean to derail this thread, but has anyone done carbonic maceration with crabapples? I saw a fb post a few years ago where someone loaded small highly acidic/astringent crabs into a keg, added a gallon or so of juice, then sealed and purged with CO2. After a week or so the apples looked very degraded, and the resulting juice was beautiful. This seems like a great way to use excess crabs, but it’s a bit of work. 

I don’t have any true crabs except Dolgo, Hyslop, and maybe Puget Spice. I like both in blends, but the Dolgo and Hyslop go mealy very quickly after harvest which can make pressing annoying. 

Nick 

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