Frozen, then thawed apples still on the tree

[Kjell Tore Sagen]

There's been some interesting talk on here recently about frozen apples still on the trees. I just noticed that three of our big trees, - we suspect they are Bramleys, still have quite a few apples on them. Being in western Norway, they will have been frozen and then thawed at least twice by now. I don't know how big of a project harvesting would be, so the question is: Would it be worth it? They are thawed at the moment, but the forecast says it will freeze in a couple of days again. Would they be more easily harvested when frozen? Is there a chance they are already fermenting and/ or spoiled? 

[Les Price]

I think the general rule of thumb for selecting varieties for freezing on the tree is to use late season selections. The idea is to not have the apples hanging on the trees too much past fully ripe before freezing. 

For me, northwest coast US, Bramley is a late summer apple so would never hang around till frosts before rotting but in your climate who knows?

We grow a Goldrush variety which isn't thought of as a cider apple but is very late in fact so late it misses our u pick season entirely. This year it started picking in mid November. We left a couple trees without picking and by mid December they were wonderful. We have had a couple weeks of Temps down into the 7-10 degree f. Range so all apples have frozen solid. I didn't have my act together enough this season to try these apples but hope to next year.

On Sun, Jan 2, 2022, 1:49 AM Kjell Tore Sagen <kjell...@gmail.com> wrote:

There's been some interesting talk on here recently about frozen apples still on the trees. I just noticed that three of our big trees, - we suspect they are Bramleys, still have quite a few apples on them. Being in western Norway, they will have been frozen and then thawed at least twice by now. I don't know how big of a project harvesting would be, so the question is: Would it be worth it? They are thawed at the moment, but the forecast says it will freeze in a couple of days again. Would they be more easily harvested when frozen? Is there a chance they are already fermenting and/ or spoiled? 

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[Kjell Tore Sagen]

I'm not 100 % sure they are Bramleys, but they're definately cookers and they look very similar. The trees are at least 70 years old. The apples ripen from end of October and well into November here.

They store very well, and I read a suggestion in Andrew Lea's book to store them for a couple of months before pressing, and I'm going to try that hopefully next season, if I get my own pressing equipment by then and don't have to rely on my guy who closes up shop mid November. I tried making cider from a november pressing, and it has an incredible apple flavor, but also quite an overwhelming acidity. Reading about the benefits of frozen apples, I'm tempted to make a test pressing with a tiny bucket press that I have and see what happens.

[Claude Jolicoeur]

It is hard to say without seeing them...

If they have only superficially frozen, they will be difficult to press. Only if they have frozen hard all the way to the core they will press easily. Did the color change to more brownish or do the apples still retain their original color?

[Kjell Tore Sagen]

We had a good 2-3 weeks of sub zero c, so they would have been fully frozen through. They have turned completely brown.

[Claude Jolicoeur]

If they have turned brown, they should be OK.

Now you need to decide what sort of cider you wish to make with them...

Normal strenght cider - let them fully thaw, then press and ferment.

Winter cider - press when partially frozen (soft on the outside but frozen inside), to get a juice at around SG 1.080 to 1.090 and ferment to retain about 30-40 g/L of residual sugar with about 9% ABV

Ice cider - press when core is at about 8-9C to get a juice at SG 1.130 or more (strong press needed) and ferment to retain about 130 g/L of residual sugar. Or take juice as above (at 1.080-90) and refreeze to concentrate to 1.130.

See my book for details...

[Kjell Tore Sagen]

Thank you, I'm quite pumped for this now.

Been meaning to get your book for a while, placed my order now :) 

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

Le lundi 3 janvier 2022 à 11:12:17 UTC-5, Claude Jolicoeur a écrit :

Ice cider - press when core is at about 8-9C to

Sorry, I meant minus 8-9C here...