Acid to Sugar ratio

[Terry Chalk]

In Andrew’s book, he refers to Brix/Acid ratio for “drinking juice”. Has anyone looked at a similar ratio for finished cider? My hobby ciders are usually made from eating apples (that is all I have apart from a new cox’s orange pippin). The usual blend ends up being boosted with malic acid to something like 5 -6 g/L acid and 10g/L residual sugar after pasteurising. Sort of 1:2 for a “goldilocks” cider (JAR or just about right). However, due to a shortage of other apples last year, I made a single variety Granny Smith cider and found that because of the relatively high acid (in my case 7 g/L), more residual sugar (20g/L) was needed to get a balanced result. I know this is all a matter of personal taste, but it got me thinking about an acid g/L vs residual sugar g/L ratio as a guideline. Is there one? Any thoughts?

[Andrew Lea]

That data of Brix vs acid optimum came from data from a UK agricultural show in the 1970s and also I think from some something that Uli Schobinger did at Wadenswill in Switzerland around the same. It applies to Europe but not in North America where a much sweeter juice to acid ratio is preferred.  

As for fermented juice, the third dimension is tannin levels which also play a major role in consumer preference and are also pretty much country specific. I am away from home at present so without any access to these figures 

Andrew. 

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On 1 Mar 2026, at 10:19, 'Terry Chalk' via Cider Workshop <cider-w...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



In Andrew’s book, he refers to Brix/Acid ratio for “drinking juice”. Has anyone looked at a similar ratio for finished cider? My hobby ciders are usually made from eating apples (that is all I have apart from a new cox’s orange pippin). The usual blend ends up being boosted with malic acid to something like 5 -6 g/L acid and 10g/L residual sugar after pasteurising. Sort of 1:2 for a “goldilocks” cider (JAR or just about right). However, due to a shortage of other apples last year, I made a single variety Granny Smith cider and found that because of the relatively high acid (in my case 7 g/L), more residual sugar (20g/L) was needed to get a balanced result. I know this is all a matter of personal taste, but it got me thinking about an acid g/L vs residual sugar g/L ratio as a guideline. Is there one? Any thoughts?

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[Brent Miles-Wagner]

New York Cider Association has proposed the following as a dryness scale that uses the ratio, plus some adjustments based on tannins.

[Terry Chalk]

Hi Brent. Thanks for the information, it is pretty much what I was looking for. I thought that something like it might exist "out there". Extending the search a bit further through the dreaded copilot, it came up with a couple of other pages from New York Cider Assn that touched on the suggested adjustment for tannin. Interesting approach, and the ratios line up with the sweetness profiles from my batch records.