Freezing apples affect finished cider flavor?

[Scott Harring]

Last year some of my batches were from apples frozen in a chest freezer and thawed prior to pressing.  The fresh juice tasted different than expected for fresh cider, perhaps more earthy contribution from the skin.  I didn't do any back-to-back comparison with freshly ground apples, but am wondering if freezing prior to pressing affects the final fermentation flavor profile.  I'm very happy with how my finished cider turned out, but I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the subject. 

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Yes it does.

I don't know for sure for the simple freezing in a chest freezer and thawing.

But if doing a natural cold freezing during winter, we actually get multiple partial freezes and thaws as temperatures get colder in beginning of winter. These break the skin cells resulting in skin pigments and phenolic substances migrating into the juice.

The resulting cider has a definite special flavor - I call such cider "Winter cider"

See this article I wrote in the Malus Zine: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15HFs2TvGbEf58nrCpT4OLwGyTCSbygzS/view?usp=sharing

[Scott Harring]

Thanks Claude, that's helpful.  Nice article too. 

Winter Cider sounds interesting, I'm tempted to try my hand at it this year.  Do you have ideal starting and finishing gravity ranges that work well for this style?  Or a typical TA range that you like to see?

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Well, Brix, residual sugar and TA values are mentioned in the article...