early french cider apples

[hammerstone]

Hello all,

I've got an offer to pick about 10 bushels of BSW apples (Muscadet De Dieppe and Muscat De Bernay).  The other apples we typically use won't be ready for a while, and i don't really have any cold storage (a crawl space with 65F is about the best i could do) so i'm thinking about pressing and fermenting these apples, and then mixing the fermented result back in with newly pressed juice when the rest of our apples come along.

Anyone do this type of thing before, or have any thoughts on it?

Thanks in advance.

Mike Steinzig

Los Alamos NM

[sdi...@wavecable.com]

Yes, I do that with my varieties as I have many and no cold bot so I puck and press and then blend. I am getting more small barrels to accommodate. 

 

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From: hammerstone <stei...@gmail.com>
To: Cider <cider-w...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, 31 August 2025 11:28 AM PDT
Subject: [Cider Workshop] early french cider apples

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[hammerstone]

thanks for the reply. do you pick, press, then ferment and then blend, or somehow store without fermenting?

[sdi...@wavecable.com]

Over the years, I have measured the total acidity of each variety and experiment with balancing acidity. Tannins are balanced more by taste because they, for me, are more trouble to measure. So, sometimes I blend then ferment to save barrel space. Actually, though, as time goes by, I like to ferment individually and then blend. This means, I am gradually trying to plant what varieties blend best and favorably grow. Granted, my goal is not to pump and dump cider and be a millionaire, but more as a lifelong art. I love the trees and growing things. It is so much fun. This forum has been a valuable learning site.

 

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From: hammerstone <stei...@gmail.com>
To: Cider <cider-w...@googlegroups.com>

Date: Monday, 1 September 2025 2:12 AM PDT
Subject: Re: [Cider Workshop] early french cider apples

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/e44a9f3e-c786-4000-a872-b341411d4475n%40googlegroups.com.