Crab apple wine - I'm going for it!

[BigDaveK]

On my list but not planned.
Overnight my neighbors tree split in two. Darnedest thing. And I'm getting firewood AND wine!

Easy harvesting for sure. Washed, kmeta overnight, crusher tomorrow. Going to be a big batch, 3 gallons of crab apples. Plan to ferment with the pulp and skins. Very pleasant sweet and tart flavor.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Dave we are early in the season. I will bet that the seeds have not turned brown yet.
Apples are a climacteric fruit. This means that the fruit will continue to develop sugar and flavor if held at room temperature. ,,,, patience maybe?

What I have seen with early crabs is that the flavor is more astringent when I pick in August and the.flavor becomes more pleasing/ tannic in September.

 

[BigDaveK]

Dave we are early in the season. I will bet that the seeds have not turned brown yet.
Apples are a climacteric fruit. This means that the fruit will continue to develop sugar and flavor if held at room temperature. ,,,, patience maybe?

What I have seen with early crabs is that the flavor is more astringent when I pick in August and the.flavor becomes more pleasing/ tannic in September.

I was going by size and flavor. The fruit on this tree is by far more developed than all the other crabs. @Rice_Guy I did not know that about the seed color. I'll have to check first thing. A little effort for better storage may be in order. Thanks!

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Score ! And apple wood in the wood stove smells so nice

 

[BernardSmith]

Curious. How tannic are crab apples? A friend of my wife has a batch of crab apples she is happy to share with me. Have never made wine from crab apples before. Does this make a mouth puckering tannic wine or is the wine enjoyably drinkable?

 

[BigDaveK]

Curious. How tannic are crab apples? A friend of my wife has a batch of crab apples she is happy to share with me. Have never made wine from crab apples before. Does this make a mouth puckering tannic wine or is the wine enjoyably drinkable?

The only quantitative information I found said they contain about 4 times more tannin than apples used for cider.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Curious. How tannic are crab apples? Does this make a mouth puckering tannic wine

The way to know is to get a few and try them. Looking at named crab apples in the university arboretum about 20% have interesting tasting tannin. The other 80% are either very mild or no tannic flavor.
My current favorite is prairie fire variety, a plentiful small 1/2 to 5/8 inch fruit. There appears to be a change in flavor as the season progressed last year. Early picking was more astringent. Mid September was a nice bitter. After freeze/ very late picking for the freezer was a wash, the pleasing bitters were gone.
With the small fruit landscape crab apple plantings I cant press juice out. To extract I have been crushing and then soaking the bitters out in apple juice.

 

[BernardSmith]

The only quantitative information I found said they contain about 4 times more tannin than apples used for cider.

whoo whee. That is a lotta tannnin. And I do hear (youtube videos) that they can be mouth puckering/mouth drying because of the tannins. Gonna try some when I get a small batch on Sunday... Looking forward to making some crab apple cider.

 

[QuiQuog]

In the fining agents cheat sheet posted around here and there, it says "Gelatin is most often used for reducing astringency and binding excess, harsh tannins." It might be an opportunity to see how effective it is.
Fining Agents Cheat Sheet

 

[BernardSmith]

In the fining agents cheat sheet posted around here and there, it says "Gelatin is most often used for reducing astringency and binding excess, harsh tannins." It might be an opportunity to see how effective it is.
Fining Agents Cheat Sheet

It would be if a) I was not a vegetarian or b) the gelatin was not made from animals. Given the fact that I am vegetarian and the fact that most sources of gelatin are animal based that is a test for someone else...

 

[QuiQuog]

Meh, it all drops out.