Hard Crabapple Cider Recipe
I had a major craving for apple cider last week. I was getting up my nerve to part with so many apples (just to make a 1/2 gallon drink) when I remembered the stash of crab apples that I had tucked away in the fridge from our recent urban foraging expedition. I was planning on using them to make jelly but suddenly I just had to use them to make apple cider. After all they were hand picked and
Crab apples are the one fruit that you can pretty much always get your hands on for free. The trees are fairly abundant here in Alberta and there’s usually someone willing to give some away if you can’t find them in your local park like we did. The thing about crab apples is that they can be fussy if you want to actually bake with them. Peeling and coring so many tiny apples is just a pain if you ask me. That’s why I save them for things like applesauce and jelly. Anything where you can cook them in their full form and just strain out the pulp afterwards.
I still have some crab apples leftover after making this cider and I think I’ll make one more trip to the park to round it out so I can make a decent amount of jelly. Max loves taking these tiny sour apples along in his school snack so I will definitely make sure to set some aside for him too.
Homemade Apple Cider
This crab apple cider is tart, sweet and comforting, with just a hint of spice. It was exactly what I needed to satisfy my craving. I do consider drinks like this to be dessert because they have a much higher sugar content then I usually put in my beverages (thanks to the tart crab apples). But, they are worth a splurge once in a while. And, with Canadian Thanksgiving right around the corner I think this is a great make ahead treat for a family gathering.
Hi, I'm Cheri. A Canadian foodie living in London. I love creating unique and easy recipes that inspire people to get into the kitchen.If you aren’t pressing your own fruit, hard cider is one of the easiest ferments for beginners, or for quickly putting bottles in your cellar.
This crabapple cyser recipe makes a much more complex and interesting homebrewed cider, without needing a fruit press! I’m adding whole crabapples gathered from the neighborhood to the ferment, and honey, making this a cyser.
Crabapple Cider 6% Alc./vol.
Cyser is a mead brewed with cider instead of water for the liquid component, or hard cider with added honey. It’s got a bit more oomph than a regular hard cider, and a more complex flavor than a plain mead. It’s an easy hard drink (I know, sounds like an oxymoron but it isn’t) that you can bottle still or sparkling.
We’re using CL-23, a higher alcohol tolerance wine yeast (up to 18%) that is a slower fermenter, but it should highlight the fruit flavors and give a little more complexity than a fast fermenting bone dry champagne yeast.
The crabapples will add acidity, a tannic backbone, and hopefully a bit of rosy color to our finished tipple. Now, enough talk, let’s get brewing!
How To Make Hard Cider
This easy homebrew recipe uses fresh pressed apple cider, fermented with fresh crabapples and honey to make a crisp, tart and balanced sparkling hard cider.
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Best Crab Apple Recipes
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This means that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn an affiliate commission if you make a purchase through one of our links (though we always prefer that you support your favorite local and independent retailers whenever possible).With a pile of crabapples and American beautyberries in hand, we set out to create a simple sparkling cider that you can make without specialized equipment or commercial yeast. We think you’ll love the results as much as we do: fermented crabapple-beautyberry cider!
You’ll be amazed by how easy it is to make this fermented crabapple and beautyberry cider recipe. Special thanks to Aunt Anne & Bets for alerting us to their crabapple tree – we owe you a bottle!
How To Make Easy Crab Apple Cider
In case you’ve never had them before, crabapples are in the same genus (Malus) as the apples you buy at the grocery store. Primary differences: crabapples tend to be much smaller and feature more intense flavors that may not lend themselves well to fresh eating.
Nevertheless, crabapples make excellent baked goods, jelly (they’re naturally loaded with pectin), and ferments like cider or wine. In fact, they’re arguably superior to standard apples when used in recipes due to their more intense and nuanced flavors which mellow when cooked, fermented, sweetened, and combined with other ingredients.
Four crabapple species native to the United States and countless other non-native crabapple species and hybrid varieties that can be found here.
Fort Lewis College Students Add A Shot Of Science To Hard Cider
These are fairly large crabapples. They’re sweet, but also have much stronger bitter and sour flavor notes that you wouldn’t find in orchard apples. These features make them perfect for cider making!
In case you’re worried: no, you won’t be cutting the small crabapples into pieces or using an apple press to extract the juice. Instead, you’ll simply be smushing them with a flat kitchen implement such as a spatula.
We use a metal spatula to smash our crabapples. You’ll want to pour the collected juice that comes out of the crabapples as you smash them into your fermenting vessel as you go. It’s not essential, but we did remove the base and stems of our crabapples.
Drinking Responsibly: Hard Cider — Grounded Grub
) are a gorgeous vibrant pink-purple native berry that begins ripening at the same time as crabapples. As with crabapples, beautyberries aren’t something you’ll love eating fresh (they taste like mild Chinese five spice to us), but they can make a wonderful flavoring in all sorts of recipes.
Beautyberries, which are also commonly used in ornamental landscapes.In our article, How to use American beautyberries as food and mosquito repellent we take a deep dive into this unique plant and its many uses, plus how to distinguish between native and non-native varieties.
American beautyberries form dense berry clusters directly around the main stem, whereas berries on Asian species dangle off the stem on small peduncles (see below picture)
The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Hard Apple Cider In America
We think American beautyberries are more intensely flavored than their Asian peers, and we’d recommend you use American beautyberries in this fermented crabapple cider recipe.
You’ll smash/muddle your beautyberries before adding them to your fermentation. You can do this step with a muddler, a fork, a large spoon, or your hands.
You do NOT need to buy a commercial cider yeast to make this recipe. You’ll be using the native yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that’s naturally in/on the fruit to do the fermentation for you.
Sparkling Apple Cider Recipe (spontaneously Fermented!)
Even if you rinse or lightly wash your fruit, there will still be plenty of yeast and LAB left for fermentation. The exact species of yeasts and LAB on your crabapples and beautyberries may vary by location and region, but they’re closely enough related to achieve similar flavor results via fermentation.
If you’re new to fermentation, rest assured it’s one of the oldest and safest food prep and preservation methods in human history. When it comes to this recipe, there is nothing to be nervous about if you follow our instructions. You’re essentially creating a hospitable environment for all the “good” microbes to flourish, and those microbes quickly outcompete any “bad” microbes that might otherwise be present or develop.
The only materials you’ll need are a large non-reactive container or bowl, preferably made of *glass. (Personally, we don’t use food-grade plastics for our fermentations because we’re not confident they won’t leach compounds that we don’t want to consume.)
A Hard Cider Recipe For Home Brewers In Three Easy Steps
Once all the ingredients are combined, you’ll cover the top with a breathable towel held in place with a rubber band or string,
A breathable linen cloth affixed to the top of our glass fermenting vessel used to make crabapple cider. Ideal temps throughout fermentation are between 68-72°F (20-°22C). Also, keep the vessel OUT of direct sunlight.
Then vigorously stir the fermentation with a clean spoon a minimum of twice per day (every 12 hours), which helps aerate and stimulate the beneficial microbes.
Litttle Guys With Punch
During each stirring, take a small taste to see how the drink is developing, which will also help you determine when it’s “finished” as per your personal tastes. (More on this below.)
Alcoholic. It’s probably in the 3-4% ABV range, but far below beer, wine, or spirits. The final ABV will vary depending on how many days you let the fermentation develop, which then allows the microbes to convert more of the sugars in the recipe to *ethanol.
Progression of crabapple cider fermentation over first three days (shown after stirring) to give you an
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