I read once online about the ratio of sweet, bittersweet, sharp, and bittersharp for cider but I can't seem to find it anymore. Anybody have a favorite ratio?
I got 8 gallons of sweet cider last month (mostly Honeycrisp, IIRC) from an orchard in North Alabama and fermented it out with S-05 to dryness. While this was going on I got Drew Beecham's cider book and and started learning (confusing myself) 'bout some cider. Alabama is not really a hotbed for cider apples but Drew says crab apples can really elevate a cider made from eating apples. So last week I put out the word that I was looking for crab apples. I scored (mostly windfallen) a 5-gallon bucket full of small, golf-ball sized greenish yellow apples that don't look like crab apples from a tree that my friend says grew wild on their property. The dark-reddish-brown juice is 1.055 but is so acidic and tannic it doesn't even taste sweet. I'm guessing this is a "bittersharp" apple?
There is a crab apple tree at my local Botanical Gardens that is loaded with small dark-red fruit with a prominent pointed blossom end that is what I think of as a crab apple. I called and got permission to gather as many as I want. I'm going tomorrow.The fruit is tart and puckering but also sweet.
Anyhoo, I just added the gallon of juice (yes, I sulfited it) from the first tree to 4 gallons of the Honeycrisp juice I already fermented. I guess if it turns out too tannic can balance it later with back-sweetening.
I'm hoping to get a gallon of juice from the crab apples and will add that to the other 4 gallons of Honeycrisp juice.
Does this ratio of bittersharp:sweet sound in the ballpark for a hard cider?