Whatcha think of this blend of apples for hard cider?

Cider
1

This is my first time making hard cider and I’m hoping it’ll be at the very least, good. I made a cider press from the Whizbang cider press plans and pressed out what seemed to be a ton of apples. In fact, it wasn’t a ton but the following juice weights of the varieties listed.

Approximately equal parts of Haraldson and Zestar apples=15 pounds
Dolgo crab apples (beautiful almost blood red juice!)=61 pounds
Centennial crab apples=55 pounds
2 smaller than Centennial apples that were mixed together (no idea on the names- one was larger than the dolgo’s but not by much with centennial appearance and the other was smaller like an ornamental variety)=19 pounds
A large crab apple variety or small regular apple variety with white flesh-again no name on that one-sorry. A tad sweeter than the centennial but not much and still with the tartness of them.=18 pounds

I blended them all in a brand new sanitized plastic trash can and then gave some away…it was a lot of juice and I went a little crazy picking apples.
Campden tableted the rest of the juice-6 gallons (I also added to this 1 pint jar of steamed ornamental apple juice-very bitter-) and the sg was 1.056, pectic enzymed, yeast nutriented and White Labs Pacific Ale pitched.
-----Hoping all of the above will make a tasty cider. Thoughts???

Also, I have a 3 gallon carboy with 9 pounds of steamed juiced wild plum juice (holy pectin!) and was then topped up with the remaining blend of aforementioned apple blend (without the ornamental apples that I did put in the 6 gal one) then campdenized. This had a sg of 1.060 and pectic enzyme added, yeast nutrient added and the yeast. White labs German Kolsch.
----Any thoughts on this one too???

I really wish I had the names of the other apples but the blended juice was amazing!

I would like any advice/thoughts on my blend/etc. I really appreciate it!

2

That is a really complicated blend of apples! I don’t really know much about apple blending, but I’m curious to see how this turns out. Subscribed.

3

Yeah, not sure how it’ll turn out but am crossing my fingers. It took a LONG time to start fermenting. I campden tableted both carboys, pectic enzymed them and then pitched 24 hours later. Nothing…for a week and a half…and then added more yeast (hoping not a mistake now). Still nothing. Then I aerated it a few days later…and took a reading and it was the same. A few days after that it FINALLY kicked off (2 weeks of waiting). So…hope the flavors won’t be off for such a long wait.
Thanks for your input. Any input on WHY? it took so long to kick off?? pH? Tannins (aren’t they related to pH?)…or was it the campden tablets and no air exchange?

4

What made you choose such a high level of crabs?
So far my favorite blend has been 50% sweet apples, 35% acidic apples, and 15% astringent apples.

5

Well, to be honest, it was what was available at the time. I live in Yuma, Arizona (not by choice really) but am from and still have family in Northern Minnesota. So I was there for a very short period of time in which I accomplished some things that I cannot do in Yuma…make the cider press and press some apples. They were free and it’s my first time at it so…I did what I could with what I had. Even if it turns out horrible, it was fun to do.

6

What did you use for the cider press? Car jack? Large screw?

7

I used a scissor jack and attached a drill to it so it was quick to press, but the torque on the drill will eventually fail and you’ll have to continue cranking it down with your force.