Who has made single variety hard cider from Franklin Cider Apple? I have half a small tree of it that I grafted a few years ago. It seems to have everything hard cider needs: sugar/acid/tannin.
Friends want to plant a sizeable cider orchard so I wondered if anything can beat FC, especially as it’s easy to grow no-spray, disease free so far.
I have not made a single variety cider from Franklin Cider Crab, but I have tried the fruit. I have made single variety cider from similar high acid high tannin fruit such as Hewe’s Virginia Crab and it was like fingernail polish remover- just too much flavor! These high flavored crabs do better on a blend I think
I just ordered a bottle of single var. FC, will see what it does to my teeth. LOL.
Yates is a bulletproof old sweet/low acid that could blend with Franklin, what, maybe 3/4 Yates, 1/4 Franklin?
I can’t speak for Franklin Cider… but I see you are in Easton, which means you could make a day trip to Albemarle Ciderworks.
They sell several single varietal ciders if you want a chance to taste test some options:
https://www.albemarleciderworks.com/our-cider/cider-varieties
Gold Rush is an apple I particularly like because it is just incredibly versatile and other than CAR seems pretty bulletproof.
(edit to add, I have grown Gold Rush but have not made cider with it.)
Agree, I love Goldrush but my cidermaker friend won’t spray and has Red Cedars, so GR won’t work. I’ve tried Alb ciders over the years but am rarely wowed. Not sure why because they’ve got all the great cider apples to work with. Maybe it’s their yeasts.
To me Franklin as a single varietal makes no sense, it’s much more acidic than cider apples should be for making a single varietal. But blended it could be really good. I have my own tannic sour crab and I blended it 10% with the rest Harrison this year, we’ll see next summer how that worked out.
I’m not sure how good Yates would be for cider, it lacks body in the juice. I have a couple bushels now though, and if I can’t think of anything else to do with them I may try cider. It might make a nice mild bodied cider.
Thanks Scott. Both Harrison and Franklin grow well here. Please post your results, would be good news if we can make good cider with easy to grow varieties in Mid-Atlantic. Yates is described on many internet sites as a good cider apple; maybe just copycat copy. Franklin is super easy to grow here.
My notes quote you from a few years ago that for the South, Yates and Gilpin are a good combo. Have you tried that?
I haven’t made much cider yet, still waiting for the trees to get bigger. So I’m mostly going by samples of the apples.
I should also clarify that Yates could in fact be a great cider apple for many people. I am myself trying to make a more full bodied cider though and it hasn’t quite gotten there for me. There’s lots of different approaches to cider, all can be good!
I am pretty much in the same boat. All the ciders the family and I have made the last several years have been pretty much wild apples or apples from old trees neighbors have growing. Results have varied. Waiting on the grafted varieties to start producing more. Did get a few Nehous this autumn. We all really liked the flavor, although it was pretty obvious by the texture they weren’t meant for fresh eating apples. Dad grafted Franklin this spring thanks to @smsmith, looking forward to trying it in the future. Problem with doing ciders with the whole family is that we like different things. We have a wild crab apple at the end of our driveway that gives ciders a wonderful rich bitter aftertaste, although they are a pain to collect. My brothers and I love the flavor, our wives wonder why we had to ruin the cider.
I should have some better scion wood this year if you need more.
I have about a dozen trees that I let crop this year on their 3rd leaf. They are about 10’ tall on G969. They are an easy tree to grow with lots of vigor. The apple does actually make an interesting cider which I made a single variety from this year which I’ll have available under my brand “Purely Pomme”. It pressed out at 19 brix and has high acid. It’s basically a crab Apple that has really good marketing. I think it would be good for a crab Apple wine and bottled still much like is done with a dolgo. I’ve had the Franklin cider made by fingerlakes cider house in their greenman series of pet nats and mine tastes very different but I think maybe because I let my apples hang an extra 3 weeks so they really developed some rich jammy flavors under all that acid that mellowed out some. The tannins are higher than preferred but I still think it’s going to come out pretty well, which I’ll make method champenoise. If you like a big full flavored cider with lots of density then you’ll like this. The thing is, it’s no Kingston Black which they compare it to. It’s very different, and if I were to have one or the other I would prefer KB, but it does add some variety to my orchard and Franklin would be great to add to a blend of a cider that could use some more flavor.
I have been working with Franklin since I planted them in 2018. I get consistantly 22-23 brix and nothing in the orchard has more acid than these do. The tree is easy to maintain and is precocious. The cider fermented to dry is just about undrinkable. I have some sv. going through malolactic to see what happens. I think its best purpose is as a blender. to balance ciders that may have a higher pH. As far as “beating” another varietal as a SV I would say no. However, it does have a role and a purpose blending and balancing. I wouldnt get too excited about that varietal exept as a cider balancing tool.
For now, my best guess for no-spray decent hard cider here might be Harrison, Yates, Black Limbertwig and Franklin. With Campfield as an alternate.