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.
How was the single varietal for Franklin?
Cider idea flew out window after fell off bike and broke hip last Sept. Now growing only eating apples.
This past year my Franklin pressed out at 22.5 brix and made an excellent cider. The dry that is carbonated is a customer favorite and the still I just made is a semi sweet still version. They are both really big ciders. The still version I didn’t add any sugar but came out much sweeter. It drinks like a wine. At one time I questioned my decision to plant them but now I wish I had more of them.
That is awesome to hear. Have you done any blends with it or has everything been single varietal? I am asking because of my ~25 trees that are on their second year in the ground, it is probably my strongest grower and healthiest tree. That or the Arkansas Black.
Ive had a Franklin single varietal. It had a lot of everything alcohol, acid, tannin, aromatics. Almost overwhelming, but I like that sort of thing.
Just single varietal. That’s what I focus on as you can really appreciate the unique flavors of each apple. I do a blend with everything else that I have in lower quantities. The Franklin is the IPA of ciders
I will find some time to get my full writups done again but as this post comes up high in google I’ll share here too.
Zone 4A/3b Canada, USDA 3A/2b? Minimum winter temps I’ve seen -34C (-29f). Summers can hit +34C (93F). Might get a week or two of high humidity but not bad.
My Bud118 trees are reaching 8feet after 4-5 years and sparely bearing. Most of my samples are from grafted branches on mature trees. The trees are vigorous (not as much as Honey gold but still good) with really nice branching habits. Crotch angles are mostly at or near 90 degrees. Fruit forms on tips and spurs and is heavy bearing, 4-5 apples per cluster. Fruit is crab apple sized, most in the 40-50g range. Fruit holds well unlike most cider varieties, just starting to easy release mid October (around same time Wickson starts to be easy to release). Starts dropping late October early Nov, again similar to Wickson. Grafts have been bearing annually, though impression is might be slightly reduced after a big year but it is too early to really say.
I see no real disease other than some sooty blotch but fire blight has not been an issue in the past so can’t fully say. No noted scab, CAR, and PC insects don’t really like them nor do wasps or those asian ladybugs. Flesh is slightly russet like but juicy. HIGH sugar, acid and tannins. Acid seems less harsh than Dolgo, tannins are up there like Frequin Rouge but a bit more harsh than round though more pleasant than most tannins I have found in other crabs. Brix is often 20-22 mid October though 1 apple this year was 24. In previous years have found some late ones as high as 28 brix but did not have enough for a combine juicing at that time. Juicing a bunch together mid oct this year gave SG 1.075. My mid oct Wickson picked same day was 17.5 brix.
I have not had enough to do single ferments but blended with low acid varieties in a small batch the tannins were a nice contribution.
I have 3 Harrison still holding tight to test. Yarlington, Frequin Rouge, Chizel Jersey all produced a bit this year (juice frozen to be sent for analysis with Franklin later this year). Porters perfection never produced so far. Further writeups to be on my site but as a cold hardy source for tannins and sugar, Franklin/Mayo apple is hard to beat for cold climates if you can deal with the acidity and small size. Of the 150+ apples I have tested so far, NOTHING produces sugars as high as this.
I am also using it in breeding experiments with European bittersweet’s, Honey gold, Wolf River, Macfree, and some of my favorite wild apples (trying to reduce acid, increase size while keeping good hanging, cold hardiness and disease resistance). I hope to get 3-4 generations into breeding before I am too old so time will tell what this produces!