how much crab juice?

[GeneDaniels1963]

I just juiced 33 lb of crab apples = 2 gal of juice if you include the solids that have not settled out yet. It tests at 1.075, but it has lots of tanins, really puckers the mouth when I sampled some.

I use store bought juice as a base, but what ratio do you suggest with the highly tanic crab juice?

 

[AzOr]

I do 5 gallon batches and will add one gallon of bitters such as Chisel Jersey, or up to two gallons of porters perfection.

With your crabs, I’d try no more than 25%.

You could try fermenting your sharps and bitters separately then blending post fermentation.

 

[Chalkyt]

I have done two batches using Crimson Knight Crabs. Unfortunately on each occasion I only had enough crabs to add about 10% juice but that certainly added some complexity... on another occasion (maybe next year as the crab apple tree currently has plenty of blossoms) I would be happy to go up to 20% crabs. As with yours, I found the crab yield wasn't all that great but the SG was well over 1.060 whereas "ordinary" apples are around 1.050.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I'm going with 20-25% and see what happens since I will be using store bought juice as a base.

 

[EdwardTrunk]

2 weeks ago I added 20% juice from woodland crabs to my garden apple juice. The fermenting juice now tastes as dry as I'd want it - for next barrel I'll try 10% for variety.

 

[ShadesManna]

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I went with 20%. Now lets see what happens