Medlars for cider - to blett or not to blett

[Ron Bell]

I'm wanting to add some tannin to my cider brew and am wondering whether medlars are a good way to do it. There was a previous discussion of this on the forum - but rather inconclusive. If you are going to eat Medlars raw or make them into jelly, you have to blett them first - that is let them start to rot and go brown - BUT this is likely to greatly reduce the amount of tannin. Bletted medlars are delicious - but don't taste bitter to me. On the other hand, extracting juice from rock hard unbletted medlars may be quite difficult - I don't have an apple press to hand - I need to arrange to borrow one. Does anyone have any experience of this, please?

 

[pomme homme]

I'd give it a try - but I'd blett the medlars first. The only other idea would be to shred them and then add them to the apple juice. I've often thought of using medlars - but I haven't yet put such thoughts into practice!

 

[Ron Bell]

I'm going to try and see just how much (or little) juice can be extracted from unbletted Medlars, because that will be maximum tannin I think. If I really can't extract juice at all, I'll blett them and then add them add them cut up to the scratted apples before pressing. Might just do both and do two separate demijohns and compare the result. I have lots of medlars!

 

[pomme homme]

Are your trees cultivated medlars with larger fruit, Ron? I have wild medlar trees which produce smaller fruit which, unbletted, are as hard as rock.

Whilst the medlars may add tannin, what I don't know is what effect they may have on the taste of the finished cider. Has anyone tried this and, if so, what was the result?

 

[Ron Bell]

Good question! I have just one medlar tree (and about 25 MM106 apple trees). It was bought from a nursery - so I think it's probably cultivated. The medlar I have in front of me right now is about 40mm diameter - some are larger. In a few weeks' time I plan to do a 25 litre brew of mixed mid season eating apples plus Bramleys plus two demijohns of the same mix but one with added unbletted medlars and one with bletted medlars. Meanwhile, I, too, would be very interested to hear from anyone with any experience of adding medlars to cider! By the way, I have 15 bottles of early season apples plus unripe Bramleys cider conditioning right now. They are my first ever attempt at a cider brew. It was quite sour and cloudy before bottling. I will be very interested to see how it turns out.

 

[pomme homme]

At 40mm diameter it could be a wild medlar. But if other fruits, from the same tree, are larger then its probably the cultivated variety (particularly if bought from a nursery). I'll have to go out to the fields to see what size fruit the wild medlar trees produce. But from memory, they are 40mm and smaller.

I haven't yet started making my cider - despite having about four dustbins full of windfalls in storage. Most of my apple trees are Clochard (Reinette de Parthenay), the fruit of which is famed for hanging on to its trees, sometimes until after Christmas!

 

[Trevor1946]

I haven't tried adding medlars to anything but if you do I would definitely blett first. If you have enough left over they make the most fantastic wine

 

[pomme homme]

How do you use the medlars for wine? Do you scrape out the bletted flesh and use that alone? If so, I presume that you need a large number of medlars and a significant amount of bletted fruit to make wine. I can't imagine that you use the whole fruit or that you press these. But I could be wrong and so I'd be grateful if you'd elaborate, Trevor.

 

[Trevor1946]

After picking the medlars keep for approx 3 weeks until they are soft. You will need 7 to 8 lb of medlars for 1 gal.
1 kilo sugar
1 gal pectolase
1 crushed Camden tablet
250 grams of raisins or 1 gal tannin

Wash fruit crush in steralised bucket add 500 gram sugar, pectolase, Camden tablet, raisins or tannin, add 4 pts boiling water stir then add 4 pints cold water and stir.
Stir and crush daily for 3 to 6 days. Then sieve in to bucket. Add 500 grams sugar into demi, (I use Young's yeast and nutient) 1 gal yeast and 1 gal nutrient. Filter juice into demi ensuring sugar is well mixed. After fermentation transfer to clean demi to clear before bottling. You won't be disappointed

 

[Trevor1946]

Sorry about predictive text should be 1 tsp yeast and 1 tsp nutrient