Rotten apples in cider - do you?

[Jonny69]

This will be my fourth year running I've made cider with real apples. The first year we used a mix of apples and carefully chose all the ones in good condition. It was cider. The second year I managed to get hands on a right old selection, put all the good apples in one batch and kept the not so good ones for another batch with all the worst bits cut off. I noticed it fermented slightly differently and the cider was improved with the grottier apples. I got a later batch of apples which had some really snotty ones in with them so I kept them aside and put all the bad ones in a separate 'dirty' vat and let them ferment on their own yeast just as an experiment. Well imagine my surprise when the 'dirty' cider was easily the best one, with all all those West Country scrumpy flavours I was looking for. Finally!

This year I've abandoned using commercial yeast completely and I've only used grotty looking windfalls with a small percentage of apples in better condition. My friend who helped me prepare the juice for the first batch looked a bit green at first, what with all the manky brown mush and white spots, but trusted what we were doing because he's tasted some of the previous cider and understood after I broke open a horrible looking apple and it reeked of amazing cider goodness fermenting away all by itself inside the apple. I had a quick nip of the first batch the other evening and it tastes fantastic.

Anyway, my point was this. The whole internet says DO NOT use windfalls or rotten apples for cider for various reasons including bacteria, e-coli, bird poo, maggots etc etc. But I've found that cider made with good apples is lacking something that I've only managed to get from using apples which are way past their best. Is there really that much risk? I know you take your chances about one getting infected when you rely on the natural yeasts, but surely it'll be quite obvious if the batch goes bad?

 

[LeithR]

Considering that until recently some west country farmers used to slit a rat open and let it bleed into the finished cider in order to clear it I don't think that you have much to worry about with your relatively careful approach. Windfalls and brown ones are most likely higher in sugar than ones still on the tree.
Good luck with it.

 

[Jonny69]

I've heard all sorts of horror stories about stuff they used to (and allegedly still do) throw into cider vats

I figured windfalls would probably make stronger cider. They are sweeter and quite often have lost a bit of moisture, so the sugars must be a lot more concentrated. I'm glad you think my approach is 'relatively careful' though maybe that's because you didn't see the apples I used :shock:

 

[LeithR]

haha! - I doubt the commercial cider makers inspect any of their apples individually, they just get the bull dozer in and scoop them up lock stock and barrel.