Newtown Pippin
(American Heirloom)
Tart green apple of much fame. Stores well and good for eating too.
Cox Orange Pippin. (early acid, aroma)
Intensely flavored and quite tart, Cox is a nice blending apple for early September acid and nice ‘heirloom’ aromatics.
Brown’s Apple (sharp)
Big, red, early acid bomb with a bit of tannin. Delightful bright, fruity aromas. Strange upright growth habit. English.
Ashmead’s Kernal (aromatic, late acid)
Floral aromas, lots of dry extract, high brix and insane acid characterize this English heirloom’s cider qualities. The tree is a shy bearer on our site.
Goldrush (Sweet tart high sugar acid source)
Scab resistant modern apple with high gravity and lots of acidity. Diminutive tree with a tendency to overcrop. Will last in storage for just about forever and is a fantastic eating apple. Caution: the acid has a flavor that verges on “malic” think sweet tarts candy in cider. Could be a plus or minus depending on your style.
Bramley’s Seedling. (pure acid)
The acid is a fresh, bright acid that doesn’t come across as “malic;” an important blending component useful for bringing up acidity without changing the flavor. A massive apple size makes harvest easy but this tree can easily be pushed into biennial bearing.
Northern Spy. ( Minerality: salt and shale)
We love NS for its minerality; however, this is definitely one of those apples that is fairly insipid when grown and harvested like dessert fruit in the wrong location. Our Spy is specifically the original strain, not “Red Spy” which ferments very differently. It has a neutral sort of fresh/unripe apple aroma when fermented that verges into a salty/ shale austerity. Grown on our dry gravelly ground, it has a refreshing acid-tannin component that is very much wet stone. We often use this as the last blending component; a blend that has the right structure and aromatics will often take on a new level of depth with 10% or 15% Northern Spy.
Esopus Spitzenburg (Spicy aromatic heirloom)
Another old New York apple with great cider making qualities that doubles as an aromatic and a sharp. Spitzenburg contributes plenty of acid and a spicy “old fashioned” flavor to cider.