APPLE CIDER AND CIDER PRODUCTS 



By J. A. Clague, Assistant Professor, and C. R. Fellers, Research 

 Professor, in Horticultural Manufactures 



Production of year-round marketable cider from apples which are below 

 market grade has long been the hope of the apple growers of this country. How- 

 ever, as yet no preserved sweet cider beverage has attained the popularity 

 prophesied for it at the time of its innovation. Some of the reasons for such a 

 condition are: (1) Insufficient care in selection and blending of varieties. (2) 

 Use of immature and unripe fruit; that is, apples picked at the same time as 

 those intended for market and then culled out, rather than tree-ripened fruit. 

 (3) Faulty manufacturing practices due to lack of technical knowledge about 

 the processing and p reservatio n_of apple cider. 



To present mformation gathered from experiments on several varieties of 

 Massachusetts apples as well as work done by investigators in other states and 

 countries is the object of this bulletin. It is hoped that the information pre- 

 sented will answer many of the questions confronting fruit growers and others 

 when they consider the manufacture of cider. 



COMPOSITION OF THE MORE IMPORTANT MASSACHUSETTS 

 APPLE VARIETIES 1 



In this country cider-making quality is not ordinarily considered in the 

 selection of apple varieties for the orchard. In many of the European countries 

 the growing of apples especially for manufacture into cider has been practiced 

 for hundreds of years. This is one reason why in England, for example, the 

 annual consumption of cider is two gallons per capita, while in this country it 

 is not much over one quart per capita. 



However, it should be noted that in England the term cider denotes a fer- 

 mented, usually carbonated or sparkling, apple juice, while in this country 

 cider refers to the unfermented juice unless preceded by the term "hard." An 

 apple variety which might make a good sweet cider would not necessarily be 

 satisfactory for manufacture into sparkling cider, although Davis (12) found 

 that the Baldwin made a good sparkling cider, and here it has proved to be one 

 of the best for sweet cider. 



It is generally conceded that the Russet apple is the best single variety for 

 manufacture into cider. However, by judicious blending of cider from two or 

 more varieties, a product can often be made which is better than the juice from 

 any one variety. 



This laboratory has rated cider made from some of the more important 

 Massachusetts apples as follows: 1. Roxbury Russet. 2. Baldwin. 3. Northern 

 Spy. 4. Rhode Island Greening. 5. Mcintosh. 6. Ben Davis. 7. King. 

 8. Wealthy. 



The more important physical and chemical characteristics of the ciders listed 

 above were determined during the seasons of 1933 and 1934. Crab-apple 

 cider was also analyzed in 1933. The results obtained, which are shown in 

 Table 1, should be an important aid in the blending of ciders as well as giving 

 a comparison of the composition of a good cider apple such as Russet with 

 that of a poor one such as Wealthy. 



■Many of the analytical results presented in this section are taken from the master's thesis of 

 Eunice M. Doerpholz, Mass. State College, 1935. 



