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A search here for "quince" returned zero results, but that doesn't mean people haven't (or aren't) fermenting quince juice.

I'm fermenting a half gallon of quince as a substitute for real tannic cider apples in a British Cider recipe I'm brewing. The rest of the juice is from a few varieties of eating apples. Since this is sort of a test, I'm fermenting the quince separately from my three gallons of apples.

If it's a direct replacement for a bittersharp cider apple, I can use it to bitter up half the batch, and use tannic blend for the other half. The unfermented quince juice is awesomely tannic, with that black tea skritch way back on the tongue. I don't have any experience of juiced bitter cider apples, so I don't know if the quince is more or less tannic than a classic tannic cider apple.

My recipe is 40% sweet, 30% acidic, 30% bitter apples. My apple juice tastes like it's at the 40/30 ratio for sweet/acid, but I don't know if the quince juice will overpower the balance, or if cider apples are as tannic.

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    OK, you described what you do, but where is your actual question? What exactly you need to know?
    – Mołot
    Nov 22, 2015 at 12:00
  • I guess his question is just this simply, "has anyone brewed quince?" But I think this is more of a forum type question than a SE type question as its meant to garner a discussion. My question to him would be, did you cook the quince first?
    – Escoce
    Nov 23, 2015 at 15:34
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    I'm sorry for the open-ended question. I read the guidelines after posting. I'll edit it to be more answerable.
    – BikeTinker
    Nov 24, 2015 at 6:17
  • @Escoce - I did not cook the quince. I just juiced them in an apple press, exactly like the apples.
    – BikeTinker
    Nov 24, 2015 at 6:27
  • How did the juice taste? I ask because quince is basically a pear that has to be cooked in order to eat it. I would assume if you want that taste that your have to cook the quince for those flavors to be woken up.
    – Escoce
    Nov 24, 2015 at 14:37

1 Answer 1

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Having eaten a quince and tasted a cider apple I do not think that a quince is as bitter as a cider apple, but it may depend on the quince.

If the quince juice is tasting as bitter as black tea then I would go with your suggestion and only bitter the half from eating apples.

Please report back on how it turns out.

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    The quince worked well. After storing for a year, the cider was good (in my opinion). I would definitely use quince again to add complexity and interest to cider.
    – BikeTinker
    Apr 5, 2017 at 16:19
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    I am a lover of quince, I even eat them raw. The ones we have here in Europe are in my opinion more acid than cider apples and they have a high tannic flavour. I will definitely give it a try!
    – runlevel0
    Apr 21, 2017 at 7:26

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