The Best Apples for Cider

By Luke Ruffner Robinson, Owner, Montana Fruit Trees. Last updated October 31, 2026.

The best apples for cider are the ones that bring sugar, acid and tannin into balance, and in cold country that usually means russets and pippins for sugar, crabs for acid and tannin, and a few bittersweets if your winters allow. Here are our picks by zone, each with a measured number, then the full list.

Best cider apples by zone

Zone 2 and colder: Kerr applecrab (16.5 Brix, 9.5 g/L acid), Trail (Bilodeau) crab (SG 1.065, 7.5 g/L acid) and Dolgo crabapple (about 25 to 27 g/L acid, use a little).
Zone 3: Golden Russet (SG 1.061 to 1.066, 6.6 g/L acid), Franklin (16.9 Brix, 7.8 g/L acid, very high polyphenols) and Binet Rouge (0.21% tannin, a true bittersweet).
Zone 3b: Hewe's Virginia crab (SG 1.060, 9.1 g/L acid, 0.19% tannin), Ribston Pippin (SG 1.060, 6.7 g/L acid) and Cox's Orange Pippin (6.0 g/L acid).
Zone 4 and warmer: Roxbury Russet (SG 1.061), Newtown Pippin (11.25 g/L acid), and the bittersweets Brown Snout and Ellis Bitter (0.24% tannin each).

Every tree on this page is in our cider apple trees for sale, and the crab side of the story has its own page: the best crabapples for cider.

What makes a cider apple

A cider apple is one whose juice makes good cider on its own or in a blend, and the old Long Ashton Research Station sorted them on two numbers: acid above or below 0.45% (4.5 g/L as malic) and tannin above or below 0.2%. That gives four classes.

Class	Acid	Tannin	What it brings
bittersharp cider apples	over 4.5 g/L	over 0.2%	acid and grip together; the backbone of a cold country blend
bittersweet cider apples	under 4.5 g/L	over 0.2%	body and a dry finish; Normandy and West Country cider
sharp cider apples	over 4.5 g/L	under 0.2%	brightness; most russets, pippins and many crabs
sweet cider apples	under 4.5 g/L	under 0.2%	sugar and softness to calm the sharp ones

Sugar matters too. Juice at SG 1.050 ferments to about 6.6% alcohol and SG 1.065 to about 8.5% (the 131.25 rule). Most cider juice starts between 1.045 and 1.065.

Cider apple varieties, with numbers

These are the cider apples and crabs we grow that have published juice numbers. The class is from the numbers or from the source named; the zone is our rating from real winters.

Variety	Class	One number (source)	Zone
Hewe's Virginia Crabapple	bittersharp crab	SG 1.060, 9.1 g/L acid, 0.19% tannin (WSU)	3b
Trail Crabapple	bittersharp crab	SG 1.065, 7.5 g/L acid (Jolicoeur)	1b
Kerr Applecrab	bittersharp applecrab (USask)	16.5 Brix, 9.5 g/L acid, pH 3.21 (USask)	2
Dolgo Crabapple	very high acid sharp crab	about 25 to 27 g/L acid (Jolicoeur)	1b
Wickson Crabapple	high sugar, high acid sharp crab	13.9 to 18.9 Brix, 8.8 to 13.6 g/L acid	3
Franklin Cider Apple	bittersharp (very high polyphenols at UVM)	16.9 Brix, 7.8 g/L acid, pH 2.8 (UVM 2015, one sample)	3
Swiss Limbertwig Apple	medium-high acid, some astringency (Brix Cider)	13.1 Brix, pH 3.25 (Brix Cider; acid and tannin units not stated)	4
Binet Rouge Apple	bittersweet	1.5 g/L acid, 0.21% tannin (Long Ashton)	3
Brown Snout Apple	bittersweet	2.4 g/L acid, 0.24% tannin (Long Ashton)	4
Ellis Bitter Apple	bittersweet	2.0 g/L acid, 0.24% tannin (Long Ashton)	4
Golden Russet Apple	sharp	SG 1.061 to 1.066, 6.6 g/L acid (WSU)	3
Roxbury Russet Apple	sharp	SG 1.061, 6.1 g/L acid (WSU)	4
Ribston Pippin Cider Apple	sharp	SG 1.060, 6.7 g/L acid, 0.11% tannin (WSU)	3b
Newtown Pippin Apple	sharp	13.4 Brix, 11.25 g/L acid (Virginia trials)	4
Cox Orange Pippin Apple	sharp	6.0 g/L acid, 0.07% tannin (Long Ashton)	3b
Chestnut Applecrab	sharp applecrab	18.7 Brix average (USDA Geneva)	2
Centennial Applecrab	sweet leaning applecrab	19 Brix on farm (Walden Heights)	2
Northern Spy Apple	sharp	13.2 Brix, 7.0 g/L acid (Geneva, finished cider)	4
Frostbite Apple	sweet aromatic	13.5 Brix (USask)	2b
Wealthy Apple	sharp	12 Brix, pH 3.39 (Walden Heights)	2
Hyslop Crabapple	crab, higher tannin per Walden	13 Brix, pH 3.49 (Walden Heights)	3
Sweet Sixteen Apple	sweet	15 Brix, pH 3.38 (Walden Heights)	3
Tolman Sweet Apple	sweet	15 Brix (USDA Geneva)	4
Pink Pearl Apple	sharp, red fleshed	12.5 Brix, pH 3.25 (Walden Heights)	3b
Burgundy Apple	not classed; pH 3.14 says tart	12 Brix, pH 3.14 (Walden Heights)	2b
Yates Apple	sweet	about 20 Brix (grower average)	4
Ashmead's Kernel Apple	sharp russet	no juice test we trust yet	3b

How to read the juice numbers

Four numbers tell you most of what a juice will do. Sugar is specific gravity (SG) or Brix; every 0.010 of SG above 1.000 makes about 1.3% alcohol. Acid is titratable acidity, usually given as g/L malic; a common cider (BJCP C1A) wants about 5 to 8 g/L by our targets, a French style as little as 2. pH matters for keeping: Andrew Lea's sulfite table asks for more sulfite as pH rises and treats 3.8 as the top of the safe range. Tannin on the Long Ashton scale is what makes a cider dry and grippy rather than thin; 0.2% is the bitter line. Every number on this page carries its source, and when a number is missing, nobody has measured it yet.

Backyard and grocery apples that work

Plenty of good cider has been made from whatever was on the tree. The sharper eating apples work best: Wealthy tests about 12 Brix with pH 3.39 in Vermont, and Northern Spy carried 7.0 g/L acid into a finished cider in the Geneva trials. Very sweet, low acid apples (most modern dessert apples) make flat cider on their own, so they need a crab. Our black currant blend uses 30% Honeycrisp, with Golden Russet, Kerr and a little black currant to give it backbone.

Picking and sweating

Pick cider apples ripe: seeds brown, flesh starting to soften, fruit coming off with a lift and a twist. Many cider makers then let them sit somewhere cool for a few days to a couple of weeks, until they give a little under your thumb, which makes them easier to mill and press. Crabs that ripen in August can't wait for October apples, so press them and freeze the juice, or ferment them on their own and blend the finished ciders.

Cold country realities

Three things decide what you can grow for cider up here. Winter low comes first, so check our zone rating on every tree; ours come from real winters at our orchards in Missoula and Florence and from a network of growers from the Bitterroot to Fairbanks. Season length comes second: Newtown Pippin ripens around October 16 to 26 in Missoula and needs a long fall, while Trail is ready in late August. Bloom time comes third: Binet Rouge and Ellis Bitter bloom in group 7, the latest of all, so they need a late blooming partner.

Here's when the trees in the table above bloom and ripen for us. Bloom groups run 1 (earliest) to 7; pick partners within a group or one either side. Ripening dates are for Missoula; a few are still our estimates until we've picked them ourselves, and real years swing about a week either way.

Variety	Bloom group	Ripens in Missoula
Hewe's Virginia Crabapple	3	Sep 5 to Sep 23
Trail Crabapple	4	Aug 15 to Aug 29
Kerr Applecrab	4	Sep 11 to Sep 25
Dolgo Crabapple	2	Aug 19 to Sep 1
Binet Rouge Apple	7	Oct 16 to Oct 29
Ellis Bitter Apple	7	Sep 4 to Sep 21
Ribston Pippin Cider Apple	4	Sep 25 to Oct 7
Newtown Pippin Apple	4	Oct 16 to Oct 26
Cox Orange Pippin Apple	4	Sep 15 to Sep 29
Chestnut Applecrab	2	Aug 31 to Sep 10
Centennial Applecrab	3	Aug 25 to Sep 4
Northern Spy Apple	5	Oct 8 to Nov 7
Frostbite Apple	4	Oct 1 to Oct 15
Wealthy Apple	5	Sep 3 to Sep 17
Hyslop Crabapple	3	Sep 21 to Oct 5
Sweet Sixteen Apple	5	Sep 15 to Sep 29
Tolman Sweet Apple	4	Oct 2 to Oct 16
Burgundy Apple	4	Sep 17 to Sep 29
Ashmead's Kernel Apple	5	Oct 6 to Oct 18

What are the best apple varieties for cider?

For a cold climate, Golden Russet, Kerr, Hewe's Virginia crab and Franklin cover most of what a cider needs: Golden Russet brings sugar (SG up to 1.066), Kerr and Hewe's bring 9 to 9.5 g/L acid, and Franklin brings tannin. In zone 4 and warmer, add a bittersweet like Binet Rouge for body. True bittersweets are scarce in zone 3 (Binet Rouge is the one we rate there), which is why cold country cider leans on crabs.

Can I make cider from my apple tree?

Yes. Any apple makes cider, but juice from one dessert apple is usually low in acid and tannin, so it tastes flat. Measure it if you can (a hydrometer for sugar, an acid kit for acid). If acid is under about 5 g/L, blend in 10 to 25% crab juice, and if it's very sweet and low in acid, a sharp crab like Kerr or Hewe's fixes it fast. Then plan a blend with the hard cider calculator, which takes your own numbers.

Cider apples vs eating apples

The difference is mostly tannin and acid. Golden Russet's juice carries about 0.10% tannin and Binet Rouge's 0.21%, while most dessert apples test well under 0.1%. Plenty of good cider apples are great to eat (Golden Russet, Ribston Pippin, Cox), and true bittersweets are not: they're dry and astringent off the tree.

Are cider apples edible?

Sharps and sweets, yes, and many are excellent. Bittersweets and bittersharps are safe to eat but astringent enough that most people spit them out, which is exactly what makes them good in cider.

Planning the orchard

Start with our proven cider blends and work backward to the trees, then see how many trees for a cider orchard you'll need. For perry, see our best pears for perry, and for everything else worth fermenting, browse fruit for hard cider.

Sources

About the author. Luke Ruffner Robinson owns Montana Fruit Trees in Missoula, where he and his crew grow cold hardy fruit trees at orchards in Missoula and Florence and track how each variety does through real Montana winters with a network of growers from the Bitterroot to Fairbanks.