ShaneKasey

Recipes 

so what's wrong with using ascorbic acid? because i was at the super wal mart store, and they have 100% apple juice that's from concentrate, and the only other ingredient is Ascorbic acid. the juice is crystal clear, and it's only $1.97 for a 3 quart plastic bottle. i've heard that preservatives are bad, but i don't quite understand what a single vitamin used as a preservative would be horrible. Can a genius fill me in?

BluesGuy

Recipes 

Nothing wrong with ascorbic acid.

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Secondary #1: 2.5 Gallons of Cranberry Mead
Secondary #2: 1 gallon of Blueberry Mead

Nurmey

Recipes 

Sorbate bad, ascorbic acid good. Welcome to HBT!

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enderwig

Recipes 

If your looking for juice with no ascorbic acid, you'll be looking for a while! Like Nurmey said, just watch for anything with sorbate in the name.

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giligson

Recipes 

+1 .......

RIBeer

Recipes 

I've used the Walmart brand juice for all three batches I've made with no issues. Love the results. I would like to try it with a more premium brand just to compare.

Mr. Nice Guy

Recipes 

I'm drinking some wal-mart Apfelwein right now and it is awesome!

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dontman

Recipes 

Done it. Couldn't tell the difference. Paid close to $50 for the batch though, instead of something like $12 for the Walmart brand batch.

The premium batch gave me a sore butt. Mostly from kicking myself for spending all that unnecessary money.

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Denny's Evil Concoctions

Recipes 

Acorbic acid is vitamin C and is used to raise acidy in wine etc and as an antioxident.

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SegmentedMonkey

Recipes 

Generally ascorbic acid is added to non-acidic fermentables, such as honey, to give the yeast a more favorable environment. If you're buying juice, as said, you're unlikely to find any without it added (there's quite a bit naturally occurring, too) as ascorbic acid is used to keep your clean, clear apple juice from turning brown, like cut apples do.

The last cider I made, I made from local, raw pressed cider, no additives. It was quite brown in bottle, looking like real, old fashioned cider, and nothing like the apple juice you buy in bottle. This is do, at least in part, to the lack of antioxidants in the juice, and partially because of the massive amounts of sediment in pressed cider.

I added some ascorbic acid to the juice before pitching the yeast, to provide some antioxidant protection.