Making hard cider from store-bought apple juice

Does anyone have experience doing this? Any tips on a good brand (preferably organic)? Ideally I would find some fresh-pressed cider where I could pick the variety of apples, but I don't have the time to do that right now, so I figure I'll just go buy 5 gallons of cider and pitch some yeast to it and see what happens.

Also would it be a bad idea to bottle the finished cider back into the glass jugs I got the juice in? Cleaned and sanitized first of course.

Most of us buy our juice, I've even used concentrate. You can put the cider back in the jugs, but make certain the fermentation is done.

Cool, thanks, I guess I'll just try different brands until I find what I like.

What about yeast? I read somewhere that champagne yeast is a good one to use so I picked some up at the LHBS.

Also, what about adding sugar? I notice a lot of people do this. I assume this will increase the final alcohol content and mean it will take longer to ferment? I don't like overly sweet ciders, would adding sugar at the beginning make it more sweet in the end?

I've been using store bought juice for quite a while with good results. As for the champagne yeast, it should work out pretty well for you. My only experience with it is that it pretty much ALWAYS ferments through ALL of the sugars in the batch, unless you go crazy adding sugar (haven't tried it, but I figure you'd have to go pretty high, like 1.1 to whack out champagne yeast). So, since you stated you like a dry cider, it should go well. Adding sugar at the beginning will just make the alcohol content higher if you don't stop the fermentation early. From memory, store-bought juice without added sugar would probably yield ~4.5% alcohol.

Great, thanks! That's very helpful. I think I'll add sugar and pitch two packets of yeast to burn through it all.

I'm also a newbie, have made about 3 batches now. Both have been great, and had very different tastes. Two were made with Lavlin EC-1118, the one with the Safale SA-04. I found this thread to be very helpful. It's a huge thread, but the info on page 1, page 15, and some other pages had comments that helped, and made me think differently about what I was doing.

All my juice has been from a store, or from a farmer's market.

Does anyone have experience making cider with Simply Apple? It's by far my favorite juice, and I'm willing to spend the extra money if it makes a quality cider. (my first one)

You'd frankly be wasting money to use Simply Apple, as all of the character of the original juice is subsumed by the yeast and alcohol. Use Tree Top or Mott's or house brand - whatever you can find that doesn't have any preservatives (sorbates, particularly).

Check the thread - long though it is - on EdWort's Apfelwein. It's in the Wine Maker's forum here on the board. You'll find what you're looking for.

I'm on my 3rd batch of apfelwein right now. It's tasty, tart, and totally drinkable. Oh yeah, and it'll get you drunk!

Well its certainly an exaggeration to say that your juice choice doesn't matter. While the flavor changing significantly through fermentation the juice you choose does have a big effect on the end result. Having said that is not the same as saying you can't make great cider out of inexpensive juice.

I personally wouldn't use simply apple, becaue of cost. For the same or less I have done with fresh pressed from a farm or at least "fresh pressed" organic juice from the store. Also one thing to keep in mind is that if you use drinking juice your using different apples than traditional ciders. Juicing apples tend to be sweeter and less tart than cider apples. Some people add acid blend or citric juice to balance out this difference.

Hello,

Noobian here

I just want to know what the yea's and no's are when choosing apple juice (cider) to turn into hard cider?

I just want to make sure i buy something i can turn into cider

thank you in advance

I got great results by going to Whole Foods and buying their organic apple juice in 1 gallon jugs (apx $7 each), pouring them into a carboy and adding champagne yeast. Turned out very nice, plus I got a few jugs to make small experimental batches of beer, mead, etc
I've also bought them 1 at a time, added sugar (now a cyser), different yeasts, popped an airlock in the jug and had fun with the results. Add some superkleer and you have a wonderfully clear cider. Or freeze it and make applejack

I just use Walmart or Aldi brand juice and it all works out great. The stuff I got from Whole foods for 4 times the price was no better tasting... IMHO

You do get the free glass jug though?? I have only done about 20-30 batches and maybe my taste buds aren't as keen as others..but I drink for the effect..but taste is also key. I have done Edworts recipe but I really like the Sam's choice recipe. good luck

I have been browsing sites and forums and found that many advise to use
100% apple NOT from concentrate and NO added preservatives. is there anything else i should look out for ?

No preservatives is the main thing to look for. I'm on my 10th gallon right now, I make it in 1 gallon batches. I found some apple juice at the store for $1.29 per 1/2 gallon an it works great. As for the yeast I would say that the champagne yeast will do what you want but you should also try Nottingham it works good also. If I were you I would make a 1 gallon batch first to see if you like it with the champagne yeast or some other strain. In the pic from the left is a hard lemonade, apple wine, JAOM, and a cinnamon apple cider. Cheers

Looks delicious thanks for your suggestions

if it has no preservatives, you can make cider out of it. the only acceptable additive is vitamin C.

damdaman said:

Great, thanks! That's very helpful. I think I'll add sugar and pitch two packets of yeast to burn through it all.

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Just to save a buck, consider pitching a partial sachet of yeast(if you're doing 1 gallon). But, I'm a noob so I don't know what is usually suggested here.

My first batch ever I used about 1/3 of a pack of nottingham and it did well. On my second batch using another 1/3 from the same packet from earlier and it's going really good.

I have been wanting to do a cider from store bought juice and used this web video as a tutorial [ame]http://youtu.be/La38oQjdyPw[/ame] my kinda tasted horrible. I have two theory's on why, #1 I used pasteurized juice so there would not be any preservatives and maybe the heat from that process caramelized the sugars and gave me an off taste (that's not very likely but I haven't ruled it out yet) the other is that it was badly contaminated with bacteria. I can drink it if I add sugar but its still not great. The guy on the video recommended bread yeast and that made a difference in taste as well (not good but still drinkable). so my theory is that maybe the Acetic acid used as a preservative that everyone recommends for the hard cider if safe for yeast (a fungus) but still kills the bacteria (non a fungus). definitely going to try again with an ale yeast and a non pasteurized juice.

I have had good luck with store bought juices. I look for juices with that just use absorbic acid as the preservative. I bring them home, toss in some dry yeast, put an air lock on and they go. Sometimes they are slow to ferment out but they will ferment; I have never had one not ferment. I have done apple, peach, rasberry, cranberry....It really so so much easier than beer and a great place for any new brewer to start. .

Other brands that work fine are archer farms (target brand) cider or juice. Motts AJ also works. Pasteurized is fine (some hardcore ciderers try to avoid it though) and realistically from concentrate is fine too, most juice is from concentrate... But thats pretty much what I use and it works fine!

And yes, most of the popular wine/champagne yeasts work fine... And People are always recommending nottingham, and I have used it lots of times. It will get the job done, but for me, no matter what you are making it will make your end product smell weird, almost sulphur-y unless you let it ferment completely dry. Not sure why that is...

Hi I'm just wondering can I add a strawberry flavour to the recipe using a cordial or something similar to make the taste a bit different and wat steps would I need to take

I'm on about my 8th gallon. I'm using 1 gallon carboys & trying a different recipe each time. I like a slightly sweet cider, more like a Woodchuck brand cider than a Crispin or an Angry Orchard brand. So I tried adding sugar thinking it would make it sweeter. Wrong. It just took longer to ferment, then came out with higher alcohol content. My first batch, fermented right in the half-gallon jugs it came in from the store, I used a baker's yeast and added no sugar. It was ok, drinkable, but very dry.

Then I tried a champagne yeast. It tolerates up to 19%, and no matter how much sugar I added, it was still dry tasting, until I topped out at SG of 1.15, which was almost like syrup. Final ABV was over 18%, but there was still some sugar left. Too strong. I tried adding white cane sugar, and also adding thawed frozen concentrate apple juice to reconstituted juice until I got the SG above 1.1. It makes for some very strong cider. Apple wine, really. Not exactly what I was going for.

I've always used store brand or inexpensive apple cider to start.

The last few batches, I bought a small bag of toasted oak cubes from a local brewing store, and added a dozen cubes to each gallon carboy, right at the beginning. Gives a mild flavor and good aftertaste. Very pleasant.

I've also tried adding spices when I rack it out of the carboy into the plastic jugs it came in. 1 clove per half gallon, a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. I leave it in the plastic jugs until my supply of empty bottles is ready, then bottle it & it sits another couple weeks. Spices give a good complex taste.

Recently I switched to an ale yeast on the advice of the guy in the brewing store. They were brewing a 6 gallon pail of apple cider when I went. They used the local store brand of apple juice, a whole small bag of oak cubes, and the ale yeast he sold me. No sugar added. He said it takes about a week to ferment. I'm trying a batch now, but won't get to the drinking stage until 3 or 4 weeks from now.

Right now I'm drinking from a batch that started with a gallon of store brand apple juice, 3 cups of sugar, and the champagne yeast. It's 13% ABV, medium dry and has got a good color.

ThunderPanda said:

People are always recommending nottingham, and I have used it lots of times. It will get the job done, but for me, no matter what you are making it will make your end product smell weird, almost sulphur-y unless you let it ferment completely dry. Not sure why that is...

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My last 3 batches have used Notty with 5 tsp of super ferment (for 5-6 gal) and had NONE of the off nose qualities that my first two had. Batch 1 had no SN and batch 2 had 1 tsp of it. I suspect that there are other similar products, but I have become a believer in helping that yeast.

The Walmart Juice works very well...one of brew buddies has a great recipe. I have drank many of his batches....So I decided to make my own...will be back sweetening and bottling next weekend...then pasterurize a few days later...and we use the WL English Cider Yeast...the pic shows all the ingredients!

I use Musselmans (Walmart) or Costco AJ (bottled by Musselmans) the only difference being the Costco is filtered and clear.

I add brown sugar and AJC to a SG of 1.080-1.090.

I flavor with Bakto apple flavoring 1ml/gal


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I've done 4 1 gallon batches, all with shop rite apple cider and used champagne yeast. I'm happy with the results....except for one where I mixed in some cranapple juice. The cranberry made a horribly dry after taste.

I bought 5 granny smith apples and put them in a blender with some of the cider to add. Hoping the granny smith flavor comes through. the was sitting on the top of the carboy. Anyone else ever tried adding a specific type of apple, or fruit to theirs?


I have 6 gallons (3 apple juice/3 cider) for a big batch.

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Anyone noticed much of a difference between using juice from concentrate(the pre-mixed stuff, not from cans) and the not-from concentrate juice? I would assume that the stuff from concentrate wouldn't have as strong an apple flavour but curious if anyone has noticed much of a difference. I started a 1 gallon test batch with the pre-mixed stuff(it was cheap and easy to get ahold of) and am tempted to stock up on the not-from-concentrate stuff next time it is on sale but not sure if it is worth the aggro.

I'd look to see if it's a "from concentrate" brand first. One issue I'd see it the water you use to reconstitute the juice. You can pick up off flavors from tap water. I'd stick to a "not from concentrate" juice and use I unreconstituted FAJC to bring up the sugar and add some flavor to your hard cider.


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vincentAlpha said:

Anyone noticed much of a difference between using juice from concentrate(the pre-mixed stuff, not from cans) and the not-from concentrate juice? I would assume that the stuff from concentrate wouldn't have as strong an apple flavour but curious if anyone has noticed much of a difference. I started a 1 gallon test batch with the pre-mixed stuff(it was cheap and easy to get ahold of) and am tempted to stock up on the not-from-concentrate stuff next time it is on sale but not sure if it is worth the aggro.

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I notice a difference, as in the presence of apple flavor in the final product. I am currently using Tree Top 3 apple blend not from concentrate compared to cans of concentrate. The not from concentrate final product is well worth it IMHO.

Frank

Jkalotai said:

I'd look to see if it's a "from concentrate" brand first. One issue I'd see it the water you use to reconstitute the juice. You can pick up off flavors from tap water. I'd stick to a "not from concentrate" juice and use I unreconstituted FAJC to bring up the sugar and add some flavor to your hard cider.

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That is my working theory. My from concentrate batches would sometimes be OK, and sometimes quite tart/sour with the same recipes. I assumed it was due to variance in the refrigerator filtered tap water used.

Frank

Good to know, I pretty much figured the actual juice would turn out a better result wrt the apple-ness of the cider. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out, it has been in primary for about a week now and bubbling like mad for the last 5 days. Getting really clear with a nice compact yeast cake at the bottom. Thinking I'll grab some of the cake and start up another batch with better juice when I bottle or rack to secondary(debating the next bit).

Unless you're in a hurry, I'd rack and let it settle for 10-14 days.


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My experience adding frozen concentrated apple juice has been good. It concentrates the apple flavor. But you can over-do it. I once added eight 12-oz frozen concentrates to a 1 gallon carboy, then topped it with apple juice. The initial SG was 1.15, almost as thick as maple syrup. When it finished fermenting it was over 18% ABV, but still sweet and super apple-tasting. It's too sweet for me, and I blend it down with a more dry cider before drinking it.

Recent discovery: At the grocery store Sprouts they sell an un-filtered apple juice in a 1 gallon clear carboy. You can ferment right in the container it comes in. I measured specific gravity and it was 1.050. I poured off just over 12 ounces, then added one 12-oz frozen concentrate apple juice, straight in, no added water. It brought the SG up to 1.060. Then I pitched in ale yeast, Coopers from diybeer.com.au and also I added a dozen little pieces of oak that I'd toasted in the toaster oven for 90 minutes.

Anyhow, you don't have to buy carboys at the brewing store. They cost me $8 each, and this one gallon bottle from Sprouts cost the same, $8 but came filled with unfiltered, & very cloudy apple cider, ready for fermenting. A #6 rubber stopper fits the bottle.

I have found that what makes a good tasting juice doesn't necessarily make a good tasting cider.

I have experimented with some really expensive organic top-shelf juices which taste amazing as juice, but the cider they give is actually not that great. Conversely I have also experimented with some cheap budget juices that are pretty bland as a juice, and although some of them are pretty nasty as cider, I have found that some of them are actually really good once you have it fermented.

Zadam, that is probably because the fermentation brings out the apple varities they used... i.e never cook with honeycrisp, unless you like rubber.

I make sure I buy juice and concentrate from US grown sources and use locally pressed cider. I'm lucky to live in CT as there are 5 mills less than 30 minutes away. Always look to see that potassium sorbate is NOT an ingredient.

Don't use Market Pantry cider from Target. It develops a "brown" off flavor after primary fermentation. The stuff won't clear either, even with pectin. So far my batch made with Market Pantry apple juice is O.K.

I haven't liked three batches made with Musselman's cider until after six months of aging. They were very good afterwards.

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BoJonJovi said:

I have had good luck with store bought juices. I look for juices with that just use absorbic acid as the preservative. I bring them home, toss in some dry yeast, put an air lock on and they go. Sometimes they are slow to ferment out but they will ferment; I have never had one not ferment. I have done apple, peach, rasberry, cranberry....It really so so much easier than beer and a great place for any new brewer to start. .

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Ascorbic Acid is vitamin C, not a preservative.

Jkalotai said:

Ascorbic Acid is vitamin C, not a preservative.

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Ascorbic acid is a preservative. It is added to neutralize oxygen which can cause foods/drinks to decay faster if not removed.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I've only done beer and mead in the past, but I'm about to do my first cider batch, either this weekend or the next. I appreciate the input. Here's to hoping it goes well.