Does it matter how i make my juice?

Hello all, first-time poster AND cider maker...

I have my own apples and want to make my own juice, with a blend of some neighbour's apples... All of the recipes and 'How-to' sites call for pressed juice, but I have a juicer (the Mehu Maya) that uses steam to make juice making very easy.

Will my hard cider turn out ok if I don't cold-press my juice? From what I can tell, the heat may kill off the natural yeasts of the apples, but I will add yeast anyways.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks from a newbie!
-Ian

I've never heard of that, maybe someone else can chime in. I'm thinking it ill set the pectin in the juice. Regardless I'd consider adding some pectic enzyme.

I have a friend who has a juicer like that. I'm not sure of the name at all, but I believe it's a Scandanavian juicer of some sort. They made juice out of chokecherries, and I made wine for them from it. It seemed fine, and they liked it, and I didn't really pick up a "cooked fruit" flavor from it.

You could try it and see, I guess.

Give it a shot. One thing I've come to learn is that there's no one right way to do anything. One good rule of thumb is that if he juice tastes good, you're on your way to a good cider.

Thanks all for your helpful advice..
The juice is great, and our cider recipe calls for pectic enzyme already, so my mind is at ease!
Will report back in 5 months

i have had juice from a steamer-juicer contraption but never fermented it. a friend has one, we press his apples for cider and he bottles pasteurized juice from the steamer, which makes a really thick sweet cloudy nectar. if yours is anything like this stuff it's going to be packed with sugar and ferment really well, but could take forever to clear. the character will likely be very different to a fresh pressed juice, so you should probably also make one from pressed juice and then send us all samples of both. cheers

I get a bit worried when people talk of "recipes" for fresh pressed juice. You shouldn't need to add much, just yeast and maybe some enzyme. Cider is a process rather than a recipe, just ferment it, then age and bottle, then drink. Your juicer sounds fine if it turns apples into juice, what more can you ask for.

Greg

gregbathurst said:

I get a bit worried when people talk of "recipes" for fresh pressed juice. You shouldn't need to add much, just yeast and maybe some enzyme. Cider is a process rather than a recipe, just ferment it, then age and bottle, then drink. Your juicer sounds fine if it turns apples into juice, what more can you ask for.

Greg

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+1 a voice of reason. If it wasn't for you and a couple of other posters Greg, I doubt I'd ever come back here. I'm gonna be done with my press in a couple of weeks. Gonna try and cut the rear axle of a car for it this weekend. Its getting heavy.

Sorry for the hijack op. If it works well enough to get you started then addicted to the hobby then we'll all be happy.