Fresh pressed vs store Juice

I have made cider a few times with store juice. All of those fermentations were steady and slow with little to no Krausen. Over the weekend my brew club pressed about 35 gallons of fresh cider. The fresh cider is going crazy in my fermenter. I literally had a cider volcano last night after adding some yeast nutrient which I have done on all my ciders. Is there any reason why the fresh pressed juice would act dramatically different than store juice. Also everyone else that is fermenting this juice is having a similar experience using all different yeast

anyone have any ideas???

Did you add the yeast nutrient after the fermentation was already going?
If so, it's most likely because yeast nutrient has many nucleation sites which cause the co2 to bubble out quickly. It's like the whole mentos+soda thing. I've had this happen to me when I was new to fermenting. I thought, 'oh I'll just add some more sugar so I can up my abv' when the fermentation was already going strong, and massive amounts of foam came out of the bottle. I don't think it has anything to do with fresh-pressed vs store-bought.

Also, did you boil your cider? I saw you had pictures on your blog of some liquid, which I assume is the cider, in a sanke brew kettle.

the Nutrient was dissolved in some water as to cut down on the nucleation sites as i have done with all my other ciders. This is a stepped Nutrient addition 1/2 when pitching 1/4 a day or so later and the remaining 3 days later. The cider was not boiled just pasteurized (160 for 20mins). my question is more around the difference in fermentation strength between the store bought vs fresh pressed. All my other ciders, store bought juice, have fermented fairly quietly over 2 weeks or so. The fresh pressed juice is violently fermenting with about 4" of Krausen

I haven't done ciders, but I have mashed up organic apples to add to my fruit musts. I have noticed the apples start fizzing almost right away, even before the yeast is added. So maybe if the store bought pressed juice was pasteurized, and the fresh pressed you made was not, it is the wild yeasts getting going (even if you pitched a commercial yeast)?

the pressed cider was pasteurized at 160 for 20-30 mins. the only thing I can think of is that there is some compound in the fresh juice that is causing the vigorous fermentation that is filtered out in commercial juices

My brother brought home some fresh pressed juice and i experienced the same thing. The store bought stuff seems to just ferment along quietly while this stuff went crazy in less than 24 hrs. We pasteurized it but did not boil. No sure why. My guess is that it is less processed/filtered/adjusted.

glad to see that I am not alone in this observation.... I am really curious with all the knowledge on this board does anyone know why this is???

The krausen probably comes down to the filtration. I'd bet your HBC did rough, if any filtration of the fresh juice while commercial juice is much more tightly controlled. More apple solids results in more foam.

Additionally, depending on the pH of you juice you may have set some of the pectin while pasteurizing at high temp of a long time, exacerbating the problem. The lower the pH the less temperature needed to alter the pectin's structure. I've seem pectin get set in as little as 125* over about 15 minutes in highly acidic juice.

It's also possible the storebought included preservatives of some sort, even if not listed on the label, to increase shelf life. Beyond that, mass produced store products they often play all kinds of games with to increase shelf life and stability, include things they don't list in the ingredients, etc., so if it were inferior to your fresh pressed product I wouldn't be surprised. Mass produced apple cider I would not be surprised if they play games with concentrating, diluting, adding colorings, etc., to keep all bottles uniform.