"Accidental" hard apple cider (fermenting at cold temps)

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weaselchew

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We had an unopened half gallon of apple cider in the fridge. I've used this local orchard's cider to make hard cider in the past as it is very tasty, fresh and UV pasteurized only, but this one was just to drink as is (or was)

Well, it was forgotten behind some other containers for about a week, and yesterday my wife pulled it out of the fridge... it was much more round than before :p
I opened the lid (actually it blew off after getting most of the safety seal peeled off) and put an airlock on it. It's been happily bubbling away since. I was somewhat surprised that it was fermenting so vigorously in the 36°F fridge. I suppose there's no [free or cheap] way of determining what yeast(s) are fermenting this?

Since putting the airlock on, it's been in a 59-60°F room, but now I'm wondering if I should have left it in the 36°F to see how it would have turned out.

Obviously I didn't get an OG reading since it was still sealed. I suppose I could guesstimate OG by picking up another bottle of fresh cider there and measuring it, although I'm sure batches vary quite a bit at this small local orchard.
 
I've found leaving a jug in the fridge to complete an 'accidental' fermentation results in a relatively sweeter and funkier tasting cider since it's outside of the yeast's comfort range.

Bringing it up to a more normal fermentation temperature should make those same yeasties complete a crisp tasting cider.
 
Sorry for the newbie Q, but how did an unopened container ferment if it had been pasteurized?

I'm a bit confused as well...

This cider is UV pasteurized, not heat pasteurized like a lot of commercial stuff. As far as I understand, UV is much more yeast-friendly than heat.

It also contains no preservatives, which is the bigger reason the wild yeasts were able to start fermentation.
 
I've found leaving a jug in the fridge to complete an 'accidental' fermentation results in a relatively sweeter and funkier tasting cider since it's outside of the yeast's comfort range.

Bringing it up to a more normal fermentation temperature should make those same yeasties complete a crisp tasting cider.

Thanks for this info, by the way. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, in either way it results.
 
I have the exact same thing happening to me in my fridge. It's a gallon of UV pasteurized cider from an orchard that's only been in there for about a week but its fermenting away. It must have been in the cooler at the grocery store for a while before I bought it. I wanted to make some hard caramel apple cider with it. It wouldnt be a problem to add some more yeast to it and pull it out of the fridge right? It's got some floaties on the top and its bulged out a bit from the pressure.
 
Got my hands on a fruit press when I was in high school 82 or 83 or so. Picked a bunch of apples off a tree on our property and pressed them. Put the juice in those quart jars with the locking lids. Sort of like a wide mouth Grolsch bottle. One managed to get pushed to the back of the fridge on the bottle shelf. Out of sight is out of mind. At some point a few months later as the fridge was being cleaned, the cider in the jar was discovered. It was all fizzy and good tasting. Sometimes you have to love those accidental fermentations.
 
Help. New to this. Real new. How will this approach turn out? One thing for sure, I'm committed now!
I bought 2 martinellis unfiltered apple juice pasturized in 50.7 oz. glass containers. drank a bit off each one for space and put a 1/4 oz package ( 7 grams) of redstar baking yeast in each one and a heavy duty punch ball baloon on each one for air locks. Lettin em sit at room temp. they are doin their thing and now I need to know what next?
 
Ya, even though it's FDA approved, UV pasteurization isn't as effective as standard heat pasteurization. I've had some problems with UV pasteurized stuff in the past, now I treat it like raw fruit or unpasteurized juice (hit it with campden) & haven't had a problem with it since.
Regards, GF.
 
Help. New to this. Real new. How will this approach turn out? One thing for sure, I'm committed now!
I bought 2 martinellis unfiltered apple juice pasturized in 50.7 oz. glass containers. drank a bit off each one for space and put a 1/4 oz package ( 7 grams) of redstar baking yeast in each one and a heavy duty punch ball baloon on each one for air locks. Lettin em sit at room temp. they are doin their thing and now I need to know what next?

Well, if you want them carbonated, I suppose the simple way would just be to let them go until they stop bubbling, add some extra sugar and cap the bottles. You don't want to add too much as it can overpressurize and worst case, crack the bottles. There are priming sugar calculators where you select the style, quantity, and temperature... it will then tell you how much sugar to prime with. I would guess somewhere in the half ounce per bottle range.

If you taste it once it has stopped bubbling and it tastes too dry, you could "backsweeten" it, there are other threads that talk about doing this.

Ya, even though it's FDA approved, UV pasteurization isn't as effective as standard heat pasteurization. I've had some problems with UV pasteurized stuff in the past, now I treat it like raw fruit or unpasteurized juice (hit it with campden) & haven't had a problem with it since.
Regards, GF.

Mine actually turned out pretty great. While I'm sure the UV filtering probably helped, I think the real reason it worked was due to lack of preservatives added to the cider. I usually try to avoid adding campden tablets and the like if I don't have to, in fact I don't think I ever opened the bottle of tablets I bought a while back.
 
About all I know is that I'm to wait until the balloon goes flat, at least that what somebody told me. I guess that would mean the yeast has consumed all the sugar that was available in the juice. I dont know if I even put the right amount of yeast in. Also I think if the balloon goes flat, it would turn out dry as can be, not what i want but then again, not enough experience to get what i want first time. I'm pretty sure I'll have to filter due to using unfiltered apple juice. How does a person know how much yeast to use? is it a matter related to container volume or.........?
 
About all I know is that I'm to wait until the balloon goes flat, at least that what somebody told me. I guess that would mean the yeast has consumed all the sugar that was available in the juice. I dont know if I even put the right amount of yeast in. Also I think if the balloon goes flat, it would turn out dry as can be, not what i want but then again, not enough experience to get what i want first time. I'm pretty sure I'll have to filter due to using unfiltered apple juice. How does a person know how much yeast to use? is it a matter related to container volume or.........?

There are yeast calculators out there. You should be fine on yeast quantity. You really can't put too much (within reason) in, and if you put too little in, it will just take longer to start fermenting (and possibly allow other yeasts to ferment as well depending on your balloon "airlock") It would probably be preferable to use a brewer's yeast next time. It might not get too dry as baking yeast doesn't have quite the alcohol tolerance of brewing yeast so it might phase out once it gets to a certain alcohol percentage and still have residual sugar left. You could draw a sample after a bit and taste to see where you are. You can get packets of dry yeast at your LHBS for $1-3 depending on brand/type. Also an airlock is usually about the same price as well.

As far as filtering goes... mine was unfiltered as well, but it settled out and was very clear so I didn't bother going any further.
 
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