No-Step Cider Making!

Trying to figure out what happened here. Bought a 1-gallon plastic jug full of fresh cider from my local apple festival this weekend.

The label says "Pasteurized" and also "100% Juice no additives".

Brought the cider home, put it in my pantry (70F degrees) and two days later I noticed bubbles near the top. Sure enough the container was hardening as pressure was building up.

My question is if it was pasteurized and I never even opened the container, how could it just start fermenting on its own?!

Will there be any risk of e-coli at the end of this process if I drink it without adding any Camden?

Pasteurization won't kill all the microorganisms. If it's been only two days, chances are that it wasn't pasteurized properly.

so should i be worried about ecoli?

FFc said:

so should i be worried about ecoli?

Click to expand...

fermentation and alcohol destroys e. coli, crypto, etc...some will argue, but it's just not true that FINISHED hard cider can contain e. coli. here is a reference: Merwin, Ian. “Hard Cider: An Old-New Apple Product.” New York Fruit Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 3, 1999.

now, if you taste your hyrdo sample when it's only down to 1.045 or something, that could end poorly for you....

all fresh cider needs to be kept cold at all times though. even if it is pasturized, i think. that's why you just don't see it sitting out in a juice aisle like clear apple juice from china or something else.

yeah, it was 1.048 when i opened it and racked it to my glass 1-gal demi. label did say "keep refrigerated" but i imagine if everyone didn't follow those instructions the orchard may have ended up selling plastic bottle bombs or e-coli juice to lots of people.

I'd be worried about botulinum before worrying about E. Coli.

FFc said:

label did say "keep refrigerated" but i imagine if everyone didn't follow those instructions the orchard may have ended up selling plastic bottle bombs or e-coli juice to lots of people.

Click to expand...

e. coli is easier to kill than yeast. the pasturization could have easily killed that but left a few yeasties to replicate.
still though, i think most people don't put fresh cider in their pantry.

JonM said:

I'd be worried about botulinum before worrying about E. Coli.

Click to expand...

botulism can't survive in the highly acidic, and alcoholic environment in a post fermented land of hard cider. nothing can. this was why the colonists drank so much of it. even the kids.
back in those days, after the apples were pressed, the remaining pulp( mostly dry) was mixed with water and pressed again. this created a cider that 2% abv or so that the children drank.

I mean they're both bad, but botulism is just downright scary.

JonM said:

I mean they're both bad, but botulism is just downright scary.

Click to expand...

i couldn't agree more.

tasteless, odorless, and tiny amounts will take down a big, healthy dude.
i think about it every time i make canned goods.

it never occurred to me it was urgent to keep refrigerated. I bought the juice at an outdoor festival. The temp was like 80F and these jugs were just sitting on a flatbed truck being sold. Normally, if I buy something at the supermarket from the fridge it goes right into my fridge. My bad!

FFc said:

it never occurred to me it was urgent to keep refrigerated. I bought the juice at an outdoor festival. The temp was like 80F and these jugs were just sitting on a flatbed truck being sold. My bad

Click to expand...

sounds like an easy mistake to make, given the circumstances. they should not have been selling it like that at all. around missouri, if somebody got caught doing that they would be in lots of trouble!
even at farmers markets, they put the juice in big tubs and cover the whole mess with ice and have one on ice in a smaller tub for folks to sample if they choose.
that's just an irresponsible vendor. if you see them again at some other thing, i wouldn't buy from them simply because if they have lax habits there, where else?
still shouldn't be a problem once fully fermented, though.