Advice on Cider from "store bought" juice

[Chalkyt]

For the first time, this year I don't have any of my own apples. The drought, bushfires, very hot weather and wind this summer all took their toll, even up here in the foothills of the mountains. We just watched small apples fall off the trees. The only survivors were a few crab apples. The nearest local apple growing and cider area (Batlow) was absolutely trashed by the bushfires so there aren't many apples for sale over there as they need all they have just to survive.

So, I have preservative free Granny Smith and Pink Lady juice coming from Summer Snow orchard in Victoria. (The name comes from an early summer cold spell that trashed their orchard some years ago).

After scratting and pressing my own apples I normally go through a few days of Campden tablets and Pectinase before adding the yeast. Is there any point in doing this with bought juice from the orchard? Or, do I just add the yeast (WLP775) and let it go?

I tried some supermarket "preservative free" juice a few months ago using SO4 (because I had it). The result was sort of O.K. but a bit insipid despite doing the lime and black tea trick. It tastes as though it might benefit from dry hopping or something like that.

I am hoping that a blend (don't know what proportions yet) of Pink Lady and Granny Smith with the few crabs that I have might be a bit more like the tasty blend I get from my own assorted apples.

All advice is welcome.

 

[doublejef]

So, I have preservative free Granny Smith and Pink Lady juice coming from Summer Snow orchard in Victoria. (The name comes from an early summer cold spell that trashed their orchard some years ago).

After scratting and pressing my own apples I normally go through a few days of Campden tablets and Pectinase before adding the yeast. Is there any point in doing this with bought juice from the orchard? Or, do I just add the yeast (WLP775) and let it go?

I guess if it's preservative free, it is also pasteurized so there is no need to add any kind of sulfite like campden. You can add pectinase if you want a clear cider. As it doesn't work good in alcool presence, I use to add it in the same time with yeast so it has enough time to do the job before alcool is coming. Works good for me. So, just pour the juice in a clean and sanitized bucket and add your yeast and pectinase if you want to.

 

[bmd2k1]

...just add the yeast and let it go!

I use store bought all the time + FAJC and make some darn tasty stuff...ranging from faux ice cider in the ABV 14%'s to regular ciders in the 6-8% range. I typically will add 100% fruit juice concentrates post fermentation to the lower ABV varieties to produce a rainbow of flavors (www.brownwoodacres.com) -- and have also really embraced the Brewer's Best Watermelon natural flavoring -- and have a few others to try.

Cheers & good luck.

 

[bernardsmith]

Certainly in NY apples used for apple juice and non alcoholic "cider" (to me that is an oxymoron, but that is another story) are far less acidic and far flavor-rich than apples grown for hard cider. It's very similar to using table grapes to make a wine... and that is like trying to race in the Traverse on Clydesdale here in Saratoga. The issue is not simply the lack of tannin. Historically, cider apples wouldn't be eaten as a fruit. So I don't know how anyone can make a good cider using eating apples. But if that's all that there are then I would suggest looking for the best blend of apples you can find.

 

[Chalkyt]

Thanks for the replies. The juice turned up yesterday and without tasting I made the "executive decision" to get Pink Lady and Granny Smith. Pink Lady is used a lot here in Oz as a base juice to which more traditional cider apple are added. Granny Smith is somewhat tart and seemed to be the best of the rest as all the other juices available are real drinking juices (Fuji, Golden Delicious, etc). I actually made a Granny Smith batch from my tree some years ago. It wasn't all that flash initially but improved a lot over 12 months. So... I've got what I've got plus a small number of my own Crimson Knight Crabs.

I am still waiting for the WLP775. I ordered it a week ago and it is supposed to be sent in a cool pack but with Covid 19 closing the place down, everyone is ordering stuff on-line so the suppliers are struggling to keep up and Australia Post is being trashed with deliveries taking much longer than usual. It is late Autumn (Fall) here so I hope that the transit temperatures have been cool enough for the yeast to survive the journey.