Cheap Apple Juice in LA?

Howdy all,
I just recently moved down to Los Angeles and I'm looking to get some Apfelwein going. However, I looked far and nigh and it seems apple juice is ridiculously expensive in this town. The best deal I found was Mott's @ $3.50 a gallon at Target. I've looked at Vons, Jons, Ralphs, Albertsons, Gelsons, Trader Joes and most of their juice runs around $5.00 a gallon.

Any locals have a good juice connection? Or, will I have to pony up and pay the premium?

 

Not sure I've seen it any lower than $3.50, even at Costco.

If you want to save some cash use frozen concentrate.

 

Whole Foods wont be cheap but they have big 1 gallon things of some decent juice

 

$1.97 for a 3 qt bottle @ walmart.

 

$3.50 is expensive? Around here you won't find even rot gut applejuice less than $4.99 a gallon.

 

Thanks Gratus, I bought a bunch of juice at Walmart last night... didn't realize it wasn't a full gallon till I got home, but it still works out to be something like $2.67 a gallon.

Evil, I moved down from Eugene and I used to get Albertson's brand juice for about 2.50 a gallon. Maybe it's just PDX?

 

Where in LA?

 

Crenshaw Blvd. Down around West Adams. Hope that makes sense, since I'm still quite new to this city.

 

Welcome to SoCal. I think there is a LHBS up there somewhere, not sure where. The place I use is Stein Fillers in Long Beach. It's a meh at best.

 

I went to the LHBS in Culver City for some dry yeast and some airlocks and wasn't too impressed. I think I may be spoiled from living in Eugene. There I could walk to two different shops that were open till 9pm 7 days a week that always had uber fresh products (they'd call me and I'd get my Maris Otter right from the truck).

 

I live in Irvine... I must say I am not terribly impressed w/ the LHBSs around here... They aren't great... On top of that, I find them pretty expensive... :-/

 

+1 on the lame selection of LHBSs in Orange County. I've thought about checking out the MoreBeer shop in Riverside, but ordering from Midwest/Northern Brewer is too damn convenient and easy to do from my desk at work (and cheaper since I don't pay tax). In addition, I know that the ingredients are fresh since they do so much volume.

 

MoreBeer shop in Riverside is good for bulk grain purchase. They sell 50# GW 2-row sack for $33. It's worth the drive for that price if you buy 2 or more bags per visit. The staff is pretty friendly and helpful too.

 

I'm planning on going to the SoCal regional homebrew competition and will probably stop by MoreBeer while I'm out that way to pick up some bulk grain.

 

Two cool-assed LHBSses within walking distance that stayed open late?

Damn svuds, how could you leave that?

 

Did I mention I also made my living pouring beer for Rogue at their outpost in Eugene (even got a chance to help brew a few batches of IPA).

Walking away from Beervana was definitely not easy, but I had a job out here and the bar/restaurant/service industry thing was starting to wear on me.

 

you are telling me...i went to gelsons ( a mistake because i knew how ridiculously high their prices were already) and ended up paying 35 dollars for 5 gallons of martinellis apple juice. i was just too short on time to go anywhere else. what a rip off. LA can be like that sometimes

 

At the risk of repeating myself from a similar post…

You guys need to go to the source. Here is what All About Apples has on Southern California. Looks like you have some good options for decent juice.
All About Apples | California Apple Orchard and Farm Listings

Call around to the local presses to see what they will sell you. Tell them you want to make cider. Most presses – even the commercial ones - use some sort of 'flavor' apples to give some zip to whatever cheap bulk apples they are using. Those are usually the ones you want. In Central Virginia, these include Staymans, Winesaps, Jonathans, Yorks, McIntosh, Granny Smiths, etc. Some presses can get apples that are specifically cultivated for hard cider. Northern Spys, Pippens, Russets, Black Twig, etc. Those are even better but usually more expensive – so it’s a bit of a trade off, depending on how much you are making

The types of apples used to make sweet apple juice, including concentrate, most store bought juice and even a lot of the roadside fresh stuff - are high sugar, low acid, low tannin varieties, such as Red and Yellow Delicious. They are the apple equivalent of a table grape. They taste good fresh, but when you ferment off the sugar, there isnt much taste left.

If you want something that will taste good without additives, you need to start with a little research to find out what varieties are grown in your area that will give you some acid and tannin. For starters, check out:
The Best Apples to Buy and Grow
WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research & Extension Center

Around these parts, the local presses sell bulk juice made from good cider apples for under 3 bucks a gallon, although you generally have to get 30-50 gallons to get the bulk rate. Single gallons are more like 5 to 7 bucks.

35 bucks for 5 gallons is a ripoff. A lot of presses will let you spec exactly what kind of apples you want in the mix for that price.

 

i know its a ripoff. but none of these orchards are close to me. and i am short on time.

 

I'm going to use frozen concentrate for my first batch of Apfelwein. I will leave it in the refrigerator for a couple days to thaw out and then mix in water from my reverse osmosis system. Since most bottled juice is from concentrate, it's going to be the same thing (as long as you use RO water). Once I add the thawed concentrate to room temp water, i should be able to pitch the yeast without waiting for it to warm up.

I'm not a tree hugger, but I would hate all that plastic waste by going with all those bottles.

This should cut the cost per batch dramatically

 

Albertson's has their house labeled cider on sale for under $3.50 this week. Picked up 5 gallons yesterday.

 

My wife was at Costco and called to tell me that they had Kirkland Organic Apple Juice (Not from Concentrate) for $4.50 a gallon. (right next to it was 2 gallons of Tree Top for $6.89)

I scrapped my plans of using concentrate in favor of a higher quality product.
The tree top juice was much darker since I think they heat the fresh juice in order to make the concentrate.

It's pretty tough to beat $4.50/gallon for fresh pressed organic apple juice. In addition, the bottle said it was made with 100% American apples. Go USA!

 

Costco Organic is the cheapest I've seen, at a little under $5/gal with taxes.

 

I just picked up 4 gallons of costco organic apple juice today. and put it in my carboy with some dissolved sugar and pitched in my starter. We will see in the next couple days how it works out...

 

The problem with the costco not from concentrate is although it's really sweet, there isn't much character there at all, I will actually take the treetop over the kirkland any day. all 3 batches I've done with kirkland juice (yeasts: s-04, wlp023, wlp037) came out alcoholic, but without much apple flavor. YMMV.

 

I don't know about LA, but Walmart here has apple juice for $1.97 / 96oz. (3qts.) juice from concentrate, no preservatives, only ascorbic acid (vitamin C) added. I figure 1 wally world is like another, at least here in the US, so you might check & see if your lcl wally world has the same deal. Regards, GF.

 

I bought the 100% Pressed Organic Apple Juice from Costco. All of the juice is made from American apples. Is this the same Kirkland juice your referring to?
How long did you age the cider? After a good aging the flavor starts to come out.

 

going on 8 months right now, and my normal acid/tannin regiment needs to be kicked up a notch for this particular juice. I have a feeling the apples used were all golden delicious and red delicious.

 

Curious, did you add in any corn sugar or brown sugar? I used Brown and White sugar.

 

Yesterday, SWMBO and I were shopping at our local Walmart, and I spied their "Great Value" apple juice...3-quart bottles...for $1.50/bottle. I immediately took off my shoes so I could use my fingers AND toes, and I determined after much sweat and mathematical calculation that it worked out to somewhere around $2.00/gallon. I quickly put my shoes back on, and slipped seven of them into my cart. Check your local Walmart...they may have the same price.

glenn514