$6 organic cider, already in carboy, whole foods

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JohnnyC, did you do anything w/ the 3G? I've got one running for three weeks, and shows no signs of clearing... patience, being a virtue, is in short supply.

Honestly I started the cider right around when I posted and only in the past week have I seen any clearing. It is clearing, its just taking a while.
 
Why worry about getting a glass jug? Just use the #1 PET bottles that most of the apple juice comes in, it is the same plastic as a Better Bottle.
 
If I were to do the 1 gallon cider from Whole Foods, should I add additional fermentables? Ed's Apelwein calls for 2 lbs of corn sugar for 5 gallons, should I put 6 oz of corn sugar into a one gallon batch?
 
It's only been 3 weeks, give it more time.

It's amazing. When I first started reading, that was the most common thing said (to newbs). Then, when I started reading after starting my first batches, I'd think the same thing about "those newbs"... give it time, don't you read?

Now, when it's mine, I'm doing the same blasted thing...

Some recipies seem to clear faster, and we get a little experience... but if one little thing is "off", we immediately wonder if we've screwed something up, gotten something wrong, etc.

Three weeks if evidently very young for the Whole Foods Organic AJ... somehow, I think it should have been faster, and if I had read my own post, I would have said ...

:eek:
 
Yeah I started mine around the time of the OP, it's definatley not what I'd call clear yet, but I figure I'm just gonna let it hang out in my fridge along with a mead.

Those bottles are awesome though, I've got three of them and they're like the perfect size for "Hmmm, what if..." kinda recipies :)

I wish I had another, I pitched yeast in a black currant peach passionfruit melomel this morning and now I'm eyeing the empty glass bottles in my house for which are likley to fit the airlocks I have XP Wanna try an acerglyn..

too bad the sale is over! They've risen 2$ in price, which isnt thaaat much? buut I think I'm gonna wait till they come down.
 
I was bummed... I missed the sale, and when I asked, they didn't know if it was ever going back on sale. Every time I go in, I eye the remaining bottles, just in case they run out.

I've been considering using my remaining empty for a blend of some of the individual apple juices from Trader Joes. I don't have the list w/ me, but if I can find a tarter juice, I'd like to lead with that.
 
I just found a similar deal at a whole foods type market near me... $6.50 for organic apple juice, in carboy :D I bought two, and some corn sugar. One has just corn sugar- about a cup, and the other has an 8oz bottle of cherry juice concentrate.

The juice alone tested at 1.050 SG, and the bottle with the cherry juice in it came out at 1.060 on the nose. The one with corn sugar is a little higher, maybe 1.065... i tested it before I added all the sugar so I'm not quite sure.

I just used a packet of Munton's dry yeast I had laying around... we'll see what it does. The cherry concentrate didn't really add that much direct cherry flavor, but it does have more body than the plain one.
 
i hope ya shook it up alot before pitching...


sad thing, my local apple ranch (200 yards away, maybe) i got a few gallons of their cider, 1.067 out of the jug. no sugar needed.

gives you an idea of how watered down that commercial stuff is, don't it?

best cider i ever had... i used champagne yeast, it finished @ .998

i had a few headaches, but some damned good memories, and clear as water hard cider.

this year, i will but 20 gallons i promise. 2 gallons was not enough!
 
ohh yeah, i shook the hell out of it. I pulled out maybe a cup of juice out of each batch for tasting and gravity readings, and then added the sugar / cherry concentrate and shook it like crazy.

1.067, holy cow. Nothing needed in there... best cider I ever had was probably up there, fresh pressed from a farmers market. Not sure if I could find that down here in southern california anywhere.

I have a feeling these two gallons will only be the start for me...
 
ohh yeah, i shook the hell out of it. I pulled out maybe a cup of juice out of each batch for tasting and gravity readings, and then added the sugar / cherry concentrate and shook it like crazy.

1.067, holy cow. Nothing needed in there... best cider I ever had was probably up there, fresh pressed from a farmers market. Not sure if I could find that down here in southern california anywhere.

I have a feeling these two gallons will only be the start for me...

ever check Toms Farm? Fruit baskets, Gift Baskets, Fruit Gift Baskets, unique gourmet gift baskets at Tom's Farms

the big one by lake smellsomore... they have alotta stuff, i would not be suprised. course you probably would not find the good stuff till september or so.
 
I'll have to check it out, looks cool.

The fermentation on both of my batches took off within an hour... and by this morning they're bubblin away happily. The cherry one is a bit more vigorous, but I think that's because I didn't quite evenly pitch the yeast into em. I think the cherry got more.
 
Still waiting... It's been, what, 44 days... still pretty much as cloudy as the day I bought it. That can't be right, as I can see a good 1.5" to 2" sediment on the bottom.

I may just have to bottle, fridge, and drink it to save face, and start again using the glass carboy w/ clear apple juice. That's always clear! ;-)

Oh, I was surfing whole foods and Wegman's, trolling for juice. Both WF and Wegman's have some 100% juice Kosher offerings for what look like excellent prices. I'll have to find my notes and drop a line, but the varieties are good: Cherry, pomagranite, blueberry, cranberry.

After I get a couple more gallons under my belt (er, figuratively, but also literally), then I'd like to try a flavored cider. Oh, and I found 5# of honey in the Kosher for Passover section, averaging $2.65 / lb. That's pretty good.

Back to waiting for my cider to clear...
 
You may need to add some pectic enzyme if the juice was cloudy when you bought it. It may never clear up if you started with cloudy juice, without the enzyme.
 
It was the cloudiest thing I've ever seen.

I couldn't wait... after reading about yeast autolysis, off-flavors, and what not, I talked myself into rack.

Before:
0316092144b.jpg


After:
0316092249a.jpg


Main change... the inch of dirt in the bottom of the jug...

It didn't smell bad when I popped the lock... even the dirt didn't smell bad. Kind of flat, appley, so I guess I can wait. Is it time yet? Is it time? How bout now...? now?
Sigh... ;-)
 
Do you guys pour the juice out and sanitize the container before pouring it back in? Or do you just add your yeast and go?
(newbie here)


oh and btw, if your stopper just barely wont fit on it like some people have said, you can take an exacto or sharp utility knife and cut a little bit out of the bottom edge of the stopper like you are peeling it. This will let the stopper go in. (and it wont affect the seal because you can push the stopper down past the cut part)
 
Do you guys pour the juice out and sanitize the container before pouring it back in? Or do you just add your yeast and go?
(newbie here)

The contents and container are sanitized when you get them, and pouring out the juice, pouring back in, etc. would introduce far more possibility for contamination. Just pitch yeast in and let 'er rip!
 
Ah Joe, pretty sure they are talking about the organic juice that comes in 1 gallon glass containers. Not just any old filtered juice.
 
Ok, I bought 5 gallons at WF tonight of the organic stuff because SWMBO wanted it organic, even thought it was expensive at $8.99 a gallon. Also, because I wanted the 5 glass carboys for meade and other things I don't want to make a lot of. I figure the glass carboys are $3.99 at my local wine supply place so, I'm really only paying $5 a gallon for the juice. That makes the price more palatable. (pun intended)

I'm thinking of going with the wheat yeast I saw in another thread instead of the Red Star Montrachet. But I already have the Montrachet, and will have to order the wheat yeast. It will be a test of my patience to see if I can wait that long.:p
 
I have to update... After racking to remove the latest dirt, I transported to my housemate's fridge, and boy, what a difference a day makes. I'm back to over an inch of spent yeast/apple moush, and the cider in top looks much more like a regular fluid. I'll pull it out and rack one more time to get that dirt out, and then let it sit.

Or possibly bottle and let it age, then I'll have an empty gallon jug for a next batch.
 
Yes, we are lucky sometimes.

With people in such a dither about "the economy", stores are doing some peculiar things... our local grocery had a "10 for $10" sale on 1/2 gallons of apple juice. I was all ready to stock up until I started examining the bottles... "Manufactured in Wincester, VA" -- fine, I've been through Wincester. "from concentrate from China". I put everything back on the shelf, on principle. I just can't put more money into a country that would like us dead (or red), and as many times as America has been poisoned from Chinese products, I can't see why anybody would buy if they knew the country of origin. I'll pay the higher prices. I have to wonder if anything we buy here isn't tainted in some way from China...

To try to get back on topic some small way... @Kato... I made some fortified cider w/ the Montrachet. It's kicks butt.
 
Its not luck......state choices. We choose free health care, free child care, and other social programs for high taxes. Our food prices are more expensive because of the taxes for our "evil socialist" system.

Our entire way of life is unfortunately based on both cheap transport and cheap trade....im pretty sure your carboy, hydrometer, tubes, and much more were made in China....Anyways...after working in Bolivia, India, and China..and seeing some real poverty...I should not be complaining of high apple juice prices. :) :)

To get back on topic...we have some food cooperatives here in Vancouver which once your member...you get everything at pure cost...so I wonder what the prices are like for their apple juice...honey...dextrose..
 
SWMBO just picked up three of these jars of cider at Whole Foods for me!!! I bought a three gallon carboy and already have a 2.5 gallon batch of cider, my first ever, going strong. Once it's done I'm going to use the new juice for batch number two and am actually thinking of doing a couple of one gallon batches of mead, one dry one semi-sweet, and keeping the third bottle for secondary transfer purposes.
 
I need some advice. I just bought 5 gal of the cider at whole foods so now what do i do with it? i would like to have it semisweet and carbonated but don't know how to do that without having exploding bottles. i like the sweetness of ace pear for example.

This will be my first attempt at cider.
 
i just tried some Samuel Smiths Organic. it is dry and very good. i would not mind having it that dry at all.
 
I just found a similar deal at a whole foods type market near me... $6.50 for organic apple juice, in carboy :D I bought two, and some corn sugar. One has just corn sugar- about a cup, and the other has an 8oz bottle of cherry juice concentrate.

The juice alone tested at 1.050 SG, and the bottle with the cherry juice in it came out at 1.060 on the nose. The one with corn sugar is a little higher, maybe 1.065... i tested it before I added all the sugar so I'm not quite sure.

I just used a packet of Munton's dry yeast I had laying around... we'll see what it does. The cherry concentrate didn't really add that much direct cherry flavor, but it does have more body than the plain one.

I just popped a bottle of this and it is excellent!! Both have been in bottles carbing for a week now and I am drinking the plain cider. It's perfectly carbonated, just a touch of residual sweetness, and very very tasty. I put a bit of lactose in for the sweetness and it worked out quite well. I am kicking myself for only making a gallon of each! It's time to step it up here...
 
Well, I couldn't stand waiting, and I opened one of my WH bottles. In a word, "yech". Interesting smell, kind of like butterscotch -- which isn't a good thing in anything I've read, and beer. FG 1.018 -- but no sweetness in taste. Taste is a bit yeasty but not quite beery, a little sour. Cider is still very cloudy, but clearer than it had been before all the non-sense. I have to wonder if they heat pasturized it, and got it too hot.

For the record:

Whole Foods Organic Apple Juice
Nottingham Yeast
Dates:
01/29/09 Started
03/16/09 Racked to new container
03/31/09 Cold crashed to see if yeast would drop
04/01/09 Bottled, jokes on me.

I'll let it sit a while, but this was not my finest hour. Oh well, live and learn, if we're lucky.

Next week, I will start some Kedem Apple Juice on Safale S04.

How did anybody else's WH OAJ cider turn out?
 
That is weird- 1.018 is way high. It should have finished much lower than that, less than 1.010 for sure... seems like something might have happened with your fermentation. What was the OG?

In order to get mine to completely clear, I used both pectic enzyme (about 1/4 tsp) which cleared it up a lot, and then gelatin (1 tsp, dissolved in 1/2c cold water, brought up to 180f and chilled). The gelatin was amazing- it got it to be crystal clear. The taste didn't perceptibly change from either one, it's purely an aesthetic thing.
 
MacBruver, are those measurements for pectic enzyme and gelatin for a 5g batch?
I just bought 5 gallons of the whole foods AJ ($6.99 here). I'm thinking of returning 2 gallons and subbing for the something filtered...and cheaper (similar to what Edwort uses). I think that awesome unfiltered apple taste will still be dominant if its 3/5 of the mix...and it will be a bit clearer.
 
No, those measurements were for 1 gallon. The pectic enzyme comes with directions on it... as for the gelatin, a whole packet works perfectly for 5 gallons... that's what I've been using for my beer.
 
The LHBS here gets $5 each for 1-gallon carboys, so basically you're buying a glass gallon jug and getting a gallon of good apple juice for $1. Can't beat that juice price at Wal-Mart.
 
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