Fresh sqeezed apples juice pasteurization or campden tablets

[thisandthat]

So it seemed like last year when I made hard apple cider....pasteurization was the cool thing to do....now seems like campden tablets are better for flavor....

Most of the stuff I've read doesn't really fill me with confidence. And I've got 15+ gallons to do. I'm going to do half and half I think but if you could give me your opinion/science behind it that would be great.

Thanks

 

[Yooper]

So it seemed like last year when I made hard apple cider....pasteurization was the cool thing to do....now seems like campden tablets are better for flavor....

Most of the stuff I've read doesn't really fill me with confidence. And I've got 15+ gallons to do. I'm going to do half and half I think but if you could give me your opinion/science behind it that would be great.

Thanks

I always use campden, and never pasteurize. The reason is that I don't want to heat my juice and set my pectins, and also it's possible to get a "cooked fruit" taste to the cider. Ive been doing it this way for nearly 30 years now, so I'm not sure pasteurization was ever the cool thing to do.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi thisandthat - and welcome. I totally agree with Yooper. Pasteurization seems to make sense to brewers who are comfortable using heat to boil their wort, but winemakers work with must, not wort and must and heat are not compatible - unless you are making jam. K-meta (whether as pure crystals with no filler or processed as Campden tabs) is SOP... and if the juice comes from a commercial orchard (at least here in NY State) that juice is likely to be UV pasteurized and so should not need any K-meta to inhibit wild yeasts. The UV light has taken care of that.

 

[thisandthat]

I pressed it myself so no UV light.

Thanks for the advice

Jon