I was at Trader Joe's and noticed they had an apple juice in the refrigerated juice section. It says it was flash pasteurized, but it also says to keep refrigerated as it is perishable. Would this not be an option for brewing into hard cider? Because it looks pretty good, but I am worried about whether this would work or not.
Trader Joe's refrigerated flash pasteurized apple juice?
- Thread starter Freagan
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madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Should be OK if they don't add preservatives.
Read the back label carefully. If it says potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate added "to preserve freshness", walk away from it. Vitamin C is OK though.
No you do not need to refrigerate while fermenting your Cider, yeast will not work well at too cool a temperature. I assume you are concerned about spoilage during fermentation?
Here are my thoughts:
CO2 is released during active fermentation and CO2 in the head space will keep your Must blanketed and bacteria from entering and getting to your juice / Cider. Then once fermentation is nearly complete i would suggest you rack to a vessel small enough to reduce the head space to as little as possible and add an airlock.
Air after active fermentation carries wild yeast and bacteria. This should not be overstated and you should not worry too much but obviously as Maylar pointed out infection is a possibility. With good sanitation practices and reduced head space the likelihood is greatly reduced.
Your yeast work best within a specific temperature range. Example SO4 Safeale Yeast is engineered to work best between 59 - 68 Deg F. http://www.fermentis.com/brewing/homebrewing/product-range/
I am not saying yeast will not do the job outside of the range but it may throw some off flavors if too high and be a bit sluggish of too low.
I typically try to keep the ferment on the lower end of the yeast range that is recommended. In the case of the SO4 I have found 60 - 62 Deg F to work best. Ends up not too slow and no off flavors my simple pallet can identify.
Here are my thoughts:
CO2 is released during active fermentation and CO2 in the head space will keep your Must blanketed and bacteria from entering and getting to your juice / Cider. Then once fermentation is nearly complete i would suggest you rack to a vessel small enough to reduce the head space to as little as possible and add an airlock.
Air after active fermentation carries wild yeast and bacteria. This should not be overstated and you should not worry too much but obviously as Maylar pointed out infection is a possibility. With good sanitation practices and reduced head space the likelihood is greatly reduced.
Your yeast work best within a specific temperature range. Example SO4 Safeale Yeast is engineered to work best between 59 - 68 Deg F. http://www.fermentis.com/brewing/homebrewing/product-range/
I am not saying yeast will not do the job outside of the range but it may throw some off flavors if too high and be a bit sluggish of too low.
I typically try to keep the ferment on the lower end of the yeast range that is recommended. In the case of the SO4 I have found 60 - 62 Deg F to work best. Ends up not too slow and no off flavors my simple pallet can identify.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
The need to keep the apple juice refrigerated is to PREVENT or INHIBIT fermentation which can occur even if the juice has been pasteurized. Pasteurization is likely applied to kill e-coli and other pathogens that may have been on the apples. You want to ferment the juice... You don't want it in the refrigerator when you are ready to pitch the yeast...
^^ True. In fact you want both the yeast and juice at room temp when you pitch it. Warm yeast into cold juice or vice versa will injure them.
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