What kind of Apple juice?

[Lord Azrael]

So i want to make a cider using extra apple juice but all the juices i'm lookin at have food acid(330) and vitamin c(300). now i don't see how the vitamin c could cause a problem but from what i've read food acid(330) is citric acid which buggers fermentation. can anyone give me a specific brand of apple juice that wont inhibit fermentation or is there a way to counter the citric acid in these other juices?

[Chris]

Add NaOH (oven/drain cleaner) to neutralise the acid... maybe not such a good idea.

You could try Just Juice- I've heard it works.

I usually just nip up to Bilpin and get fresh juice off the production line prior to the good old squirt of vit C.

[atropine]

All the juices are fine, just dont' buy one with preservatives, but when I was looking at the juices at the supermarket I coudlnt' even find one with preservatives so there's plenty to pick from.

Cordials and 'apple drinks' contain preservatives such as sodium benzoate but not in any juices I wouldn't think.

I was wondering what sort of apple juice to use, as in red aples or green apples. I"ve noticed labels of apples juices will show red apples or green apples or red and green apples.

I don't know if that indicates what sort of apples were used or weather it's just art work.

Another thing I noticed is if you look at several bottles of the same brand the colours can be quite different. I was looking at Golden circle apple juice and some other brand. The colours ranged from very light yellow/orange to dark yellow/orange.

Anyone know what's the significance of the colours? I was thinking it could mean the darker colour juices represented a higher degree of deterioration , maybe due to storage in heat or sunlight, or maybe you can tell what sort of apples were used by the colours.

[Chris]

Colour is simply the variety of apple/s used. All juice apples are good for cider.

[Eureka]

Ever thought of getting a cheap juicer from BigW and juicing your own apples? May create a little bit extra work but you'll be guaranteed that there will be no preservatives.

[rwh]

HEY! I just realised that my mum recently bought a new-fangled super-dooper juicer! What kind of apples should I get? I reckon I might have to make a trip down to the Vic Market this weekend, get me some apples, and juice em. Mmmm... all-natural cider.

If I was going to make cider from first-principles (i.e. without a kit), is there anything I need to know? Do I need to put anything else in there apart from yeast? Would this make a dry cider (I'd be aiming this at my girlfriend, so I don't want it to be too dry).

[vitalogy]

I've been thinking of doing the same, seeing as I have a couple of orchards within a 20 minute drive.

My understanding is that if you use pure apple juice, especially if you juice the apples yourself, that you need to add a few Campden tablets to it about 12 hours before pitching the yeast, to kill any bacteria leftover in the juice. You also need to add yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme, and lactose to desired sweetness.

See here:
http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1688101.htm

[rwh]

Thanks for that. I might make a trip to Australian Winemakers in North Melbourne at lunchtime today. They really know their stuff about wine, and I reckon that this might fall into their area of expertise. I'll let y'all know if I find out anything important.

[Chris]

Yeah, I was going to say add some metabisulphate to the wort, as well as some tartaric acid, and maybe a little citric.

As well as the pectic and yeast nutrient. A teaspoon of vegemite does a good job.

[atropine]

I think maybe the food acids like tartaric and citric actually do behave like preservatives as far as killing shit, but it doesn't hurt yeast. And for some reason It's not classified as a preservative even though it helps to preserve.

Though I do find it strange that these are added to apple cider wort (if it's correct to use that term).

Lets examine a vagina. The reasons vaginas are acidic is to kill bacteria. So far this all makes sense. Acids stop bacteria production, so good reason for adding it to cider wort. However healthy acidic vaginas also keep yeast from growing out of control, when a chick gets a yeast infection it normally means the acidity in her vaginas has been lost and her vagina's PH has become neutral. That is when yeasts go crazy and multiply like nothing else.

So Is acid good or bad for yeast?

[beerman]

So i want to make a cider using extra apple juice but all the juices i'm lookin at have food acid(330) and vitamin c(300). now i don't see how the vitamin c could cause a problem but from what i've read food acid(330) is citric acid which buggers fermentation. can anyone give me a specific brand of apple juice that wont inhibit fermentation or is there a way to counter the citric acid in these other juices?

I had a similar problem when i wanted to add apple juice to my cider. Everything i could find had food acid and vitamin c. I just picked one that was 99.9% apple juice and said no preservatives and used it. I was worried the food acid would affect the yeast but it worked fine. The brand i used was P&N but you could probably use anything that says 99.9% apple juice as long as it has no preservatives. I reckon even if food acid could affect the yeast it is in such a small concentration that it wouldn't make any difference.

[Lord Azrael]

I did find a brand that said it had no preservative in it and am pretty sure it didn't have food acid in it either... it was the el-cheapo juice stop that you get from clints or the warehouse... aparently the preservative they put in it breaks down into it's basic components within a couple hours of bottling... not sure if trust that or not but one day i'll give it a go, untill then i'll stick with justjuice!

[Chris]

atropine- firstly, I'm pretty sure it's must, not wort.

Secondly, look at beer wort. The pH is ~5. Yeast seem to like that.