Dose fresh apple juice need pasteurization?

[Dave70]

It occured to me after juicing twenty odd kilos of local 'seconds' apples this arvo, that the farmer / backpacker may have forgotten to wash their hands after then went poo or wee and continued picking, not to mention any other funky stuff along for the ride.
Since I dont plan on letting nature take its course fermentation wise, probably use S04, should I at least at least be dumping it into the kettle and holding it at 65 deg for half an hour or so?
Basically I juiced it, cubed it, and popped it into the keezer which sits at 3 to 4 deg.

I'll also be fermenting at around 14 deg for however long it takes, if that makes a difference.

 

[drsmurto]

Potassium metabisulphite (aka campden tablets) would be far easier than heating that quantity of juice.

 

[Verbyla]

Potassium metabisulphite (aka campden tablets) would be far easier than heating that quantity of juice.

Wouldn't thst also kill of the yeast when they get added?

 

[manticle]

No it won't kill off the yeast if the dose is correct and no - in my experience fresh juice should not need pasteurisation as long as you have sufficient quantities of healthy yeast.

Maybe if making commercial quantities for peace of mind/accounts but home level, be clean, get the yeast going as quickly as possible, forget the poo.

 

[Bizier]

AFAIK, ideally you would dose the potassium metabisulphite (or K-met) and leave for a period of time, 12 or 24 hours for the toxicity to subside and then add your healthy yeast pitch.

 

[Dave70]

Cheers.
Probably give the campden tablets a run, at least with this lot, as much of the fruit looks like it was kicked into the boxes. Off the ground. After sitting for a week. In the sun.
I'm tempted to draw off a couple of liters and just let it go to see what happens.

One more thing, the juice is a little pulp heavy. The old Breville must have been hitting it's duty cycle around 10 kg in and not spinning up as hard as it should, thus the juice started getting a little on the thick side.
Should I run it through the strainer or just go with it?

 

[manticle]

Rotting fruit is best not used.

 

[Greg.L]

The advantage of fruit on the ground is at least you can be sure it's ripe. A lot of cider is made from apples that were picked from the ground. But it is softer so it gives off more pulp. I would start to ferment it then rack it off the lees in a few days.

 

[Dave70]

The advantage of fruit on the ground is at least you can be sure it's ripe. A lot of cider is made from apples that were picked from the ground. But it is softer so it gives off more pulp. I would start to ferment it then rack it off the lees in a few days.

What do you think about a crash chill in for day or two after primary fermentation just to help everything drop out and settle? To rough on the yeast?
Cant say I've ever had problems with bottled beer carbing up after prolonged cold crashing.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I was lucky enough to sit in on a Wig and Pen cidering and take home a fermenter full. We add Sodium Meta at a division of the brewery dosage. I stopped the S04 at 1010 and went into the keg, as per their method.

Rotten egg cider from the keg. This does not happen in the Wig and Pen, but their ferementer is wide and flat compared to my home barrel with a glad wrap lid.

A lot of burping in the keg and I got it off, but probably also dropped well below 1010 during that. I tasted so much sulphur during the process that I am now ultra sensitive to it - I taste a little bit in a lot of commercial ciders.

We did a repeat batch with no sodium meta and all was well.

A lot of specifics here that may not apply to you, including stopping before complete fermentation to retain some sweetness, but worth considering anyway.

 

[Dave70]

I was lucky enough to sit in on a Wig and Pen cidering and take home a fermenter full. We add Sodium Meta at a division of the brewery dosage. I stopped the S04 at 1010 and went into the keg, as per their method.

Rotten egg cider from the keg. This does not happen in the Wig and Pen, but their ferementer is wide and flat compared to my home barrel with a glad wrap lid.

A lot of burping in the keg and I got it off, but probably also dropped well below 1010 during that. I tasted so much sulphur during the process that I am now ultra sensitive to it - I taste a little bit in a lot of commercial ciders.

We did a repeat batch with no sodium meta and all was well.

A lot of specifics here that may not apply to you, including stopping before complete fermentation to retain some sweetness, but worth considering anyway.

I had considered pasteurizing the lot when it simply hit a the flavor I wanted. Wifey enjoys the odd sweet cider - even more odd as she's currently breastfeeding, so I doubt I'll bother with this batch.

 

[Greg.L]

Cold crashing does risk sulfur smells, pasteurising then kegging is a good way to go. You only need to take it to 70c.

 

[Dave70]

Ya'll should see this. There's such a thick layer of pulp floating in the juice, it reminds me of the thermal mud pools in Rotorua.
Since it was more like apple concentrate I added a few liters of water and .500g of raw sugar. Still got 1.050.
S04 @ 14 deg. Smells appliee sweet.