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apple juice pasteurized or not?


Sorghumrunner

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I'm talking to a local apple juice supplier, and I can purchase the juice pasteurized, or not pasteurized. Any reason I shouldn't get pasteurized juice? It'll be coming off their presses and then into cold storage for just a day or two till I pick it up.

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Mostly pasteurization damages both texture and aroma. Texture isn't important for fermentation, but aroma is.

You can pasteurize without harm, but it takes skill. Do you know if they have their own pasteurizer? If they do, it might be okay. If they are a mill that takes juice to a local dairy during slow hours, which is common, forget it. The dairy guys cook the juice.

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Well, I believe they have their own, but they've given me the option to get it unpasteurized. I've got to drive it home a couple hours, but can pitch yeast soon after picking it up. So if it doesn't seem like a problem, I'd rather get it unpasteurized.

Is it common practice to use apple juice concentrate or just sugar to bring up the brix? We are just simple potstillers, no column.

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I don't know about using AJC to chaptalize. I think the price is a deterrent. I use sugar on the bonded winery side to make an apple wine, then transfer it to the DSP. All within the refs that way. Not sure about adding sugar to an apple bill on the DSP side.

The times I've tried to chaptalize with a substantial amount of concentrate (apple or pear), its crawled out of the fermenter. Huge creeping cap problems.

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Creeping cap, you mean foaming?

Running my numbers, it's looking like using the AJC will actually lower my cost per proof gallon, maybe not as much as sugar though. I would assume that I'd have a finer product from an all apple (juice+concentrate) mash than an apple and sugar mash.

The times I've tried to chaptalize with a substantial amount of concentrate (apple or pear), its crawled out of the fermenter. Huge creeping cap problems.

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