While there is a lot of discussion online about different widely available store bought apple juices to make hard apple cider (Martinelli’s, Mott’s, Costco, Trader Joe’s, etc.), I am curious if anyone has any strong recommendations here or done an experiment comparing numerous brands? I am hoping someone has a widely available brand (in Northern Virginia) they recommend.
I would like to do four different 1 gallon brews of the highest recommended apple juices for making hard cider, where I will not do any pre-fermentation altering to change ABV or taste. Bottling will be just adding back in apple juice, so no back sweeting. Totally recognize this may be pretty dry, but looking to see if anyone has a recommendation that actually tastes like hard cider.
RIght now I am doing an experiment where I have four different one gallon brews of Martinelli’s Apple Juice fermenting, where I used a different yeast for each brew (Nottingham Ale, Red Star Cote des Blancs, Cider House Select Premium Cider Yeast, Lalvin EC-1118). Logic is find a preferred yeast type, then use that yeast type across four different juices for a second experiement.
Whole foods has a good Honeycrisp organic cider. Just 4-5 years ago it came in a nice glass gallon jug (carboy) for $10.99. They now do it in a plastic jug and it’s more expensive, but still good quality. I use Cider House Select yeast and still have 4 of the gallon jugs I use for all my wine & cider. Any juice without potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate will work (or other preservatives). Personally I refrigerate mine after ferment to clear it and keep “racking off” every month until nearly clear (2 months roughly), but keep it refrigerated and ferment will stop even if back sweetened and I don’t use any preservatives. Using my fresh juice is tricky because of wild yeast, so I always make it with store bought and sometimes back sweeten with fresh farm apples. My wife is a Pino & Chardonnay drinker and she likes my dry apple cider. I prefer it back sweetened with apple until it’s similar to a moscato sweetness.
I’ve used the cheapest frozen concentrate many times. You will need some wine acids and tannins to make it tast good. Also wouldn’t try for a natural ferment, I usually use wine yeast. The cheap stuff is ususally just concentrated juice and vitamin c (ascorbic acid). You can make something better than the crap like woodchuck or angry orchard, but without cider apples you won’t make a truly fine cider.
Have you done a hard cider with their honeycrisp? If so, how did it taste? I feel like no matter which store bought juice I buy not a lot of apple flavor will make it through to fermentation given I am fermenting to near 1.000 and the juices are not from typical cider apples.
Same experience, when I ferment it all the way I cannot tell the difference between Apple or White Grape juice, it just tastes like wine. When it’s back sweetened then it is very Apple tasting. I’ve even watched videos online where they add an apple flavoring (probably what commercial hard cider makers do).
I have done a couple batches using Great Value (Walmart) apple juice with Safcider yeast from Fermentis. Mine have ended up quite dry, and not very complex, but they’re crisp and pleasant.
You might try local nurseries in October to see what they are pressing. I’ve made hard cider twice from juice purchased at a local nursery. The first batch was extremely tart / acidic. It turned out to be 100% Liberty, picked a couple weeks too early. So once the sugar was gone, it was just acid. The second batch was a blend of Liberty, Roxbury Russet, and a few other names. It was better.
In general, as noted, I think you run a serious risk that purchased juice will not have the fruitiness, acidity, or tannins to make a good cider.
That makes sense. I actually like a tart sour I had recently, which was a single varietal from Original Sin using McIntosh apples. Have you ever tried that, and was the liberty only one similar @jrd51 ? I would be totally happy with that taste. I do have a Liberty Apple Tree that should bear fruit next year. Fingers crossed.
I just finished bottling all four of my one gallon batches using Martinelli’s Apple Juice and different yeasts for each brew (Nottingham Ale, Red Star Cote des Blancs, Cider House Select Premium Cider Yeast, Lalvin EC-1118). Excited to see what these taste like carbonated in a few weeks, but thought the Cote des Blancs and white wine (Lalvin EC-1118) were quite good! The Nottingham Ale tasted like a no-kidding ale, and the Cider House brew tasted like alcohol with a hint of apple.
All brews were fermented to 1.00 and an ABV of 6.3%. Used 8 ounces of Martinelli’s (31g sugar) for my carbonation sugars of each gallon, and then did 5 bottles dry of each batch, and 5 bottles back sweetened with lactose (4 tablespoons per half gallon). Did a few bottles where I added an extra teaspoon or two of Martinelli’s for even greater carbonation.
Finally tasted tested the 8 different permutations previously described (one sweet and one dry per yeast type). My general rankings and observations are:
Rankings
Red Star Cote De Blancs- very good and nice sparkle. Retained a fair amount of the apple flavor too.
Nottingham Ale- good, if you like ale. Subtle apple flavor retained.2.
Lalvin EV-1118 white wine yeast- very fruity, but almost tastes like a crappy white wine with an apple flavoring.3.
Cider House Select Premium Cider- Totally chewed through the apple flavor and was not good. Tastes like yeast and alcohol.4.
Notes
8 oz of Martinelli’s for one gallon of bottle conditioning was nice. Heavier carb, but that is preferable.
Sweeting with non-fermentable sugar, specifically lactose in this case is not desirable. Tasted fake to me. I usually prefer a sweeter cider, but would rather drink these dry than with lactose.
No, I started growing my own apples. I pressed and fermented roughly 20 gallons this year. Much more flavorful.
p.s. I’ve used only two yeasts so far – 58W3 and 71B. Both produce a nice, fruity, floral cider. 71B is more tolerant of temps ~70 F, so i’ve tended to use it more for my cider (which i ferment in Oct/Nov) and I use 58W3 for my mead (which I ferment in Jan/Feb). The basement room where i do the fermentation tends to be ~68-70 in late autumn, 60-64 F in winter.
Based on Scott’s Handbook, i’d stay away from E-1118, which sounds very neutral, blah.
Scott Lab is a major vendor of materials for making fermented drinks (e.g., wine, cider). Of course, they are trying to sell you product. But their handbooks are like the Bible, containing a wealth of authoritative commentary. When it comes to yeast, they sell a wide array. See the 1st chapter, including a quick guide to chosing a yeast strain.
The only negative is that sometimes their products are available only in large, commercial quantities. So in some cases, you have to buy more than you need OR you have to find a 3rd party whose business model is to break down a big batch into smaller batches that are cheaper in absolute dollars but much more expensive per unit.
Nevertheless, you’d be well advised to read the handbook. And their products are widely recognized to be quite good. For example, making mead you could easily succeed using 71B yeast hydrated with Go Protect and fertilized with Fermaid O, all available from Scott’s. Also, the fact that they sell tons of product to commercial producers tends to lend some credibility.