Our apple crop was plentiful, the guy with the press apparently didn't
understand we needed 3 gallons for ourselves, he brought us a half
gallon when he was finished. Oh well.

The store bought is pasteurized, and has sodium benzoate and potassium
sorbate added as preservatives. Pretty sure the sugars won't be
affected by the pasteurizing, but will the preservatives inhibit the yeast?

Think momma has Lalvin EC1118.

Thanks

Mark
--

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are
evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein

> affected by the pasteurizing, but will the preservatives inhibit the yeast?

They will. Pasteurized juice without preservatives is available, and
you'll have better luck it.

Erroll
http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/

On Nov 24, 5:09*am, pheasant > wrote:
> Our apple crop was plentiful, the guy with the press apparently didn't
> understand we needed 3 gallons for ourselves, he brought us a half
> gallon when he was finished. *Oh well.
>
> The store bought is pasteurized, and has sodium benzoate and potassium
> sorbate added as preservatives. *Pretty sure the sugars won't be
> affected by the pasteurizing, but will the preservatives inhibit the yeast?

The preservatives won't stop an active fermentation, so start with the
half-gallon, then add the store-bought.

I've made wine from store-bough apple juice...it wasn't great, but
none of my apple wine ever is. It wasn't bad, either.

On Nov 24, 12:16*pm, Madalch > wrote:
> The preservatives won't stop an active fermentation, so start with the
> half-gallon, then add the store-bought.

I sure wouldn't recommend that. You need to have a large population of
yeast to ferment 3 gallons of must. Working out the ideal time to add
the preserved juice would be tricky. I strongly suggest using apple
juice without the preservatives.

Greg G.

On Nov 24, 2:39*pm, wrote:
> I sure wouldn't recommend that. You need to have a large population of
> yeast to ferment 3 gallons of must. Working out the ideal time to add
> the preserved juice would be tricky.

Since the preserved juice will often start fermenting if it's left at
the back of the fridge for too long, I seriously doubt that they will
interfere with a strongly fermenting batch of yeast.

On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:09:03 -0600, pheasant >
wrote:

>
>The store bought is pasteurized, and has sodium benzoate and potassium
>sorbate added as preservatives. Pretty sure the sugars won't be
>affected by the pasteurizing, but will the preservatives inhibit the yeast?

You can buy store bought apple juice without preservatives, though it
will be "cooked" a bit for Pasteurization.

If you look through local grocery stores, especially small one, you
might find "fresh" apple cider or juice that is not preserved. It
would be in the refrigerated section. I saw some today, but it was $5
per gallon. Still, it was fresh, not cooked.

On Nov 25, 11:34*am, Madalch > wrote:
>
> Since the preserved juice will often start fermenting if it's left at
> the back of the fridge for too long, I seriously doubt that they will
> interfere with a strongly fermenting batch of yeast.

That comment has me puzzled. First, I wonder what the back of your
refrigerator looks like. Second, have you ever tried to start a
fermentation of preserved juice? In this forum and others, and in
various blogs, folks have described the lengths they had to go through
to ferment juice with preservatives. It can take a lot of time and
effort to get past the sorbate. Why would someone want to deal with
this, when un-preserved juices are readily available.

I seriously doubt juice with sorbate under refrigeration has ever
started fermenting on its own in your refrigerator or anyone else's.

Greg G.

On Dec 4, 6:54*am, wrote:
> On Nov 25, 11:34*am, Madalch > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Since the preserved juice will often start fermenting if it's left at
> > the back of the fridge for too long, I seriously doubt that they will
> > interfere with a strongly fermenting batch of yeast.
>
> That comment has me puzzled. First, I wonder what the back of your
> refrigerator looks like. Second, have you ever tried to start a
> fermentation of preserved juice? In this forum and others, and in
> various blogs, folks have described the lengths they had to go through
> to ferment juice with preservatives. It can take a lot of time and
> effort to get past the sorbate. Why would someone want to deal with
> this, when un-preserved juices are readily available.
>
> I seriously doubt juice with sorbate under refrigeration has ever
> started fermenting on its own in your refrigerator or anyone else's.
>
> Greg G.

Perhaps the brand I buy has a lot less sorbate than what's available
to you. But I had no trouble in fermenting juice from tetrapaks.

I have had no difficulty whatsoever fermenting store-bought juices that
contain potassium metabisulphite. I don't know that I've tried any that
contain sorbate.

Juice has also started fermenting in my fridge on its own many times, though
I don't remember if these were preserved juices. Most store-bought frozen
juices around here do not contain preservatives. It's just one particular
brand that has the sulphites.

Utopia in Decay
http://home.comcast.net/~kevin.cherkauer/site

Kevin Cherkauer


> wrote:
In this forum and others, and in
various blogs, folks have described the lengths they had to go through
to ferment juice with preservatives. It can take a lot of time and
effort to get past the sorbate. Why would someone want to deal with
this, when un-preserved juices are readily available.

....

I seriously doubt juice with sorbate under refrigeration has ever
started fermenting on its own in your refrigerator or anyone else's.

On Dec 4, 12:09*pm, Madalch > wrote:
>
> Perhaps the brand I buy has a lot less sorbate than what's available
> to you. *But I had no trouble in fermenting juice from tetrapaks.

We don't have Tetra Pak products here, so I had to do a bit of
research. Tetra Pak is both the name of the company and its packaging
process. They use ultra-high temperature pasteurization combined with
an aseptic process to produce shelf stable juices. Here's a link that
provides more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetra_Pak

It appears that most juice products packaged this way don't require
preservatives. Here's a link to one such Tetra Pak apple juice
product:
http://www.springfinefoods.co.uk/showdetails.asp?id=578

I'd be willing to bet that the juice you've used has no sorbate.
Sulphites are just a bump in the road for a wine yeast, and wouldn't
even prove much of a challenge for a wild yeast. Ascorbic acid also
presents no problem for wine yeast.

Greg G.

On Dec 5, 5:55*am, wrote:

> I'd be willing to bet that the juice you've used has no sorbate.
> Sulphites are just a bump in the road for a wine yeast, and wouldn't
> even prove much of a challenge for a wild yeast. Ascorbic acid also
> presents no problem for wine yeast.

I just checked the ingredients of the apple juice I used, and you're
right- there is no sorbate in them.

I stand corrected.