Can Juice Clarity be a Negative?

[rkreev...@gmail.com]

I've been pressing off some of last years frozen apples, whole, thawed, unmilled.

Attached is a picture of the juice, as captured, fresh from the press.

This is quite different from anything I have processed before.

What fermentation issues, if any, might I expect to encounter?

What stylistic changes might be anticipated?

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Yes! This is what happens when pressing frozen/thawed apples.

I do it every year. I have called this "winter cider". I like the apples to be uncompletely thawed so there is a bit of crio-concentration, raising the SG to around 1.080.

See an article I wrote for the Malus zine : https://drive.google.com/file/d/15HFs2TvGbEf58nrCpT4OLwGyTCSbygzS/view?usp=sharing

For my part, I do it with apples that I have left all winter frozen under winter cold, but it also works in a freezer - although you won't get exactly the same flavor (reason is explained in the article).

[Patrick McCauley]

I generally would say that this is a positive development. Andrew and Claude might have some thoughts on what might be "lost" by having such a clarified juice, but in my experience, this is where I love my cider to start. In general, I would expect a slower fermentation, due to a reduced amount of nutrients in the juice. A very good thing. You will also get a cleaner, less turbulent fermentation. Also a good thing. I like to hit this with a small amount of sulfite(25ppm or so) and then wild ferment it like a keeved cider. I believe it is possible to have nutrient deficiency issues in such a clarified juice fermented with cultured yeasts, though I don't ever use them, so I'm not 100% sure. I think you'll be happy with the results if you treat it like keeved cider. Good luck!

Pat McCauley 

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[Kirk Evans]

I do this quite often at home in a chest freezer for small batches. As Patrick mentioned, there may be nutrient deficiency in the must, so I tend to use GoFerm or something similar as a yeast starter and Fermaid O/K at 1/3 sugar depletion just to make sure it ferments strong and finishes. Granted, I haven't checked YAN levels or anything like that.

If you're not pitching yeast, I'd defer to Claude or Patrick's expertise on this matter.

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