Apple juice questions

[James Fidell]

I'm hoping that some people on this list may be able to answer some
questions about issues I've had with pressing and pasteurising apple
juice over the years that I really should have thought to ask about
before now given the expertise here...

Firstly, I've noticed that some apples seem to throw significantly more
sediment in the bottle (bottling and pasteurising immediately after
pressing) than others. Is this just something relating to apple
variety, or are there other factors such as ripeness involved?

When pasteurising (20 minutes at 72°C in the local "apple co-operative"
100 bottle batch pasteuriser from Vigo this year), some bottles get a
plug of "gunk" on top of the juice. What causes this and is there a
straightforward way to prevent it?

And finally, some bottles have small (pinhead size) lumps of grey/brown
material that float to the top of the juice which are quite unsightly.
These are not "foreign objects" as I know the juice passed through a
fine strainer immediately before bottling. Are these just smaller bits
of the above "gunk" or are they likely to be something else?

If anyone is able to shed some light on any of these three questions it
would be much appreciated. In particular the second question is
something that has bugged me for years, ever since I started pressing my
own juice and bodging up pasteurisation using my beer boiler.

Thanks,
James

[Andrew Lea]

I hope you are using ascorbic acid as recommended otherwise any problems you have will be much exaggerated due to oxidation.

some apples seem to throw significantly more sediment in the bottle (bottling and pasteurising immediately after
pressing) than others.  

That’s a combination of variety, maturity, ripeness, level of tannin, protein and pectin. Nothing much you can about it. As a general rule, early fruit throws less sediment than late fruit due to lower pectin / protein ratios. As fruit matures, it develops more soluble pectin which gives greater haze.  You just have to know your fruit. One thing you can do is to press, add ascorbate at 500ppm minimum, leave in the cool overnight and then rack before bottling and pasteurising. That way you may get more haze and less sediment.

some bottles get a
plug of "gunk" on top of the juice.  What causes this and is there a
straightforward way to prevent it?

Should be simple. As soon as the bottles come out of the pasteuriser, shake and invert then lay them on their sides to cool. That way the gunk should be less likely to float. 

some bottles have small (pinhead size) lumps of grey/brown
material that float to the top of the juice which are quite unsightly.

Are the bottles quite clean if reused?  And using fresh caps? Bottles should be washed and dried as soon as they are empty to remove crusted mould  which quickly develops if not.  This quickly develops by the “punt” and often goes un-noticed. 

If you are using the 100 bottle pasteuriser are you quite sure the juice is reaching minimum 72 -74 C inside the bottles and not just in the water bath?  Otherwise you may be underpasteurising  and some of your problems may be microbiological, especially if not sterilising the neck and cap area by not laying hot bottles on their sides to cool. 

Good luck!

Andrew

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[David]

I leave to settle overnight before bottling and don't draw off the sediment. Just have a tank where the outlet isn't the very lowest point, just tilting your tank away from the bottom tap can do this OK.

If you press under ripe fruit or even just some varieties you can end up with a lot of starch that settles out overnight, this is best left behind too.

Plugs of gunk only appear in my juice if I draw off too much from the bottom of the tank. Sometimes I push my luck at getting a bit more out and it is always these last few bottles that have the gunk. You can as said shake it away and lay the bottles down. I have found that if you try to box up these bottles before they are absolutely fully cooled it will come back and be left as a deposit on the neck of the bottle after it cools and reduces in volume. Just don't draw off the bottom and it isn't an issue also make sure your ascorbic acid dosing is accurate.

Not sure what your lumps are, fortunately I have no experience of that. I am wondering if you are heating the juice and then bottling it. Maybe that isn't up to scratch and something is growing due to insufficient pasteurising.

[michael botham]

I dose my fresh juice with Fructozym to aid clearing, leave for 24 hours before pasteurising. Any sediment drawn into the bottle makes the disturbing brown blob, I guess the deposits are cooked by the heat which makes it more likely to float. It doesn't look nice, so I decant through a paper filter before serving.

Regards

Michael

[terryc...@gmail.com]

I regularly hot waterbath pasteurise my "sweet" cider at around 65C for 10 minutes (I actually record the time that it takes for the bottle contents to reach 60C, 61C etc all the way to 65C, on a spreadsheet then similarly on the way as it cools back down to 60C) and it generally calculates out to 40-50PUs (hopefully the attachment shows this). However I often end up with floating gunk similar to what you have described that wasn't there before pasteurising. It seems to be a by-product of heat pasteurising and seems to break up after a good shake. Anyhow it just ends up as part of the "paint film" at the bottom of the bottle.