Prevent apple juice darkening

[Rob G]

We're experimenting with juicing some of our apples this year - too many have gone to waste in past years. So far success with a Breville JE16 juicer, but I have read that adding AscorbicAcid (Vitamen C) to the fruit or the juice inhibits the browning that occurs when oxygen gets to the fruit pulp.

But what is the best way to implement that when juicing ? I would have thought the cider makers would have cracked this problem but I'm not finding anything on their webpages or any webpage in general. Plenty about sprinkling powder on apple rings and the likes but not about apple juice.

It seems you mix the ascorbic acid down at the rate of 1/2 tsp per gallon of water, so I thought of two options

1 would be to add it at that rate to the juice but by that stage of the process, the pulp /juice will have already absorbed the oxygen and started to brown.

2 add the acid solution to the apples in the bucket such that each one goes into the juicer with a small amount of the acid.

Or is the brown colouring just something one lives with ?

Thanks

Rob

[muckdiva]

Hi Rob G
When I last made juice I found it went dark very quickly, almost as soon as it came out of the juicer. I decided to live with the colour as the taste was main priority - and it was good!

[Brewer-again]

brown cider

Or as we call it golden cider, All quality cider has a brown colour to it. The point about apple wine is that you never let air near the apples. If you are using a juicer as I do, juice in one evening then store the juice under airlock with yeast in, to produce CO2 which will not brown the juice further.
I suppose it is a case of accept some colour depending on the speed you produce your juice, but keep it under airlock or ferment straight away.
I spent one interesting holiday visiting West country 'farmhouse cider producers' and they do not add ascorbic acid. They crush and squeeze the juice into storage in hours.

[yoanbob]

or just use lemon juice does the same thing without manafacured chemicals.

[Rob G]

Yes, I've seen lemon juice has the same effect but how do you use it ? - T

The problem is the same, as the juicer's filtering is not perfect and a proportion of of a very fine sludge ends up with the juice and it's that sludge which seems to contribute significantly to the brown colour. The sludge goes really s****y brown and is a really a rather unpleasant looking 'material'. I do agree that in the end the effect is not at all serious, but if I can find an easy way of controlling the discolouration that would be good.

I'm going to experiment with filling the apple bucket with a pretty dilute solution of the ascorbic acid such that each fruit carries a small drop into the process.

Rob

[yoanbob]

try one tablespoon of lemon juice per pint of apple juice.
personally I dont mind it brown.

[muckdiva]

You could try filtering the brown sludgy stuff out thorugh a muslin?