We are approaching the season where apple cider in glass jugs hits the grocery store.
I’d like to lay in a supply.
How long will this keep, unrefrigerated, on the shelf?
Poll included
Normal, unopened apple juice has a loooong shelf life, more than several months. I have no cites, but there should be markings on the container.
ETA: I should say that my cite is having looked at apple juice containers periodically over the years.
May we presume that it’s pasteurized?
We get cider from a local orchard. It is not pasteurized. It lasts a week or two before fermentation begins.
I guess it depends on whether you mean “keep” as in not fermented or “keep” as in not spoiled. Fermented is not spoiled!
I’m assuming you mean unopened. After opening I was thinking a week, but that might depend on whether it’s pasteurized or not. Unopened, I really don’t know.
Is it actually cider, or just apple juice? I didn’t think cider was shelf stable, and is labeled “juice” once it’s pasteurized.
Yeah. I was going to vote higher, but the option isn’t there. Once it ferments, it can go years. I had a number of five gallon carbons in the cellar a few years back that had cider that was just left to naturally ferment. This was, though, unpasteurized cider,
That’s a can of worms with no good answer. Usually cider is unfiltered and juice is filtered. Massachusetts defines it this way, and includes the definition that juice is pasteurized but isn’t specific about cider. Most states don’t have a formal definition and it’s up to whatever people want to call it. Sometimes cider means it’s from apples picked early in the season. And some companies admit there’s no difference at all; they label it both ways to appeal to people who think one sounds better than the other.
As for the OP, I agree with the others. Unpasteurized, you’ll get 1-2 weeks if kept cold. Pasteurized and vacuum-sealed, you can get several months of life. Once fermentation starts on the unpasteurized kind, it’s a crap-shoot if it will turn out good or awful unless you control the fermentation. It’s very easy to end up with some nasty vinegar, sulfur, or other off-flavors.
*carboys, not “carbons.” And by “unpasteurized cider,” I mean apples I juiced myself. I had mostly controlled fermentations and a couple of “wild” fermentations (no added yeast. Just let the juice sit and do its thing.) The wild fermentations ended up tasting the best in the end, although that is somewhat left to chance. You might get infected with acetobacter and end up with vinegar or something. But those batches lasted about 2 years before I ended up drinking through them.
That wouldn’t be one of the Dickens’ orchards, would it? Because that stuff ferments fast. Play your cards right and within a couple weeks you and the missus can be enjoying some hard Dickens’ cider on a late fall evening.
there is fermentation that you might like and fermentation you might not like.
if it is unprocessed then any fermentation might start.
most of the time in my experience it is an acceptable ethanol fermentation.
The missus tells me there’s nothing like a hard Dicken’s cider!
She had great expectations, but ended up with Tiny Tim.
No fermentation, please.
You’re no fun! There is that perfect moment where it turns into “apple beer.” My golly, that’s good! But one day beyond that, and it’s undrinkable.
I used to buy plastic bottles of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Once, I got a bottle that was puffed out from internal pressure. It had a bit of a fizz to it…and a little bite of alcohol. Grapefruit beer! (It sounds awful, but, really, it was quite good!)
I voted for “two weeks” on the basis of fermentation and beer.
Back in the day when we made our own fresh cider (and I just dragged the press up from the basement to use this year) we would freeze (in plastic jugs) whatever we couldn’t drink within a week. Tasted just fine when it thawed. I once traveled on a plane to Georgia lugging four half-gallons of frozen cider in my carry-on. This was 1979 or 80, and there had just been some incidents of people bringing gasoline on planes to try hijacking them. I got stopped and searched, of course, and the security guard looked over my bottles of frozen cider and said I could go. I asked if he didn’t want to smell them to be sure, and he said, “No, Ma’am, gasoline doesn’t freeze.”
Cecil on the subject: What’s the difference between apple juice and apple cider? - The Straight Dope