Stopping Apples fom going brown

[Brewer Jon]

I was wondering if anyone else has any tips of keeping apples fresh and stop them going brown once cut.

I usually just put the cut apples in water before I scrut them. But I have a lot of apples to inspect this year (due to pests) before I scrut them and was wondering is a citric acid solution will do? Or would this make a unwanted after taste?

Regards

 

[Clint]

You're right...add lemon juice.

 

[Brewer Jon]

You're right...add lemon juice.

1 Lemon per gallon maybe?

 

[Clint]

I dunno what would be best for your amounts...my experience is just with enough for an apple pie..

 

[freester]

Personally I don't worry about the pests. I don't throw any really mouldy apples in but the odd small bruise or insect hole I don't worry. Scrat the apples whole then press. It's an acidic environment and by the time it's fermented the alcohol is going to kill anything nasty. Do you need to cut the apples to get them in the scratter?

 

[Brewer Jon]

Personally I don't worry about the pests. I don't throw any really mouldy apples in but the odd small bruise or insect hole I don't worry. Scrat the apples whole then press. It's an acidic environment and by the time it's fermented the alcohol is going to kill anything nasty. Do you need to cut the apples to get them in the scratter?

It seems just this year some bug usually borrows itself either at the top right in where he stalk goes, or the likewise on the bottom of the apple and eats the core away, or makes the core very nasty looking, like you think should you cut it out, is it going to make the whole brew bad.

 

[Cwrw666]

This year I cut all my apples in half and froze them. When I thawed them out they were all really dark brown but after squishing them the juice was just the normal colour so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[chthon]

I used a mix of 1g/l of metabisulfite and 0.5g/l of citric acid, per liter of water. Cut the apples, throw them in the solution.

However, it seems if I would make cider from this, it would probably be more green than brown.

Which leads me to the big question: why do the producers of apple juice and cider let their apples or their juice get brown?

 

[freester]

This also occurred to me today - use a solution from Campdens. This is my juice from a press today. One bin onto 5 crushed campdens noticeably lighter than my trad FV where nothing has been added and so the juice has already oxidised.

 

[Richie_asg1]

It's all to do with oxidation. A dunk through lemon juice works for small quantities, but if you are using a pulper you could use CO2 or argon ?
What effect would keeping the apples under water have? - Works for potatoes.