Why does apple cider ferment so quickly?
Asked by
azul (
386
)
October 14th, 2008
I left an old centimeter’s worth of pasteurized apple cider in its half-gallon container un-refrigerated for a week, and the container has ballooned. So I’m curious.
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2 Answers
Even though your cider was pasteurized, that only killed the stuff that was living in it at the time of pasteurization. In the meantime, what you did was leave a very sugary, nutritious feedstock in a container with a bunch of airspace that was filled with whatever yeasts live in your neighborhood, at just the right temperature for them to grow, thrive, and raise their families. For them, it was like, “Welcome to the buffet, guys!” So they started nomming away at the sugar (while exhaling carbon dioxide to balloon the jug, as well as excreting alcohol).
The thing about nature is that if there’s an unused resource laying around, like a bit of apple juice, some other living thing will find a way to exploit it. If this didn’t happen, we’d be living on top of so much garbage, you wouldn’t believe it! Hail, yeast and bacteria! ;)
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