Looking For Bulk Apple Juice

[stevehaigh]

i need about 500 liters or apple juice a month. can anyone on this forum supply that kind of quantity? i don't want apples, just juice. this will be a very long term arrangement, probably expanding to several thousand liters/month in a few years.

i pay about 52b/liter for Malee 100% apple at tesco at the moment but opening 500 boxes a month is a bit of a pain, not to mention wasteful.

please PM me if you are anyone you know can help.

thanks, steve

PS, if you are wondering what i'm doing with it all, see http://www.fullmoonwinery.com/

PPS, i also need red and white grape juice if you can supply that too, about 200 liters/month right now.

thanks, steve

Edited January 10, 2010 by stevehaigh

[FM505]

Not really sure... Try http://www.contactbangkok.com/

They send a weekly email update of companies who have products and/or are seeking products

Your site looks interesting...

Cheers

[jandtaa]

Hi Steve

Living in Chiang Rai (probably one of the few provinces capable of growing apples) for a while now I have yet to see an apple orchard. Peaches/nectarines yes and some apricot. Led me to do a quick google as I have bought apples in the local market and considered planting a few seeds (I have managed to grow an asian pear from seed but it's gonna be a few years until it bears fruit ).

Found the following which may be of interest ;

"2.6 Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.)

This is the most well known deciduous fruit crop. In South-East Asia, apple is commercially grown is East Java, Indonesia, which produced 50,000 tons from 7.6 million bearing trees in 1988 (Kusumo and Verheij, 1991). Apple growing proved to be successful at high altitudes in Northern Thailand and is gaining popularity in the Philippines.

In Thailand, 45 cultivars of apple were introduced and the overall growth was observed for five growing seasons. Low chilling cultivars such as Anna, Ein Shimer and Dorsett Golden grew well at Royal Ang Khang Station at an altitude of 1,400 m.a.s.l (Subhadrabandhu and Punsri, 1986). These cultivars seemed to have no problem in floral bud initiation. They flowered readily and the fruit set was satisfactory. However, fruit set of Anna was much better if cross pollinated with Dorset Golden or Ein Shimer.

Due to the long storage ability of high quality apple from the high chilling cultivars grown in U.S.A, Australia, New Zealand and China, imported apple fruits are commonly sold in local markets of Thailand at rather low prices. This makes the production of apple in the highland areas not so attractive to hill tribe growers as they can only sell their fruits at rather low prices in order to compete with imports, whereas the cost of production is almost the same as the other deciduous fruits. Because of this reason, extension of apple cultivation by the hill tribe growers has ended, and research work on apple has been suspended."

This article was dated 1991 by the way.

It would explain perhaps why Malee juices (such as apple and orange are produced from concentrate rather than being  truly 100% fresh fruit juice as the concentrates are likely to be imported ), so maybe attempt to track down the concentrate supplier. Personally I'd look into the Asian pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) as an alternative, sourced within Thailand as a fresh fruit for the following reasons

* Building a cider press is a relatively simple procedure and any competent engineering shop in LOS will be able to make one from plans widely available on the net. Sure there is an initial capital outlay but the labour costs to operate it are going to be minimal and it's a lot more fun than ripping open Tetrapacks of processed juice.

* They're not the cheapest fruit in the local market up here but cheaper than imported apples ( next time I'm in town I'll get a comparison for you ).

* In the bar/restaurant I was working in during the summer back in the UK ( and from reading the industry trade magazines whilst I was there) there is a huge shift amongst drinkers towards Pear cider traditionally known as Perry but recently rebranded ( and I know when I worked a bar on KPN several years ago that Koppaberg Pear cider (Swedish) outsold the apple variety by about 10 to 1. The Asian Pear called "Salee" around these parts is almost like a cross between an apple (appearance) and a pear (texture) but to my palate leans more towards the Pear in terms of it's superior sweetness, its "vanilla notes" and shear juiciness (runs down your chin upon every bite) and I guess you're marketing these products at the "farang market".

*Maybe also consider doing a "cloudy" version i.e. don't filter add finings etc.. as it is fast becoming the mark of an "authentic cider brew" from a marketing point of view and saves on some labour and costs and tastes a lot better. Also I feel that you need to drop the ABV by a couple of percent to improve the flavour (but then again maybe your intended clientel are just going to shove it in a plastic bucket, throw in a couple of Redbulls and a handful of straws and party away

 

Whichever way you decide to go best of luck with the venture , but fresh locally sourced produce is going to yield a superior product in my opinion, with plenty of natural yeasts from the fruit skin and natural sugars i.e. fructose from the flesh (for your fruit wines again look at grape concentrate to improve the body, rather than grape juice (generally this is the reason it is added and not for flavour but I guess you realise this already) and that for your named varieties of well known wines I assume ( seeing as you simply require grape juice) that you're relying on your imported yeast strain to provide the desired finish, it will help but a wine made from Malee grape juice and a strain of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae does not make a Chardonnay, Chablis or Semillion simply a "dry fruit wine"  

What do I know on the subject ?? I have spent a good deal of time in the West Country ( home to both cider and perry in the UK ) on farm homestay holidays and have drunk copious amounts of both, some good, some mediocre, and some that actually rotted the carpets and started to eat into the floorpan of a friends car when we inadvertendly left a container under the rear seat for a couple of weeks one summer (it was that acidic it ate through the rubber seal of the container and if it got through the floorpan I'm sure there would of been a smouldering hole in the tarmac) , and yes I have seen a sheep's carcass thrown into the vat it's not an urban myth. I've also brewed a drop or two myself although simply as a hobby( from "temperature controlled" fruit juice on a radiator, marrow wine in a smuggled stocking and potato whisky (potcheen) from scrounged kitchen scraps (potato peelings and citrus rind) to full blown mashed and sparged organic real ale and numerous fruit and hedgerow wines).

Members please be aware that brewing alcohol for retail in Thailand requires certain licences which I am sure the OP is fully aware of and has already obtained (and yes we all know that "moonshine" is available countrywide. Although the legality of home brew in Thailand has appeared before in other previous threads I do not believe we came to a satisfactory conclusion as to the legality of discussing it upon this forum. Therefore please keep this in mind if replying to this topic which is where the OP can obtain aforementioned fruit juices. General specifics in regard to personal preferences  for your favourite version of the tipple or suggestions as to the direction the OP should take in his endeavour are fine but please do not post recipes or brewing method specifics etc... 

cheers for now J

 

[stevehaigh]

good point, Malee, Tipco etc. must just buy frozen concentrate from somewhere, presumably imported, if i could fine that, great.

i know its very hard to get a food import permit however, millions of baht, but where there's a will!

i do make a pear cider also and yes, we know all about the permits,

thanks, steve

I just had a look on alibaba and like most thing, it looks like apple juice comes from China, so i guess that's what i'll be doing. no wonder china is so far ahead of the world for exporting, it you look for anything, there's a 95% chance China has it and a 99% chance Thailand doesn't.

thanks for the ideas.

steve

Edited January 11, 2010 by stevehaigh

[Khun Jean]

Poland is the main supplier of apple juice concentrate for the Netherlands.

worldwide China is supplier number 1 followed by Poland by a large margin.

[IMA_FARANG]

Making alchohol in Thailand is just as illegal as in other countries if you intend to sell it.

So for that reason I'll assume you want it for "personal consumption".

From my very limited experience in making wine and apple cider in Saudi Arabia ona 5 year stint there:

1. Apple Juice or Grape Juice....you need Pure 100% juice with no additives or preservatives added. Used to be a Swiss made product called OVA that was pure Grape Juice with no additives or preservatives. Came in White and Red Grape juice.

2. In Saudi we never had brewer's yeast available. That was for alchohol so the Saudis wouldn't sell it. Baker's yeast however was readily available. It worked just as well.

3. Plastic tubing, such as you can get in a medica/hospitall supply comapany (as used for I.V. tubing) is just what you need for the tubing. Also plastic clamps and valves as would be used in a hospital work fine.

4. Clean, sterilise, and then clean again. That is your mantra. That's how you keep the equipment and foriegn/strange yeasts from ruining your batch. Clean and sterilise everything.

5. We used those office water coolers...glass is better than plastic.... that you see in an office as cold water dispensers. Find a rubber pug that fits snugly in the top of the cooler. Drill a hole through the rubber plug, run the plastic pipe through it. Seal the hole with wax or a candle. Make sure it is airtight. Any contamination from outside can ruin your batch quickly. Keep it airtight.

6. Use a water trap on the output of the plastic tubing. Run the tubing into a jar of water, with the end a few inches below water level. When the fermenattion starts the CO2 will bubble out from the positive pressure inside the airtight fermenter. Don't let the air from outside feed into the plastic tube from outside.

7. Ferment at room temperature, don't make let it ferment too fast. When the bubbles are down to 1 or 2 a minute, you're basically done.

8. You'll have to experiment with mixtures of sugar and water to decide what you need for sweet wine or dry wine. At first you'll make miatake, but you'' get it to what you like by experience.

9 Filter paper, like you used in chemistry class in school, must be used to filter out the wine when you empty the cooler. You siphon it out through the plastic tubimg as slowly as possible. Don't let the sediment on the bottom get into your wine.

10. You need to let the wine sit and let the sediment precipitate out to the bottom of the bottle. At least one week, more likely two weeks. Use those bottles you had the Grape Juice in origiinally. Of course you've washed them and sterilised them already before you put the wine in.

11. Yeast can be reused. Put it in the cool refrigerator (not the freezer section)and let it dry throughly. You can use that yeast over in your next batch. Never reuse yeast from a batch that comes out bad, however. Throw that away.

I made one batch of Apple Cider. It came out very cloudy and I though it was wasted. I left it for about 3 months stored in bottles in a dry closet. When I came to throw it out, I was really surpised. It had developed a nice clear yellow color, with most of the sediment having precipitated out. I poured it off into bottles for cooling/serving and it was great stuff. It had a real alchohol kick too. We used it for a Christmas party we held. Apple Cider takes a while to clear itself.

That may not be what you want to know, but it's a summary of my experiences in Saudi making wine and cider.

[jandtaa]

Imafarang

Which part of the following did you not understand ??

"Members please be aware that brewing alcohol for retail in Thailand requires certain licences which I am sure the OP is fully aware of and has already obtained (and yes we all know that "moonshine" is available countrywide). Although the legality of home brew in Thailand has appeared before in other previous threads I do not believe we came to a satisfactory conclusion as to the legality of discussing it upon this forum. Therefore please keep this in mind if replying to this topic which is where the OP can obtain aforementioned fruit juices. General specifics in regard to personal preferences for your favourite version of the tipple or suggestions as to the direction the OP should take in his endeavour are fine but please do not post recipes or brewing method specifics etc..."

If you'd have read the entire thread, perhaps taken the time to understand what it was and was not about and followed the link provided by the OP you would be aware that he is brewing on a commercial scale with knowledge of the correct permits required. If as you assume he is brewing for personal consumption I'm sure we'll never hear back from him as his liver aint gonna last too long brewing up 700 litres of juice a month with a view to increasing production for personal consumption.

So in a word.. No !! It is not what we wanted to hear.

cheers for now J 

 

[gotlost]

Ah yes Apple Jack nectar of the gods. Wish the OP all the success.