I made a great cider last year and would like to do the same this year. Problem is that I'm too lazy to get all the way out to an apple orchard that sells non pasteurized cider.
Can I use organic pasteurized cider and expect almost the same results as not pasteurized?
I haven't ever been able to tell the difference between a pasteurized or non as a juice base in the final product.
I've also made quite a few batches using store-bought, filtered, pasteurized juice (i.e. the big jugs of "no preservatives" stuff on the bottom of the shelf in the grocery store). THAT stuff still can make a good final beverage, but it turns out quite a bit different than the fresh-pressed stuff.
In particular, the store juice tends to be much more tart. That can either be exactly what you are looking for or something to compensate for.
You can certainly use pasteurized juice/cider. The things to watch out for are additives and/or preservatives. Don't use any juice that contains preservatives as they'll inhibit fermentation. Juice that contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is fine, but stay away from other additives.
I've used Tree Top 100% apple juice, as well as a couple of store brands, and they've worked fine.
Yes, you can brew cider using pasturized juice. Some would argue that pasturization destroys certain enzymes and aromatics in the juice that contribute to the flavor of the cider. I haven't brewed with pasturized juice, but I can certainly taste a difference between pasturized juice and raw fresh-pressed juice, and I would expect those flavor differences will be passed on to the brew as well.
There might be differences in a long run with pasteurized cider, but if you're planning to consume it within a year, you wont' see the differences.
You might read this post from a guy who did like 20 different yeast on pasteurized and unpasteurized ciders. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=83060
One thing I can say is that I tried keeving on pasteurized sweet apple cider, and it didn't work.
I recently tried two batches....One with fresh unpasteurized cider from an orchard and the second using store bought pasteurized cider. Used a cider yeast with both, and fermented the same amount of time (2 weeks). Got very different results. The first batch was tarter, very low residual sugar/high alcohol. Second batch did not ferment as much and kept its taste and a lot of sweetness, with a low alcohol content. It could have been that there were some preservatives in the store bought stuff, I didn't check.
