How to Can Apple Juice (Updated Recipe)

Apples are often considered a fall treat, but for us, they’re right in the middle of summer. We don’t have apple trees on our property, but a friend’s parents do and they let us harvest their apples.

It usually comes in two stages, with the front yard apples (from two trees) ready first, and then back yard apples (from one tree) ready a few weeks later. We just recently harvested their front yard apples and came home with a whopping 154 pounds of apples — that beats our previous record by a handful of pounds. We should get another 50 pounds or so when we go back in a few weeks.

While there are a great number of food preserving projects to be done with apples, I find that these apples aren’t the greatest for a lot of them. They’re small — so once you peel and core them, there’s not much apple left — and some are slightly discoloured inside (but perfectly fine and safe to use), so we juice them all. And because apples start to go bad after a few days of sitting in bags on the kitchen floor, that means all 154 pounds of apples needed to be juiced and canned super-duper-quickly.

I lovingly call this stretch of juicing days Applepocalypse, because apples overtake everything else. I used to take vacation days from work so I could deal with the apples, but this year it landed right before a long weekend, so I had the time needed.

How you juice apples is up to you — and I discuss two options in this post — but the canning method is the same. Apple juice is acidic enough to be safely canned without any added lemon juice or acid. (I did a previous post on apple juice, found here, from before I had the firm answer on the acidity of apple juice. If you’re at all concerned, you could follow the instructions in that post, as it adds a splash of lemon juice to increase the acidity of the juice.) If you’re new to canning, be sure to check out my 101 guide.

From this initial 154 pounds of apples, I ended up with 26 litres of juice, and when we do the final harvest we should land somewhere around 33 litres. We drink apple juice regularly, adding a splash of it to kombucha for added flavour. Last year’s juice lasted until sometime in May, so hopefully this year’s juice will last the full year, with us running out just as Applepocalypse hits again next summer.

How to make and can apple juice

The first step is to juice your apples. The two methods I’ve used are below, with my preference being steam juicing. In the future I may look into other methods, such as an apple press or fruit crusher.

Using a mechanical juicer

In the first few years of canning apple juice, I would juice the apples using a standard kitchen juicer. But let me tell you…when you’re juicing 100+ pounds of apples, this becomes messy and exhausting.

I gathered all the juice in a large pot. This method of juicing introduces a lot of sediment into the juice, so I scoop off any floating sediment or foam (as the foam often has a lot of solid matter in it). As I pasteurized it (explained below), I would keep scooping off sediment-filled foam.

The benefit of using a mechanical juicer is that you don’t even have to cut the apples, unless they’re too large to fit in the juicer.

Using a steam juicer

Nowadays I use my steam juicer. This is a set of three interconnected pots that use steam to draw juice out of fruit and vegetables. Steam juicing isn’t the most efficient way to extract juice from apples because they’re a much more solid fruit than, say, berries, and some juice remains trapped in the fruit pieces. To help counter this, I very thinly slice the apples.

Slicing over a hundred pounds of apples takes a very long time. I do it in batches since the juicer can only hold so much and then it needs about twenty to thirty minutes to do its thing.

The benefit though is that you get sediment-free juice and your kitchen is a lot cleaner compared to using a mechanical juicer. Plus, you get to sit down between batches, which is a big selling point for me when I’m doing multiple days of apples.

Pasteurize the juice

Place your big pot of juice on the stove and over medium-high heat bring the juice up to 190 degrees Fahrenheit and hold it at that temperature for five minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer, this is just below the boiling point for apple juice, so if it looks like it’s simmering about to boil, you’re somewhere near or above 190. Do your best to not let it actually boil, though this might happen anyway. (I turned my back for ten seconds and suddenly it was boiling.)

Can the juice

From here, the process is really easy. Fill your desired size of mason jar (anything a half-gallon or smaller, I use one-litre / one-quart jars) with still-hot juice to a quarter-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims with a paper towel wetted with white vinegar, and put on two part lids to fingertip tightness.

Place jars in a water bath canning pot filled with hot water. Ensure they’re fully submerged by at least an inch of water.

Processing takes 10 minutes — once the canner is at a full boil, then 10 minute timer starts. Make sure it stays at a full boil the whole time; if it doesn’t, return to a full boil and restart the timer.

Technically the processing time for half-gallons is 10 minutes, and anything smaller is 5 minutes. However, I prefer to go the 10 minutes regardless of size.

When finished, turn off heat and let canner sit for approximately five minutes. Then, using a jar lifter, carefully remove the jars from the canner and set them down on a thick towel on a counter or table. Let them cool down and rest overnight. In the morning, ensure all jars have sealed; any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and consumed promptly.

Enjoy your juice

Canned apple juice can sit on a shelf at room temperature for upwards of 18 months before quality starts to degrade, though safety should continue provided the jar is fully sealed. Once a jar is opened, it should be refrigerated and consumed promptly.