I’ve used sparkling win yeast in the past but it’s more like champagne then. Any other suggestions?
First question, what do you want to achieve? Apple juice is basically all simple sugar with a low pH, so any yeast is going to tear through it and you’ll end up with a gravity of below 1.005, or more likely less than 0.999. Since the pH is low, you won’t get much ester formation. So the differences can be pretty minor compared to what you get in wort.
Wyeast makes a cider strain. I still found that it finishes dry. You can always try back sweetening to taste.
Add raisons for more body. I like London ale 1968
I used the Safcider last year. I liked it better than the Cote de Blanc wine yeast and S-04 I’ve used before. But as Porkchop already mentioned, the differences are subtle.
I have had decent success in the past with both WY1007, and S-04. Denny posted last year that he had great success using WY1450. I’m going to give it try this year in both my graf and my straight cider. Ale yeasts tend to leave a little more apple flavor than back when I was using either Cote des Blancs or the WY Cider yeast.
Stay away from wine yeast unless you want it super dry. Loo to the yeast attenuation chart. London ale yeasts tend to be low attenuators
My hands-down favorite for cider is voss Kveik. Yeast bay strain. It preserves the fresh apple aroma incredibly. And although it finishes dry, it’s really nice and clean with lots of aromatics to complement the fruit. Fantastic yeast for cider.
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