Cider Yeast

Yeast & Fermentation
1

All,

I want to make a hard cider, although I could stop by the LBS I was wondering if any of my stored Wyeast would work for this…I have the following Wyeast 1007 , 1728, 1084, 2112, 3711.

Thanks for your help! :cheers:

Tim

Planning on this Recipe and Kegging for Carbonation.

–

Caramel Apple Hard Cider

Ingredients, Part 1:
7 x 96 ounce bottles (5.25 gallons) Wegmans 100% Apple Juice, pasteurized, only vitamin C added
2 lbs. Dextrose
Nottingham Yeast

Ingredients, Part 2
5 campden tablets (Optional, see notes)
5 – 12 oz. cans of Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate, thawed to room temperature
12 oz. Caramel Syrup

Recipe for Caramel Syrup:
2 cups of water
2 cups of light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Combine in a saucepan and bring to a boil. At boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes (until volume is reduced to half). Let cool & bottle for future use.

Part 1 (Started 1/7/12):
Opened 1 bottle of apple juice, got a gravity reading of 1.050. Temp is 64 degrees.

In a 6 gallon carboy, pour in bottles 1 and 2 of apple juice.

Open bottles 3 and 4 of apple juice. Pour half of each bottle into carboy. Add 1 pound dextrose per bottle to the remaining amount of apple juice in bottles 3 and 4. Shake bottles to mix sugar and apple juice. Pour bottles 3 and 4 into carboy.

Pour bottles 4, 5, and 6 of apple juice into carboy. Take another sample for OG, got a reading of 1.064. Open Nottingham yeast, pour into carboy. Agitate carboy to mix in yeast. Pour bottle 7 of apple juice into carboy.

Part 2 (In about 14 days):
Check for target FG of 1.010 to 1.015

Rack cider into a 5 gallon carboy.
OPTION: If you want a still cider, add 5 crushed Campden tablets to the cider at this time. If you want a carbonated cider, skip this optional step.
Make the Caramel Syrup and wait 24 hours before proceeding.

After 24 hours, siphon cider into your bottling bucket. Add the Caramel Syrup and the 5 cans of apple juice concentrate while siphoning to aid in mixing. Bottle the cider and enjoy.

If you are carbing in the bottle, be aware that this will carb up fast (4 - 5 days) due to all the sugar. I highly recommend that you fill and cap a plastic pop or beer bottle first, and use that as a guide to tell you when it will be time to Stovetop Pasteurize the batch.

Picture is Caramel Apple Hard Cider in the foreground, after adding yeast. The Apfelwein is ageing in the background.

2

Any of those would work. The yeast you use for cider doesn’t make a huge difference IMO.

3

I haven’t made a lot of cider, but what I have made I used wine yeast that costs about $1. I was happy and doubt that using yeast that’s four or five times as expensive would have made much difference.

4

Ok will pick what I have the most of thanks!

5

Are you are talking about the beer yeast they have on hand?

6

Are you are talking about the beer yeast they have on hand?[/quote]

I’m speaking even more generally. I’ve used champagne yeast, ale yeasts from clean ones to Belgian strains, lager yeast, mead yeast and cider yeast. There were minor differences, but in general they all made ciders that were very close in flavor and attenuation.

7

Hmm, that’s interesting Denny. I had the opposite experiences with my 7 batches or so.

8

The current issue of Zymurgy has a taste test of cider brewed with seven different yeasts, all liquid. I would have liked to see a few done with dry yeast.

9

Yes, was thinking about using the saison yeast I have on hand from washing…

Are you are talking about the beer yeast they have on hand?[/quote]

10

After reading this I cancelled my trip to the brew supply store and just pitched a pack of t-58 dry yeast into 5 gallons of fresh apple cider with 2 lbs raw sugar.

11

I’ve tried a fair number of yeasts as well for hard cider in a quest to retain the most apple aromatics and flavor in the finished drink. The best for me by far was letting my unpasteurized cider ferment on the yeasts that were in the cider already. If I used pasteurized cider to start, I imagine you could inoculate wild yeasts into it by purchasing some apples from an orchard or finding some around, and tossing the apple or its skin right into the bucket or carboy and wait.

12

I used Coopers dry yeast (gold pack) in my latest batch. I just threw in some potassium sorbate in to kill the fermentation when I reached my preferred gravity. Even tasting it out of the gravity tube, it is the best batch I have ever made. I used fresh pressed juice for the first time, so I doubt the yeast gets any of the credit.

13

Yeah, I agree that wild fermentation makes the best cider. I’m only about 50% successful with that, though. About half the time I end up with vinegar.

14

My (albeit basic) understanding is that oxygen presence will give you vinegar. I make sure I only oxygenate the cider at the beginning and then keep the carboy very full. So far, this worked to keep vinegar at bay. I used home pressed cider so I know its fresh and the yeasts are fresh. I imagine if bottled unpasteurized cider is used, results may vary more.