Best Yeast To Use For A Cider

[dmcke109]

Wyeast 4766

Hey there Dr Smurto or anyone else - what temp do you find this yeast ferments at? I have a fridge with temp controller.

How could you go about doing a sweeter cider with 20L straight juice - is this where adding sugar helps?

 

[Tyred]

I made a cider using only apple juice, nutrients and yeast and the O.G. was under 1.050 (1.042). It fermented down to 1.004 so it's around 5%.

Adding sugar will increase the alcohol content. The upper limit will depend on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.

 

[drsmurto]

The OG of pure apple juice is around 1.046-1.050. A champers yeast will finish at 1.000 or even below which is ~6% abv. Using 4766 i have finished as high as 1.008 in the past, my current batch in the keg finished at 1.000.

i like to ferment cool with 4766. My current batch is ~14C at the moment and as happy as a pig in the proverbial.

Sugar wont sweeten the cider, it will only make it more alcoholic. Lactose or artificial sweeteners are your options, both of which i dont use. My next trial is seeing whether i can stun the yeast at around 1.020 with metabisulphite and then carb it in the keg to give a sweeter cider.

 

[Muggus]

champagne IMHO is too dry and doesn't leave enough body in there.

+1

My first all-apple cider was with a champagne yeast. Bit of sulfur during fermentation, and ended up bone dry, the apple flavour is subtle.

 

[Tyred]

How could you go about doing a sweeter cider with 20L straight juice - is this where adding sugar helps?

I believe that using pear juice in your cider can leave some residual sweetness. I used about 4 liters in a cyser (apple juice, pear juice and honey) and found that there was a little sweetness left in it. I didn't notice it when I used apple juice only.

 

[dmcke109]

Thanks for all the helps folks. I think i'll do a straight apple juice cider with the wyeast fermented at 14C to start with.

Will then experiment with my second batch with some pear juice to see if I can sweeten things up.

Also like the idea of "stunning" the yeast at 1020 SG to produce a sweeter cider. Am wondering if adding polyclar and then running through a filter followed by crash chilling the keg could remove most of the yeast and put the rest to sleep?

 

[merrick]

I've noticed some use Berri preservative-free juice and someone used Aldi juice which contains preservative. Does the presence of preservative make any difference to the finished cider?

Merrick

 

[Stuffa]

Here's a trick I got from my local HBS add 1 teaspoon malic acid and one bottle of pear schnapps essence to a 23L batch. While still staying a nice dry cider the pear schnapps gives a little sweetness.
If using a kit try this:
1 can black rock
1 kg white sugar
2 L apple juice or apple & pear juice (No preservatives)
1 Teas malic acid
1 Top shelf Pear Schnapps ess
Wyeast 4766 cider yeast
My latest batch is in the fermenter at the moment and I put a Kg of frozen raspberries in after 7 days and I think it will be berry nice.(Sorry)