Cider

[Bambule]

Hey there, this discussion has probably popped up before but I missed it. Has anyone used the Wyeast Cider yeast? Any comments on it? I've heard of people using wine yeasts as well with some success. I have a cider apple tree at home, the renowned Kingston Black, which is about to give up its bounty. Supplemented by the 4 or so wild apple trees down the road from me, I intend to make a batch soon. Any recipes besides a basic crush them, extract the juice and ferment? I had the Kingston Black and the french cider from Regionals recently, just reminded me how good proper cider can be. Cheers

[denimglen]

The guys on homebrewtalk were talking about it (or the WLP equivalent) for making apfelwine, so pretty much the same thing, they said it wasn't that flash. Might be worth doing a search over there though.

No personal experience sorry.

[Fairlane]

I made some last year just using S-23 yeast. Turned out ok but you may need to use a fair amount of yeast nutirents (DAP) as the ferment can get stinky (hydrogen sulphide) really quickly. Also, to get a cleaner taste, try to minimise the amount of solids in the ferment...

[Bambule]

Hey thanks for that, may need to do some research.

[bart]

Hi guys,

I have just finally tasted a glass of a cider I made a couple of months ago. It was:

17 litres natural apple juice
1kg Dextrose
Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast

Holy shit, it tastes damn good! I've made a few ciders before and I can tell you that this is certainly the nicest I've tried to date - the only change in recipe being the yeast. 1098 makes a bloody good cider!

Due to shortage of keg and fermenter space, I left it in primary, completely untouched and neglected, for around 2 months before racking directly into corny keg. Clear as a bell - flocculation was superb. Its been in the keg 3 days now and it's ready to drink. I'd like to hold back and let it age but maybe I'll just bottle up a few for the cellar and get another batch on the go.

I repeat - try 1098 (or, S-05 for that matter) for a delicious apple cider!

[Stu McKinlay]

Nice stuff Bart... where'd you get your apple juice from? Do you know what varities it is?

[bart]

The apple juice came from a local orchardist who supplies 3.5 litre and 10 litre bladders of it here in Dunedin. It's just regular drinking apple juice, not sure what exact varieties are in it but the only ingredients are apple juice and a bit of Vitamin C. I have considered juicing a few granny smiths at home and adding that to the mix for a more tart 'cider apple' element, but the cider is rather superb as is anyway.

[Stu H]

Bart, how do you reckon the cider would come out without the sugar? Can you remember the gravity of the juice before you fermented it?

[bart]

Hi Stu,

I did not check the gravity of the pre-supplimented apple juice this time, but I am soon to be putting down another batch so I will take a gravity reading from that.

As I recall the cider comes out somewhere around 5% alc. without adding any sugar or around 8% with it. However it still tastes nice and not overly ethanolish with the added sugar so I usually go with the option of gaining quite a bit more alcohol for the $3.80 cost of 1kg of dextrose.

[Stu H]

Nice!

[Martin townshend]

Tried Townshend's Rosies Natch 2010 vintage yet? 100% UK, French and Spanish cider apples. Wild yeasts. Super dry at 5.5%ABV. Think Regionals has it.