help with first TC attempt

[graysalchemy]

Yeast is very important in ale brewing but there seems to be no definitive consensus on this in cider making. I have as i said cultured a yeast from a bottle of Westons Old Rosie and it certainly tastes better for it.

Wine yeast and top cropping ale yeast are the same species Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is also bakers yeast but we wouldn't even consider using a wine strain for fermenting beer so why would you use it for cider?

The Westons yeast may well be a 'wine' yeast but because it is Weston's strain then it will have over time modified itself to the specific job of fermenting apple juice. So to me it makes sense to use it.

 

[oldbloke]

I quite like the ones I've done with Gervin D, but my wife prefers the ones with Young's cider yeast - they're cleaner, crisper. I quite like a hint of skunkiness if it's not too much, and a fuller mouthfeel, being from Zummerzet.
I've had decent results with SB24 and Lalvin rc212 as well.
But, I'm going to start my tasting notes over again this year, as they were always patchy and occasionally incoherent.
When I have some sort of baseline for comparisons I'll try harvesting from a commercial bottle of something nice.

 

[graysalchemy]

Yeast yeast is so overlooked I think. The first thing I noticed about using the Westons yeast was the farmyard scrumpy twang that it had, you don't get that with a GP wine yeast.

 

[alphacento]

I think that the yeast used for German white one can actually work pretty well with cider because fo two points:
1) German whites, because of the colder wheather, have s lower and loger fermentation (similar to the cider one)
2) The Rhein valley and the Mosel valley are surrounded by the apfelwein regions of Frankfurt and Trier. If I am not mistaken Apfelwein maker use the same yeast (or at least a very similar one) of wine makers. Apfelwein is different from cider but it still old the apple fruity taste.

I have no tried to brew cider with German white wine yeast but I think that the result might be pleasently surprising.

 

[cabbie]

well, this has nearly all gone now, it tastes like woodpecker but without the fizz. plenty of colour with it too. i was expecting something white such as the cheap white lightening stufff when the comments were made about tramp juice. maybe it was the yeast i used which was a cider yeast with sweetener in it. :

doing another one now, just been to B and M's where they have apple juice concentrate at 49p per litre carton. ............ well, they HAD. ive just cleared the shelves

 

[alphacento]

well done mate. As you get experience it will only get better!