When making cider, does it really matter what yeast you use, even if you make a starter? |
I imagine using a Belgian yeast strain might produce different flavoUrs than using a neutral American strain... |
It certainly matters in the sense that different strains will give you different flavours, but you can get good results from a lot of different strains. |
"Does it matter?" Of course. Just like it matters what strain you use in a beer. They’ll essentially all work but give yo different flavor profiles. |
made a cider recently with the white lab’s english cider yeast. Turned out really well, lots of apple in the nose. |
"For my palate, the best ciders are fermented spontaneously" |
I use redstar champagne for a super clean and dry cider (refermenting in bottle for carb). I also did a few batches with the roeselare blend with lactose added, let it go for a year and it was fantastic. |
Originally posted by cheap With cider, much of the wild saccharomyces and brettanomyces comes from the cidery itself, the equipment and the barrels, so I don’t think just adding peel is likely to replicate that. It’s probably best to pitch a culture you know is good, or maybe just some yeast and bottle dregs. You could always supplement it with peel. In general, I’m not a big advocate of spontaneous fermentation of booze at home. Generally the things which make them good in a commercial setting (big coolships or apple presses, lots of barrels, the possibility of significant blending, putting selective pressure on the resident bugs by throwing things out,etc.) aren’t really available at home. |
Thanks for all info! |
I like to use beer yeast more than wine or champagne yeast, as it seems to retain more apple character. Windsor or other English strains work very well, though I also use American strains (1056, US-05). |
I agree about nutrients, if you’re using straight saccharomyces, especially beer saccharomyces. But if you’re using a funky, mixed-culture, it might be an advantage not to. If your saccharomyces fermentation is incomplete, it will leave more sugars for brettanomyces (and perhaps other things) to ferment. |
Homebrew Shops - A collection of homebrew shops and supply houses submitted by RateBeer readers
Homebrewing Articles - RateBeer Magazine's homebrewing department
Homebrew Recipes - Experiment, share and post your own homebrew recipes
2000- 2021 © RateBeer, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service