Cider House Select yeast from Brewer's Best

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secondbase

secondbase

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Anyone use this yeast? Couldn't find any info on it, but I picked up a pack from my LHBS. Picked a ton of apples and plan on making cider with it.
 
I just pitched a pack of this into a perry yesterday. Seems to be fermenting, but like you, I couldn't find any info on it, so I decided to give it a go. Last year I did a cider with Mangrove Jack's cider strain, which turned out great. If this one works out we'll have two dry cider strains to work with!
 
I just bottled a batch of pear cider brewed with this on 9/7. I pitched it dry and I got about 75% apparent attenuation (1.046 to 1.011) from it.
 
bu_gee said:
I just bottled a batch of pear cider brewed with this on 9/7. I pitched it dry and I got about 75% apparent attenuation (1.046 to 1.011) from it.
Click to expand...

Wow! Bottled after only 6 days? Did you half fermentation and stabilize to make sure the yeast doesn't go to town on the remaining .011 gravity points?
 
No. I didn't mean I pitched on 9/7. I bottled on 9/7. I let it ferment for 3 weeks leading up to it.
 
No worries.

I tasted some at bottling-time and it was pretty dry; drier than I'd like, but not excessively so. I'll try to give a follow-up when I pop a bottle open.
 
bu_gee said:
No worries.

I tasted some at bottling-time and it was pretty dry; drier than I'd like, but not excessively so. I'll try to give a follow-up when I pop a bottle open.
Click to expand...

I put 5 gallons in the fermenter and one in the freezer. Should be more than enough to back-sweeten to an appropriate level.
 
I popped open a bottle last night after about 10 days in the bottle. It was definitely very dry but had a relatively clean flavor. I sweetened a bit in the glass with about 1/2 tsp of honey and that was a great improvement.

Also, I didn't get the carbonation levels I was looking for. I did the LHBS-recommended 1oz corn sugar per gallon but I think a little more might have helped. Do any of you think the 1oz/gallon was too conservative an estimate either for cider or in general? I guess there is always the chance that it needs more time in the bottle.

I think next batch I make I will over-sweeten prior to bottling and try a pasteurization technique.
 
If it's only been ten days your bottles may not have fully carbed. Maybe, but maybe not. Check back again in two weeks and chill one for a few days after, but before opening.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
It has now been about 3 weeks since bottling and still I have light carbonation. I don't know if it is something about my procedure, the yeast, or if I'm just asking too much out of a cider/perry.
 
How are you judging your carbonation?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
phug said:
How are you judging your carbonation?
Click to expand...

Just comparing the qualitative difference between it and a commercial cider. Also, it seems less carbonated than my previous batch which was an IPA.
 
Is this visual? Mouthfeel? Looking at the amount of foam produced? Cider doesn't really have head. But I find the super sugary commercial ones almost do. But even one of my overcarbd bottles still didn't cause that issue


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
phug said:
Is this visual? Mouthfeel? Looking at the amount of foam produced? Cider doesn't really have head. But I find the super sugary commercial ones almost do. But even one of my overcarbd bottles still didn't cause that issue
Click to expand...

All of the above. I'm also looking for the hint of the taste of carbonic acid.

I'm not really expecting it to foam like a beer. It just looks and tastes relatively flat.
 
I started three batches of cider this week. Two five gallon batches using Cider House Select Yeast and one six gallon batch using Wyeast Labs #4766 Cider yeast. Two days later the Wyeast is going great but the two five gallon batches are looking flat. They had a little bit of foaming activity in the first 24 hours but went flat fairly quickly. Initial gravity on the two five gallon batches was 1.060 and 1.080. The higher gravity batch has five pounds of honey, the lower has some corn sugar. Any ideas on whether the Cider House Select yeast is working properly? I'm disappointed I can't find any info on the specific gravity range for this yeast. I'm thinking of taking some cider out of the active six gallon batch to try inoculating the five gallon batches. Thoughts?
 
DL650A said:
Two days later the Wyeast is going great but the two five gallon batches are looking flat. They had a little bit of foaming activity in the first 24 hours but went flat fairly quickly.
Click to expand...

If it's anything like the Mangrove Jacks cider yeast, that's normal. Some of these cider yeasts are true bottom-fermenters.
 
Thanks. Didn't think of that. I don't have too much experience with bottom fermenters.
 
This yeast brought my cider from 1.048 to 1.001 in 12 days. I used 4 gallons apple juice, 1 quart tart cherry juice and a little yeast nutrient. The taste is dry and tart with a hint of apple and stone fruit. I'm not planning on back sweetening any. Does anyone have experience bulk aging cider? A month? Three months?
 
My last cider was left in the carboys for a little over two months. Then into bottles for about four months before we cracked one open. We back sweetened one batch with lactose sugar right before bottling along with the priming sugar just to get a little sweetness. Worked out pretty well.
 
Thanks for the info secondbase. I found these instructions on line http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/Cider Recipes/pear_cider_instruct.pdf. I am going to try to make a batch of the Pear Cider for the Mrs. She tasted some Magner's Irish Pear Cider yesterday. If this works out, this will mean more home brew for me and my buddies and the Cider for the ladies. :) :mug:
 
Anyone else use this one? There is one report of finishing at 1.011, and one at 1.001. Curious if anyone else has tried it and what FG you got.
 
I just pitched this yeast into a small 1 gal batch yesterday just to experiment. I sweetened with some dried dates, corn sugar, and agave extract and measured an OG of 1.071. I'm anxious to see what the yeast do, as I haven't seen much activity yet, albeit, it's only been a day. I pitched them dry, and am worrying that maybe they won't attenuate as well as I'd hoped, but this is my first attempt with cider.
 
My cider started on 10/12 with an OG of 1.048, finished at 1.001. I bottled it 11/20 and opened one a few days ago. Quite tart, but a pretty decent apple flavor. Needs a few months conditioning. Excited to see how this ages.
 
As previously mentioned I did two five gallon batches with Cider House Select dry yeast (not liquid) and one batch with Wyeast #4766. Started on 10/9/14 with Original gravitates of 1.060 in two batches (cider plus corn sugar) and 1.080 (cider plus honey). The two batches with the cider house yeast did not have much activity. Based on a recommendation from my local homebrew store, I added an additional package of yeast to each batch. Not much foam on those batches makes me think this yeast is a bottom fermenter as suggested by another poster above.

By 12/13/14, my bottling day, all three batches were down to a final gravity of 0.994 to 0.996. So the ciders are 8.6% and 11% ABV. Potent. I back sweetened all with varying amounts of lactose sugar at the bottling stage.

Now I'm waiting patiently to crack a bottle.
 
I used the Wyeast 4766 on my first batch of cider and was amazed at how active it was and how long it stayed active. I took a short video of it in my carboy and at its peak it looked like the cider was going at a medium boil on a stovetop. It made a really cool, lava-lamp-like effect. I just pitched the Cider House yeast yesterday with an OG of 1.074, and it looks like its taking off pretty good already. I'm glad to see that yours finished out so low, as I couldn't find much reading material on this yeast before I pitched. Amazon was running a special on a 3-pack of it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I did do a starter, just to get it warmed up. I've got high hopes for it.
 
I just racked a gallon of the cider house yeast, three weeks fermenting, and it was jacked with too much brown sugar. Wow is it dry, letting it carb up right now , we'll see.
 

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