Apfelwine yeast?

So I'm going to try making a batch of Edworts Apfelwine, and stoped by my LHBS earlier to grab some dextrose and the yeast. His recipie calls for Mantrachet wine yeast, but they didn't have any of that. The guy working there told me I could substitute Lalvin EC-1118, which he so conviniently had right there in stock.

Package lists it as Lalvin, EX-1118 Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ex-bayanus).

That is 100% Greek to me...I think half of it might even literally be Greek. So can I substitute this yeast for Apfelwine?

It depends on what alcohol content you are shooting for. I would personally use Lalvin D-47 for an apple wine. It would give you ~12% abv if you have the right OG. 1118 is a champagne yeast that strips out most of the apple flavor. If you are shooting for a high alcohol ~18% wine, and don't want to strip out all of that apple flavor, I would have gone with 1116 instead of 1118.

Yeah I def don't want to strip all the apple flavor out of it. So much for my knowledgeable home brew suppliers le sigh. Back to the LHBS for proper yeast.

Could you use an ale yeast for it? Would that leave more of the apple flavor behind?

I just made apple cider and used Nottingham English yeast, which imparted a dry, beer-like quality and not much apple flavor. That and the fact that I didn't carb it made it vastly underwhelming, but it was my first go at homebrewing and nothing exploded or got infected so I considered it a moderate success.

I picked up some of that d-47 and am just getting ready to pitch it. Matches up well with my expected ABV so seems a good fit. Gonna let this one sit until next Christmas, hope I'm not wasting a year with it haha

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a wine yeast which will be fine.

People have used a lot of different yeasts with this. I just made my first batch using the Montrachet yeast. Some people use ale yeast. It will give you different flavors and slightly different ABV depending on the yeast you use but it will all work and you will make Apfelwein no matter what brewing yeast you use.