Super High attenuating cider.

I started a Cider one week ago using the following recipe:

Strait into the fermenter
5 Gallons fresh cider (local orchard, unpasteurized)
2 cans Apple Juice concentrate

Boiled for 20 mins:
1 Gallon tap water
1.5 kg Coopers Wheat LME
3/4 cups Blackstrap Molasses
6 oz. Grated Ginger
4 Cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp clove

Pitched starter made 24 hours earlier with yeast starter made from
1/2 Gallon tap water
1/2 lb DME
White labs Sweet Mead Yeast

OG was about 1.086, fermented kind of warm (70-75 degrees F)

Here is what happened, I pitch the yeast and the next day fermentation is going NUTS! No lag time at all, I have bubbles and yeast swirling everywhere.
three days later I test the SG and get 1.020 or so and the ferment is still going with no end in sight. I taste it and it's very sour and has kind of an astringent taste. I leave it alone and yesterday and today ferment seems to have stabilized at 1.010 and I have a very sour and dry result. I wanted a sweeter cider and selected a yeast that was supposed to have a 75% attenuation so I would have some residual sugar. This is dry and sour and astringent which isn't bad per se, but kind of clashes with the spices.

Two questions on this; First: why is the attenuation so freaking high? Could I have gotten some wild yeast that ate what the mead yeast didn't? Second: is there anything I can do to sweeten this up a bit or at least mellow it out to go with the spiced cider flavor? I want a sparkling cider and I can't use sulfates due to allergies.

Thanks for any help!

I believe that yeast is still considered a wine yeast. I'm curious to hear from someone who has used this for cider. (not apfelwein) It did leave you at 1.010, but it has a tolerance of 15% alcohol, so maybe there wasn't enough sugar to begin with? (for this yeast)

ie: you would need to add so much sugar that it doesn't eat it all before it gets to the FG leaving some residual sweetness?

It sounds like you basically ended up with a wine. Aging will probably help a lot.

Cider is full of simply sugars, and a FG of .990 is not uncommon- in fact, it would be the norm.

Doesn't honey contain about the same simple sugars as apple juice? I know the make up of AJ and honey are different, but wouldn't the yeast see the fructose and glucose the same regardless?

Pickled_Pepper said:

I believe that yeast is still considered a wine yeast. I'm curious to hear from someone who has used this for cider. (not apfelwein) It did leave you at 1.010, but it has a tolerance of 15% alcohol, so maybe there wasn't enough sugar to begin with? (for this yeast)

ie: you would need to add so much sugar that it doesn't eat it all before it gets to the FG leaving some residual sweetness?

It sounds like you basically ended up with a wine. Aging will probably help a lot.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Just for future reference what would be a good cider yeast? I am much more familiar with beer and the local homebrew shop didn't have any cider yeasts.

My personal preference is an ale yeast. (Nottingham) There's a really good sticky about different types of yeasts at:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/