Ale yeast on cider?

Hey guys, I've seen a few comments on putting ale yeasts on cider to make it dryer, Does this work and aside from dryness does it affect the taste of the cider any other way, Some of my ciders come out a bit on the sweet side and I would like them a bit dryer but don't want to make it taste beery.
thanks in advance
Alx

I've used dried ale yeasts for most of my ciders. Since they tend to be very neutral, I haven't noticed any" beery" flavors. If you plan on adding sugar to boost the ABV, a cider yeast will handle higher levels than most ale yeasts. I'm planning on using a red wine yeast on my next batch of blackberry cider.

What kind of yeast are you using now? I thought that Champagne yeast made it dryer and Ale made it sweeter?

I used Champagne yeast on my last and only so far cider and it was dryer than I wanted. I'm really interested in hearing how you got your's to be sweet. Did you carb it or leave it still?

Up till now I have been using whitelabs english cider yeast, exclusively for the last year, reculturing from the same tube I got last may.
I have always carbed the cider(the wife likes bubbbles) but last year I added a heap of apple/pear juice to try to adjust the flavour, someone told me that Strongbow uses lots of pear juice in their ciders and that is what my wife used to drink, so I was trying to clone it for her. I ended up giving it away as Xmas pressies because it was too sweet for her, All other comments were that it was very nice and like a sweet champagne. Maybe it was the added juice that was so sweet but I have added heaps of extra juice before and not turned them really sweet. I do add a bit of dextrose though no more than 1/2 - 1 kg less when I add heaps of juice.
alx

Alx Rains said:

someone told me that Strongbow uses lots of pear juice in their ciders

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If it's the UK 'Strongbow' made by Bulmers They don't put any pear juice in their ciders.

No the aussie Bulmers Strongbow premium draught alcoholic cider has approx. 10% pear juice, or so it says on the label.

Pear Juice? That's not allowed in cider! that's a cider/perry mongel!
I guess it's a 'legally permitted ingredient' with the 'oddball' Aussie Laws you have to suffer. I can imagine your pain. All that Sun, up to your arse in mangoes as a kid, and now worried about yeast. I have the following words of sympathy to offer -

"you F'*king B*st&rd! It should have been me....."

But back to the question - I use ale yeast for cider (and my recent experiments with a hard lemonade). It's neutral taste wise and works well - I prime and bottle it as per beer for a dryer version that needs a little aging.

Cheers for that guys, sorry I was so long replying, I had to wade through 3 feet of Mangoes to reach the computer Haha!
I have decidede to do two half bbatches, one with the cider yeast, and the other witht he dry ale yeast (youngs 514). I'll see how the turn out, Hey Caplan if you happen to be in Oz in December, drop by I neeed a hand to pick the fruit!
Alx

Alx Rains said:

Cheers for that guys, sorry I was so long replying, I had to wade through 3 feet of Mangoes to reach the computer Haha!
I have decidede to do two half bbatches, one with the cider yeast, and the other witht he dry ale yeast (youngs 514). I'll see how the turn out, Hey Caplan if you happen to be in Oz in December, drop by I neeed a hand to pick the fruit!
Alx

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Please give us a report!

Alx Rains said:

Cheers for that guys, sorry I was so long replying, I had to wade through 3 feet of Mangoes to reach the computer Haha!
I have decidede to do two half bbatches, one with the cider yeast, and the other witht he dry ale yeast (youngs 514). I'll see how the turn out, Hey Caplan if you happen to be in Oz in December, drop by I neeed a hand to pick the fruit!
Alx

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Experiments are always worth trying - report your findings on this forum. If I ever reach Oz Alx i'll try for December as long as you've got a few 'mango ciders' lined up as payment!

I'll have them in the fridge! If I'm not there just help yourself, oh you don't know where I live, ah well they'll br safe then!

Well the Experiment is under way, A week ago, with the assistance of my offsider Garion (my 4yr old) I put down a black rock cider kit made to 20 lt and split into 2 equal quantities, Added 300g of dry corn syrup and 500g of dextrose before splitting up into the two batches. Both batches had two litres of Apple and pear juice(no pres) added to them plus the 2lt of apple juice that the starter contained.
Fermenter No.1 had the Whitlabs cider yeast and Fermenter No.2 had the Youngas NQ 514 ale yeast chucked on. Both have been sitting in the Fridge @ 20 deg celcius. Airlock activity started within hours and both have good activity marks up the side of the feremnters, the fridge smells really nice when it is opened too! I plan to bottle them in the next week. I will see if there is much difference in taste then and keep you posted! (as an aside I had some Pineapple and apple cider tonight from a batch I made earlier this year, a couple of months int he bottle has brought it up a treat! just thought I'd share that with you all)
Cheers Alx

Well,.........It's bottled, finally! With a bit of "help" from my offsider(who was actually more interested in Tasting than bottling) The Experiment is over, for now. They both turned out really nice, but thats just my opinion haha the end result was that there was a difference in flavours between the two, and neither turned out terribly sweet, so I don't know what happened to last years one that did cos it is essentially the same ingredients! But now I have some more yummy cider to take to the festival for the home brew comp if nothting else.
Ok thanks for watching. I will see how it goes in a few weeks when it gets all bubbly in the bottle
Cheers you've been a great audience
Alx