Apfelwein Yeast Availability

I promised I'd post more questions before the weeks end.

This is the wine yeast list from my LHBS.

-94239 The Beverage People Product Listing

I was planning on using the 5 gallon carboy and leaving my Nut Brown in primary until bottling time. So I have a few options.

- Put less volume in the 5 gallon carboy.
- Use another yeast that won't create a krausen.
- Buy a bigger carboy.
- Transfer the NBA to secondary and use the plastic bucket primary.

I thought Apfelwein was supposed to be simple.

The description of the Pasteur Champagne yeast is very similar to Montrachet (which is the yeast that Edwort uses in the original recipe) so that may be a good choice....Not that I know much about wine, mind you.

I used Premier Cuvee champagne yeast for my batch and it seemed to work out just fine. Champagne yeasts should be pretty neutral and high attenuating, which I think is what you want with Apfelwein.

There is no krausen with apfelwein. You may come in at less than 5 gallons, but it will be half a pint less. No worries.

ifishsum said:

The description of the Pasteur Champagne yeast is very similar to Montrachet (which is the yeast that Edwort uses in the original recipe) so that may be a good choice....Not that I know much about wine, mind you.

I used Premier Cuvee champagne yeast for my batch and it seemed to work out just fine. Champagne yeasts should be pretty neutral and high attenuating, which I think is what you want with Apfelwein.

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I have some Pasteur for Root Beer. I think I'll give that a try. Cheers.

Kilted Brewer said:

There is no krausen with apfelwein. You may come in at less than 5 gallons, but it will be half a pint less. No worries.

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I read on a post that I can't find any more that some people get krausens if they use different yeasts. I'm gonna rig a blow off tube anyway just to be safe.

Never hurts to be safe. I've only used the Montrachet mentioned above. It gets busy, but never had any krausen with it.

I've heard that the Pasteur Cham. yeast is good, but slower. I'm currently doing a batch of apfelwein with Premier Cuvee which is rumored to be maybe even faster than Montrachet. I can't vouch for the flavor of Pasteur or Premier Cuvee, but both are rumored to be good. I've also done apfelwein with EC-1118 and the flavor was good.

But, I've decided to never use EC-1118 again, because I seem to have carbonation problems with it (both mead and cider).

Really, probably any neutral yeast will give a good apfelwein.

The batch I made with Premier Cuvee finished and cleared completely in 3 weeks. Tastes good, too :cross:

I just started a batch with cuvee, did you bottle at 3 weeks and just drink it right away? What was the ABV?