Red Star Montrachet Yeast

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coollikefonzie

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I am brand new to making hard cider. I have my first gallon batch in a secondary fermentor right now. I added stevia and flavor concentrate for secondary fermentor. Planning on carbonating with Cooper tablets (I've read good reviews)

Right when I racked my first batch, I started my second batch. 3 gallons using red star Montrachet... Does anyone know what I can expect with this yeast? My gravity was at 1.060... will it ferment dry. I'm brand new to this so right now, everything is an experiment.
 
The yeast does produce a very dry flavor. Adding the concentrate to the secondary will cause renewed fermentation, assuming it was done fermenting, with very little residual flavor left. Stevia is a non fermentable sugar there will be some sweetness. I am not sure how that is all going to taste in the end. I would stabilized the cider and added the Stevia and concentrate to taste at bottling.
 
I never thought of the flavoring re-activating the yeast. It makes perfect sense. I think I will let it ferment dry again, then add the flavor at bottling. I just need to watch my gravity, as I'm adding carbonation tablets. Has anyone tried the Cooper carbonation tablets? I'm going for a sweet, carbonated cider.
 
coollikefonzie said:
I never thought of the flavoring re-activating the yeast. It makes perfect sense. I think I will let it ferment dry again, then add the flavor at bottling. I just need to watch my gravity, as I'm adding carbonation tablets. Has anyone tried the Cooper carbonation tablets? I'm going for a sweet, carbonated cider.
Click to expand...

So you're going to add flavoring right before bottling, AND add coopers tabs? Watch out for shrapnel from all your bottle bombs. The only way I have seen to end up with a Sweet, carbonated beverage, is to pasteurize. There is a sticky at the top of the cider forum. It's (mildly) dangerous but effective. Good luck! :mug:
 
bernerbrau said:
Or, you add potassium sorbate to kill the yeast, sweeten, and keg.
Click to expand...

:rockin: Could work but the k-sorbate is sketchy..

Yooper said:
Sorry, that's wrong. Campden = potassium metabisulfite and does NOT kill yeast!

Read your source more closely- k meta inhibits yeast growth, never kills them. Potassium sorbate also does NOT kill yeast; k sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction. They are most certainly different chemicals, but work best together.

The best way to back sweeten is to wait until fermentation is completely stopped. (Because neither of those compounds actually kill yeast, it's really tough to stop a active fermentation, which may be why you have airlock activity- you may have just temporarily stunned them). After fermentation is stopped, dissolve 1/2 tsp per gallon of k-sorbate and 1 campden tablet per gallon into some boiling water (like 1/2 cup) and stir until completely dissolved. Put this into your carboy, and rack your mead into it. Wait about 3-4 days to ensure fermentation has not restarted, and then sweeten as desired. I would wait another week after sweetening, just to be 100% sure it doesn't start up again. Then bottle.
Click to expand...

from https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/potassium-sorbate-enough-60591/
 
CHeck on the flavoring additive. most of them have Potasium Sorbate and a fair amount of them are alcohol based and have very minimal sugar in them.
 
I just checked the label of my "Brewers Best" flavoring... It doesn't have any ingredients listed. I gave it a taste and the apple flavor did not ferment out, it's actually pretty good... I'll probably add a bit more stevia. As I said, I'm new at this... It seems like it's taking more sweetener than I originally thought it would.

Also, I have to thank everybody for the advice... It's nice to have some people talking a newbie through this... My roommate brews a lot of beer but I decided to dabble in cider at first... It just seems a little easier. I'm finding it's going to be a lot of personal preference. I have 3 gallons fermenting right now... I'll probably split that up into 3 different secondaries and try some new things. I'm open to suggestions... Preferably something that's tough to mess up.
 
1tbsp/quart of stevia at bottling gives plenty of sweetening. A few months of bottle conditioning and you will notice the apple flavors coming back a bit. My cider (9%ABV) made with CdB took 5 mos to become drinkable. Give your cider time. You won't regret it.:tank:
 
coollikefonzie, welcome to cider town.

I am doing the same thing you are, experimenting. I split up 5 gallons of Edworts Apfelwein into 1 gallon primaries. I wanted to test the flavor of brown sugar over dextrose. Also, after a perusal of the other cider brewers I decided to also add some raisins, fresh lime juice and a cup of strong tea to 2 of the batches.

I think they will all taste good, but I am hoping that a few batches have a better flavor than others. I still have at least 3 weeks to go, and longer is better, but I will let you know when I pull a sample!

Keep up the experimentation. I believe it's very difficult to mess up a cider!
 
I wanted to add my 2 cents on the pasteurizing, I have read the sticky and the method explained there could be dangerous, but it works. If you have a dishwasher that's the way to go, I have used this method on around 80 bottles and mason jars with great success, plus if a bottle does decide to go it is contained by the washer and not by your face. Try putting a one of your bottles in the washer and about half way through the cycle and take a temp reading of the liquid, and a temp reading when it's done. Also time how long one wash cycle lasts. Mine came out at 140 degrees and the normal cycle lasted for an hour. On a side note all of my ciders have been still I'm going to try carbonated next.
 
I just racked the red star montachet 3 gallon batch... It went really dry. It looked like it went from 1.066 to .960 It also looked like it was still a little active. I wasn't planning on a 14% cider but I guess I'll see how it turns out. I threw 6 tablespoons of stevia in it and 1/2 teaspoon flavor concentrate... I'll probably take a look in a week or so and see how it tastes. It's pretty cloudy right now
 

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