Beer yeast for cider . . .

Will any beer yeast do? I have some Muntons I was going to try. Thanks.

I've never heard of anyone using Muntons but I've used Wyeast 3068 and I'm about to use Nottingham to make some Graff. I haven't tried my Wyeast cider in about 7 weeks, but last time I did I thought it was excellent, aside from a fairly strong peanut butter flavour/aroma. It may have subsided by now, who knows. If it has then it must be a mighty fine cider!

I prefer nottingham and safale-05 to 3068, but I still like 3068.

I have no idea about muntons but for 2$ you can get some notty or 05.

Used Notty for a mead that took it to 12.5% if that helps.....

I've made 5 batches of cider now using Wyeast 1388 (Belgian Strong Ale) and those have all turned out really well. Belgian yeasts in general seem to pair well with ciders. For my last batch of cider I used White Labs WLP720 (Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast) and that seemed to work out really well also. I plan on continuing my yeast experimentation.

I love using ale yeasts in my ciders, however I stick to English varieties. I've had great luck with WLP023, WLP005, s-04 and nottingham. I've also used a few belgian yeasts, and noticed that they all seem to give off a certain herby or flowery flavor (I've used WLP550, WLP500, and WLP570 so far). This flower flavor has left all my female friends loving it, but my male friends stick to the ones I do with english yeasts.

I just made a batch using muntons yeast. I added 5 gallons apple juice and 2 lbs of brown sugar.

About 3 to 4 weeks in the primary, moved to secondary today because i needed my primary open for a brew this weekend.

It was extremely clear already, but the flavor was harsh and needs to be conditioned for a while longer.

BlackE1 said:

I just made a batch using muntons yeast. I added 5 gallons apple juice and 2 lbs of brown sugar.

About 3 to 4 weeks in the primary, moved to secondary today because i needed my primary open for a brew this weekend.

It was extremely clear already, but the flavor was harsh and needs to be conditioned for a while longer.

Click to expand...

You can tone down the initial harshness by using some specialty grains for steeping.

I've always used notty for my ciders and the results are great. I don't add any additional sugars to the juice, which comes in at 1.050 on it's own. Just rehydrate and ferment at ~70 degrees (or whatever my closet happens to be) the fruit esters produced by the nottingham work real well with the apple juice. Some of the apple flavor is stripped by the fermentation process, and the esters come in and replace some of that lost fruit character.

Served carbed it's a SWMBO killer My next experiment is with adding a little oak to it. The wife really liked an oaked commercial cider she tried once, so I'll see if I can do it even better.