Overbearing yeast flavor in simple cider

For my first cider, I decided to go simple and just go with juice and yeast to see where it takes me and then build from there. So we have a local unpasteurized, unfiltered apple juice that is sold in stores. Excellent juice. So I took about 9liters (2.4gallons) and a packet of Champagne yeast and tossed them into a 3gallon better bottle. I let it sit at 18-20*C (64-68*F) for 8weeks where it went from 1.050 to 1.002.

Tasted the cider, it was drier than dry. So I backsweetened with the same juice that I made it with, it took around 2 liters (~.5gallon) to get it to where I thought it was lightly sweetened. I bottled the cider and let it sit for a few days and kept an eye on a plastic soda bottled that I filled as well to keep an eye on the carb level. Once the plastic bottle was hard enough, I attempted to bottle pasteurize unsuccessfully (didn't think about the plastic corks melting) so I put the remaining 8 750ml bottles of cider in the fridge to keep the yeasties at bay.

Jump forward 4 weeks to last night where we tasted the cider for the first time. Great carbonation, a flurry of Champagne bubbles. Aroma was good, with a bit of yeast nose. However the flavor was all yeast! Couldn't get past the yeast flavor in the cider. So much that I couldn't drink it.

I didn't cold crash the cider because at the time I didn't have the means to cold crash a full carboy (I do now). But still, I didn't do anything different than I do with my beers with no ill effects.

So why the extreme yeast flavors?

Was the cider cleared and was the yeast at the bottom of the bottle, not stirred up when you poured it? Other than that, I don't have a lot of suggestions.

I suspect it has something to do with the combination of your particular juice and yeast. I use Nottingham dry ale yeast in my simple ciders with good results - I know that CvilleKevin has a sticky thread at the top of the forum about experimenting with various yeasts and juices.

+1 on the juice and yeast. Yeasts really have there own personalities, try a different one next time. I use wl775 and I drink the sediment because its so good.

Why people keep using Champagne yeast in ciders is beyond me. If you want to make acid wash, sure, use champagne yeast.



M_C

With a higher carbonation you may be rousing the yeast just by opening up the bottles. I donno, just looking for some other ideas ...

Misplaced_Canuck said:

Why people keep using Champagne yeast in ciders is beyond me. If you want to make acid wash, sure, use champagne yeast.



M_C

Click to expand...

I used it more so cause the guy at the LHBS said it was the only one to use. When I went in the second time, after a ton of reading on here I grabbed a pack of Nottingham, and he just about wouldnt sell it to me, as in his mind the only yeast to use for cider is EC1118...

Pappers_ said:

I use Nottingham dry ale yeast in my simple ciders with good results - I know that CvilleKevin has a sticky thread at the top of the forum about experimenting with various yeasts and juices.

Click to expand...

I second Papper's suggestion for Nottingham. I use about half the package 5.5g for 5/6Gal of cider. My first baches were with wine and champagne yeast and I know what you are talking about with the yeasty flavor. Blech! You also may not want to wait so long to rack it off the lees. I only let it go until about 1.040 - 1.045 before I get it off the yeast. Cider is a off-flavor magnet, so it picks up "dead yeast" flavor easily.

pistolpete said:

I used it more so cause the guy at the LHBS said it was the only one to use. When I went in the second time, after a ton of reading on here I grabbed a pack of Nottingham, and he just about wouldnt sell it to me, as in his mind the only yeast to use for cider is EC1118...

Click to expand...

EC-1118 can be great for ciders (from my experience), you just need to understand it and know how to get the final product you want. It may be more work than using an ale yeast, but once you get the hang of it, champagne yeast can give you more possibilities.

As for the OP – my guess would be that there was too much yeast still in your cider when you bottled (maybe age longer and rack once more), and the high level of carbonation probably stirred everything up when opened. This can get tricky, because if you age too long and there are too few yeast cells still viable, you may get no carbonation at all or you might have to wait months to get the level of carbonation you want. I had a batch that took 4 months to properly carbonate.