Does Cider Need Yeast?

[broomee]

Hi Guys,

I did a bit of reaserch before starting my first cider and there seemed to be two schools of thought on this and a multitude of recipes.
If juicing real apples instead of bought juice do you need to add yeast?
My fermenter currently has 19 litres of crushed and squeezed apple juice with about 3 litres of cold water with 1 cup of sugar disolved in it. I only added the extra water and sugar to help bring the OG up a bit to 1.036. Was hoping for a higher OG.
Do I need to add Yeast or will it ferment out OK with out it?

 

[fineexampl]

i'd say you need more research. i hope that doesn't sound rude. yeah, you almost definitely need yeast. otherwise you could wait damn near forever for it to grab a bit of bacteria and begin to ferment.

 

[broomee]

Yeh thats what i was worried about. All the recipees without yeast said it would take longer just not how much longer. They sprouted on about the natural yeast contained within the apples was enough. Im not in any rush but if its going to take months i might need to chuck some yeast in. Cheers

 

[Edcculus]

The natural yeast in the apples is not enough to properly ferment. Old ciderys that use wild ferments get their yeast not from the apples, but from the yeast that has built up on the wooden pressing equipment over the years. Similar to Lambic breweries.

What is your apple season in NZ? For us in the States, its late summer and into the fall (now ish - October ish depending on location). Just wondering since you got such a low OG from the apples.

 

[fineexampl]

and even if the yeast in the apple did ferment it, it would be pretty damned stressed yeast.

 

[broomee]

Not too sure, but id guess much the same late summer to autum (Feb - June ish). The tress had lost all there leaves and were about to get bulldozed to make way for a development so thought id run around and grab them before they were lost forever. I dont even know the variety or anything. Just thought it would make an interesting experiment to try using them. They were all in good condition.

 

[ChshreCat]

You CAN use natural yeast to ferment out your cider, but you'd probably want to cultivate the yeast first and build up a good cell count.

There's a good thread on here about capturing wild yeast: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/. Some folks do something similar, but they capture the yeast off the skin of an apple.

This is all fairly advanced stuff, so you should probably just pitch some yeast from your LHBS for now and read up on those techniques for the future.

 

[Edcculus]

You CAN use natural yeast to ferment out your cider, but you'd probably want to cultivate the yeast first and build up a good cell count.

There's a good thread on here about capturing wild yeast: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/. Some folks do something similar, but they capture the yeast off the skin of an apple.

This is all fairly advanced stuff, so you should probably just pitch some yeast from your LHBS for now and read up on those techniques for the future.

Yes, that is possible, but FWIW, the yeast found on (actually mostly IN) apples is not S. Cervasie

here is an excerpt from Anderew Lea's site:

Don't be afraid of washing away the yeast - you won't! It is a popular fallacy that desirable fermenting yeasts are present on the fruit skin. There are indeed some types of yeast on the skin and in fact there can be up to 45,000 yeast cells per gram of fruit actually inside the apple itself, which get there through the open eye (where the flower petals once were). However, scientific study has shown that these yeasts (species such as Kloeckera and Candida) have only weak fermenting power and they soon die in more than a couple of percent of alcohol. They are not the Saccharomyces yeasts which are required for the successful completion of fermentation.

In a traditional cider-making operation where no yeast is apparently used, the inoculum resides on the press racks, the cloths, the vats, or even on the walls and ceiling. It persists from season to season but virtually none of it comes from the apples. Wild Saccharomyces yeasts are not very common, so this inoculum can take several years to build up but, once established, it can determine the 'house flavour' of a particular product. It is largely a matter of luck whether this flavour is desirable or not. We return to the subject of yeasts in a later section.

 

[broomee]

Thanks heaps guys for all the info. Im off to buy some yeast a bit later on and chuck it in tonight. I might toss in some more sugar too while im at it to give it a bit of boost. Cheers