Whats a good yeast?

[bendog15]

Bout to make my first 5 gallon carboy using store bought organic apple juice. OG is already 1.050 so won't add any brown sugar. What's a good yeast to use? I live in a warm climate.

 

[HornetSparky]

I've had good results with Safale US-05 making sweet sparkling cider from TreeTop Juice. I pasteurize in the bottle to make that happen. Think there are better choices if you are looking for a super-dry cider, but I am not.

 

[jflongo]

I have used multiple yeasts and my favorite so far is the Wyeast Liquid Cider Yeast. Next time I'm going to try a ale yeast though for a test.

 

[MarkKF]

I think EC-1118 is the quickest, easiest yeast to use.

I've used White Labs Cider Yeast and Nottingham Ale as well.

 

[bssrf4]

For sweeter ciders people seem to enjoy Notty or S-04.

If you like dry, go with a nice wine yeast.

 

[Tnels977]

From new brewer to new brewer, I've done a few experiments with varying yeasts with OG ~1.050 (+-0.01) around 70F. Nottingham and Safeale S-04 both turned out enjoyable tart ciders in 3-5 weeks. My worst luck has been with Redstar Champagne yeast.

 

[Randzor]

If your going to use champagne you need to slow it down through temp controls, but that is the yeast I swear by....

 

[jsDC]

Notty has been good to me. Red Star Champ was drier but left a definite yeasty quality to the final product (I was pretty careless with temp however). Started a batch with Moncharet the other day. Keen to see how that turns out.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Lalvin D-47 or K1-1116

Nottingham

My top three.

 

[JtotheA]

Lalvin D-47 or K1-1116

Nottingham

My top three.

What he said! D-47 left a "granny smith apple" taste the couple times I used it. K1-1116 is the more tame version of 1118 (that's a good thing!) Notty is always the "old faithful" ale yeast.
To add to the list, S-04 is good. Probably S-05 too but haven't tried it yet. Any Belgian Ale yeast I've tried ended up really good also. The Belgian yeasts seem to always leave some sweetness along with other fruity flavors from my experience.

 

[sbuczkowski]

I just finished bottling three separate 5 gallon cider batches using D-47, Nottingham and Saflager yeasts. The base juice blend was different for each one so, it's difficult to compare directly. The flavor profiles in all three have evolved significantly over the fermentation but, at bottling, the Nottingham is my least favorite. It's a bit flat and has an aftertaste (very slightly sulphurous or acetic). I'll probably only serve it mulled. The D-47 batch is dry with just enough apple flavor and acidity and should be quite pleasant once it bottle carbs. The Saflager was nice but needed some bite so, I steeped some cranberries in it for a few weeks. It is now fantastic (I may not share this one....). So, my take: Saflager and D-47, then Nottingham.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I've used wine yeast (Montrachet) for cider & IMHO, wine yeast strips out a lot of the apple flavour. I've also use S04 & S05 ale yeasts, both are good, but I got a bit more "twang" in the taste from the S04. My fav goto ale yeast for cider/graff is Nottingham. Nice & clean, no off flavours, always works great.
Regards, GF.