Graff with Champagne Yeast & Ale Yeast

[Jonathan_Marino]

Hey Cider Gurus,

Here for another deep dive into my thought process and to get your feedback.

So I am looking to improve upon a graff I made a couple months back that turned out excellent, but a little too sweet (lip smacking) and low ABV (4.5%)

Essentially, what I think happened, the champagne yeast I used absolutely tore through the simple sugars (cider extract // 38 ppg) and then struggled to really convert any of the more complex malt sugars (Flaked oats, maris otter, carapils) so the result was a very bready cider - which is actually delicious and currently my fiancees favorite beer she's ever had (so thats good)

So on this next turn I thought I would introduce an ale yeast to come clean up those complex sugars. I also have a bottle of convertase but decided to not mess with that until version 3

1. I first pitched with the champagne yeast again and they took off for about 60 hours driving my OG from .056 -> .018
2. the fermentation has stopped for over 48 hours.
3. Yesterday I kicked off a starter of Omega Yeast | OYL-402 Cosmic Punch
4. I have a grainfather conical fermentor so I dumped the trub (containing the champagne yeast)
5. and then pitched the new ale yeast which has been going strong on the spinner plate
6. plan to dry hop with Mosaic once this 2ndary fermentation is done and the ale yeast has completed

Now I sit here, wondering if this was a mistake and if I should have done ale yeast first, and then cleaned up with champagne. But my brain tells me that I really wanted the champagne yeast to convert those simple cider fructose chains because it'll give the best flavor profile - sharp, kinda funky, cider whereas the ale yeast would also go after those sugars and not give me the balanced graff style I am going after.

Anyway, I'll know by tomorrow if the yeast are doing their thing and I can report back if anyone is interested. For now I am wondering what this community thinks of my process, recipe and thoughts on the matter as a whole.

Thanks so much!

 

[Wrendelar]

Interesting experiment … version 3 flip flop the yeasts and see if there’s a difference.

Keep us posted on the journey