looking to recycle yeast

[Jako]

i have a pale ale doing its thing right now i am using safale-05.

could i just dump some apple juice on top and make a simple cider? or should i wash the yeast and then pitch with a dash of yeast nutrient.

i guess my real question can you make good cider with juice off the shelf? i don't want to waste my time if its going to turn out like junk.

 

[bleme]

Cider doesn't have the nutrients that yeast need to ferment cleanly. I would add yeast nutrient. Many brewers report success using raisins or dates.

Reusing the yeast cake is a separate issue as without any kind of rinsing, you are going to have some hop matter in there. Whether or not you want your cider to have pale ale undertones is up to you.

 

[Jako]

Cider doesn't have the nutrients that yeast need to ferment cleanly. I would add yeast nutrient. Many brewers report success using raisins or dates.

Reusing the yeast cake is a separate issue as without any kind of rinsing, you are going to have some hop matter in there. Whether or not you want your cider to have pale ale undertones is up to you.

that's what i thought hah. i don't know i might do a small control batch with unwashed yeast. will the safale-05 finish sweet?

 

[bleme]

It will be pretty dry because apple juice only has simple sugars but I prefer the taste of ale yeast over wine yeast. My wife prefers it with a squirt of Torani syrup to backsweeten it.

 

[Jako]

i don't think i want it super dry. i need to read up its not a simple as i thought.

hear me out on this. could i bottle early let it carb up then drop the bottles in some boiling water to kill off the yeast? sounds like a stretch to me.

regardless thanks for the information.

 

[ExperimentalBrewer]

pasteurization how to is a sticky in this forum. I haven't tried it.

Maybe I am a mutant, but I put my cider in 1l soda bottles (seltzer bottles), I don't worry about bottle bombs. I also make 1 gal batches and drink them pretty quickly, so I don't worry about long term storage in plastic. Maybe I should.

I find ale yeast (nottingham is what I use) creates a pretty good level of sweetness. looking through my notes, I don't think I have tried s-05. I have some, maybe I will try it.

 

[Maylar]

S-05 will take cider dry. There are no unfermentable sugars in cider - it's not beer.

 

[bernardsmith]

I guess the issue is that yeast will ferment dry all the sugar in the apple juice. The sugars are all simple mono-saccharides and there is no yeast that will have any problem fermenting those down to1.000 or lower. The challenge for you will be to catch the yeast at the point when they have left you with enough sugar to produce the sweetness that you want but have fermented enough of the sugar to create the hard cider that you are looking for. The only solution to that is either for you to hover over the fermenter for the next 7-10 days taking readings every few hours or to buy a digital hydrometer that will send a signal to your phone when the gravity hits the reading you have pre-selected. All other solutions are crap shoots... and in a crap shoot with yeast, the yeast invariably win.

 

[Jako]

haha well shucks. this still sounds exciting. it sound like this is more wine like then cider. my last question. should cider be carbonated or should i keep it simple and just shoot for a good sweetness. thank you all for the tips. i will report back what i end up doing and how it turns out. my batch of beer is almost done..

 

[Drewed]

Buy a gallon of cider from the local farmers market. Make sure it has not be "sorbated." ( no preservitives ) A gallon should cost $10 at most. Dump it on the yeast and give it a stir.
Ignore it for a week or two
Check the gravity and see if your are down near 1.000
As for carbonation, that is up to you. I like my carbonated, and highly carbonated at that. But if you want sweeter and carbonated in the bottle, then you are going to have a lot more work on your hands than just sweeter. For the first batch I'd shoot for good taste only. Once ferment stops, hit the cider with and K-meta and camden to kill off the yeast. Stick the gallon in the fridge for a couple of days to cold crash and clear, then sweeten to taste and bottle.

 

[bleme]

Also keep in mind that carbonation takes the edge off the sweetness. My last batch tasted sickly sweet after backsweetening, but before carbonation. By the time it was carbonated, my wife thought it was perfect. I still thought it was too sweet, but it was passable at least...

 

[Evan55]

i have a pale ale doing its thing right now i am using safale-05.

could i just dump some apple juice on top and make a simple cider? or should i wash the yeast and then pitch with a dash of yeast nutrient.

i guess my real question can you make good cider with juice off the shelf? i don't want to waste my time if its going to turn out like junk.

Just dump juice right on top of the yeast cake after you rack off the beer. Ive done it many times and it turns out great as long as you keep everything nice and sanitized. (shake it up if your fermenter is small enough that you can or stir if you cant)

Some easy mods are adding 1/2 to 1 can of thawed apple juice concentrate per gallon of juice, and/or 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of malic acid per gallon of juice. but start simple and go from there

and it will end up pretty dry, adding a teaspoon of apple juice concentrate in the bottom of the glass before pouring perks it up nicely.

 

[Evan55]

Cider doesn't have the nutrients that yeast need to ferment cleanly. I would add yeast nutrient. Many brewers report success using raisins or dates.
.

no need for nutrient.
in fact, low nitrogen is one way to keep the cider from finishing totally dry

 

[Jako]

thanks for the great advice. like you said i think i will keep it simple. figure out what i like or dislike.

i like the idea of using a gallon and working with that. i might do that to fine tune. i love beer but cider is what got me into good beer. so i would love to make good cider one day.