Yeast – the best ones so far (for the juices I used)
Nottingham – This has been my favorite yeast for several years. It works well for sweet ciders and cysers with pasteurized juice, although not so well for unpasteurized cyser. It cold crashes well with any juice. With just juice, no sugar, and cold crash around 1.004, it is outstanding. If you use sugar and bump sg up to at least 1.060, then you can stop fermentation with pasteurized juice by racking. You have to do either rack or cold crash to keep it from drying out all the way, as it tends to strip out the flavor if it goes all the way dry.
Safale S-04 – This is becoming my new favorite. It has a little fruitier taste than the Nottingham. It cold crashes well with any juice. If you use sugar and bump sg up to at least 1.060, then you can stop fermentation with pasteurized juice by racking. With unpasteurized juice, if you don’t cold crash and just let it ferment out to dryness, it leaves more of the apple taste than the Nottingham. It also works better for unpasteurized cysers. I haven’t tried a pasteurized cyser with it yet.
Saflager S-23 – This lager yeast has a similar flavor profile to Nottingham. It doesn’t do as well with unsweetened juice, but is good if you add sugar to bump the sg up to about 1.060. This is one that definitely improves with age. It was one of the best that we tasted last month. It cold crashes well.
Safale US-05 – This yeast imparts an interesting taste to the cider which reminds me a little bit of a pale ale. It works better with pasteurized juice – with unpasteurized it tends to knock out some of the body.
Yeasts I’ll probably try again
Wyeast 3068 – So far I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice, with and without extra sugar, cold crashing both batches. It has a nice smooth taste and lots of body, but not much tartness. However, mixed with juice that is fermented with WLP300 (which fermented out a little too tart) it was outstanding. I’m planning to try it with unpasteurized juice this year to see if that imparts a bit more of a bite.
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead Yeast – I tried this one with pasteurized and unpasteurized juice, with and without extra sugar, all of them cold crashed. All were good, although the best was unpasteurized with sugar.
Wild yeast – I did several experiments with wild yeasts. Generally, they tasted pretty good until the sg dropped below 1.020 and then they started picking up nasty flavors. Cold crashing keeps them stable for a little while, but not for long. But they do pick up some interesting tastes.
Yeasts I probably wont use again, but still were OK
WLP002 – I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice, with and without extra sugar. It tasted nearly the same as using Nottingham, which is very good, but they were similar enough that I would say its not worth the extra hassle and cost of a liquid yeast
WLP300 – I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice, with and without extra sugar. It was very slow to start fermenting. It had a nice body and flavor but a really sour finish, even though I cold crashed it. Mixed with the Wyeast 3068, it was really good though.
Windsor – So far, I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice. It finishes out really sour, but has a fruity taste. I kinda liked it but none of my friends did. Adding sugar before fermentation makes it taste worse.
Coopers – So far, I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice with no sugar added. It ferments out more tart than Nottingham and has a woody taste which I wasn’t crazy about, but some might like. If you like Blackthorn dry commercial cider, you’ll probably like working with Coopers.
Lalvin 1118 – I used to use this yeast all the time back in the day until a friend turned me on to using Ale yeast. It ferments very fast and very dry. With unpasteurized juice, the only way I could ever get decent results was to let it dry out and then back sweeten with the original juice. I’ve been able to get OK results with pasteurized juice by cold crashing, but you really have to keep an eye on it because it drys out fast.
Yeasts I don’t particularly recommend
Wyeast 4766 Cider Yeast - Tested with pasteurized and unpasteurized juice, sweetened and unsweetened. Of these, only the sweetened unpasteurized juice was drinkable, and just barely
WLP720 Sweet Mead - Tested with pasteurized and unpasteurized juice, sweetened and unsweetened. Of these, only the sweetened pasteurized juice was drinkable, and just barely
Safbrew WB-06 - I’ve just used this with pasteurized juice, with and without extra sugar. They were both really bitter.
Lalvin-1116 – I just tried this with pasteurized, unsweetened juice. It left a real bland, butter taste.
Red Star - Cotes de Blanc – I just tried this with pasteurized, unsweetened juice. It left a real bland, buttery taste.
DV10 - Tested with pasteurized and unpasturized juice, no extra sugar. Both were drinkable but somewhat bland.
Safbrew S-33 – Tested with pasteurized and unpasturized juice, sweetened and unsweetened. All tasted pretty crappy. Basically sucked all the flavor out of the juice.
