Pitching cider onto a beer yeast cake?

[SRJHops]

I'm an intermediate all-grain beer brewer, but want to start making some ciders too. I'm about to rack a strong Belgian beer into secondary, and wondering if I could try pitching a few gallons of apple cider onto the yeast cake to make a Belgian-inspired graf?

Good idea or bad? Chances of it working? It would sure save a lot of time to not have to harvest/rinse the yeast or use a new carboy...

Can you over pitch a cider? There's certainly more than enough yeast in the bottom of the carboy...

 

[Dinadan]

I think it will definitely work. Whether you like the resulting cider is another question. I recently made cider with yeast slurry from a beer batch brewed with US-05. Mine fermented out very dry but pretty good, at least to my taste. Not much apple flavor at all, though.

 

[SRJHops]

I think it will definitely work. Whether you like the resulting cider is another question. I recently made cider with yeast slurry from a beer batch brewed with US-05. Mine fermented out very dry but pretty good, at least to my taste. Not much apple flavor at all, though.

Thanks! Will give it a go. I do plan to add some stevia and fruit and such.

It would be great if it works and I can make cider each time I have a yeast cake from my beer. Not so much to save money as to not toss good yeast...and have a VERY short brew day. Takes me six hours to brew beer - I bet it will take me six minutes to make this cider!

 

[Nick Z]

The cider won't be gluten free if you use a beer yeast cake. If that isn't an issue then go for it.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Interesting as I actually did. I made a cider and pitched US-05. Initially the cider was OK. Unfortunately, quickly became tart. Only has happened when I experimented with an ale yeast.

 

[Transamguy77]

I’ve done it several times, I’ve used S04, S05, Nottingham, 1056 and Windsor. Now I backsweeten all of my ciders because I don’t like a dry cider. As far as taste S04 and 1056 are my favorites.

 

[AzOr]

Sounds good to me. Any yeast with character will make it drinkable without a long wait.

 

[devilssoninlaw]

Like some of the others, I've made cider with a yeast cake but the cider had an odd taste. I'd suggest washing your yeast first, removing the trub. I think you'd be glad you did.