Will Red Star baker's yeast make an acceptable cider?

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ManSkills

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I've made numerous 5 gallon batches (maybe 15) of cider and the various yeasts seem to produce flavor profiles that are so similar to my taste I have to wonder if regular yeast from costco would do about as well as other yeasts? I'm sure people have done this so before I try it with $25 worth of apple juice does anyone have words of caution for me? Thanks for any input you may have.
 
When I wanted to compare different yeasts I fermented right in half gallon jugs the juice came in, with an airlock and a standard stopper on top, after dumping out a cup or so of juice.

What yeasts have you tried? I found some taste similar but some taste a lot better.
 
Thanks for your reply. I wish I could answer you but I recently moved into this house we are building and my cider journal is in a box somewhere. Again I tried various yeasts and couldn't tell which were better. I watched a video last night about a guy making brandy from bananas and he said that the difference between bread yeast and champagne yeast is that bread yeast can't tolerate living in alcohol so it stops at about 5% alcohol whereas champagne yeast can tolerate alcohol up to about 20%. For that reason, bread yeast won't work for me and I'm sure it imparts a bread taste. I'll stop by my local brew supply place and pick up some champagne yeast and get going with a batch of cider. Do you have a suggestion as to which yeast is best?
 
So for background I’m using cheap store bought juice right now (comparing different juices with the same yeast is next up). M ferments are in my basement around 67 *F. My ferments are primarily only, 1-1.5 months.

I’ve tried Premier Classique (Montrachet), US-04, EC-1118, Safcider, D47, US-05, and Mangrove Jack’s M02. Of these, D47 and M02 were the clear winners for me, with much more flavor than the other yeasts. Safcider was better than EC-1118. That and the rest made okay cider but without much flavor. I downright disliked US-05 though.

I will be experimenting more with D47 and M02 going forward. My LHBS was out of M02 so my next couple batches will be D47. My wife’s favorite was M02, mine was D47, but I think I may prefer M02 with a bit of aging.

I’ve not yet tried bread yeast, but I should give a 1/2 gallon jug a go given that I keep seeing people here asking about it. Then I could give an educated response.
 
Thanks Jsey, Wow that is a lot of yeast info. I know it stands to reason that the apples should make a huge difference but again, I didn't find that to be the case. I live in Virginia and a couple of years ago I bought some local apple juice that was really flavorful. I think I bought fifty gallons of the stuff and made up 10 different 5 gallon batches and used different yeasts for each. The juices all fermented out clear and tasted exactly like costco cheap juice. After that I use only costco juice and save a ton of money. I have never fermented with regular red star bread yeast so I guess i need to try that next.
Kmark,, I'm not at all sure what your post means. could you please write it out for me. I really do want to know what you are talking about. Thanks.
 
Anchor Steam is one of the first craft beers, a lager beer. I imagine the (temporary) change to baker's yeast changed the beer, and not for the better.
 
Thanks, 174 episodes! That will take a while
Alternatively, you could just listen to the interview with Fritz Maytag. IIRC, it's around the 8 to 10 minute mark where he talks about taking a milk can to one of the area brewers (and he rotated who he bothered) for yeast for the bi-monthly brewing before landing on Red Star. It certainly burst my bubble thinking that Anchor Steam used some kind of secret German lager yeast from the Kaiser's private stash handed down thru the decades. Truth is, I have no idea on the provenance of Anchor Steam lager yeast brewed at ale temperatures except it most likely hails from the 1970's like disco...
 
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