Windsor Yeast

[cimirie]

So, I've scoured the internet (and the manufacturers and sellers websites) and cannot find an answer to my quandry: What alcohol tolerance does Windsor yeast have? They say it leaves a relatively high final gravity (which is part of the reason I picked it - I'm looking for a non-dry cider) without being specific at all. Does anybody have an idea?

For reference I'm making a cranberry apple cider with a OG of roughly 1.070. I pitched 2 days ago but now I'm second guessing myself using this yeast strain. I'm fine if it'll drop to 1.017-1.018. I just don't want it to finish in the 1.020+ range and be too syruppy. But I didn't want an overly dry product either.

So enough about my hopes and dreams and back to the original question. Can anybody shed some light on the topic?

 

[Freezeblade]

For almost any cider (or fermentation where the majority of sugars are very simplified) pretty much any yeast will eat nearly all the sugar. I've done many a cider (not cranberry though, so ymmv) and even with the least-attenuating yeast I've never gotten a FG above 1.004.

 

[FSR402]

It's going to dry it down, my "guess" would be it's going to be 1.00 - 1.002.
Either way it's to late now. Myself I would not have used that yeast, it's not really a "clean" fermenting yeast. It will give off some esters that I would not want in a cider.

 

[cimirie]

It's going to dry it down, my "guess" would be it's going to be 1.00 - 1.002.
Either way it's to late now. Myself I would not have used that yeast, it's not really a "clean" fermenting yeast. It will give off some esters that I would not want in a cider.

Believe it or not, I am looking for the esters - which is another reason I chose this yeast. I know it's perhaps not traditional for a cider, but I'm experimenting. There are three different fruit flavors in the cider already (as I used apple and cranberry/raspberry juice) so I thought an estery "fruit" taste might not be a bad add. We'll see.

If Windsor (which is not supposed to attenuate all that much) will still bring the G reading down to 1.002 or so, which yeast would you recommend for a bottle-conditioned sparkling cider with residual sweetness?

Thanks for the feedback, all!

 

[Freezeblade]

Believe it or not, I am looking for the esters - which is another reason I chose this yeast. I know it's perhaps not traditional for a cider, but I'm experimenting. There are three different fruit flavors in the cider already (as I used apple and cranberry/raspberry juice) so I thought an estery "fruit" taste might not be a bad add. We'll see.

If Windsor (which is not supposed to attenuate all that much) will still bring the G reading down to 1.002 or so, which yeast would you recommend for a bottle-conditioned sparkling cider with residual sweetness?

Thanks for the feedback, all!

you cannot achieve a bottle conditioned sweet cider using just juice, yeast and a normal sugar. You have a few options here, some work better than others. First, you can let the yeast eat all the sugars, then add an unfermentable sugar such as Splenda, Stevia, Lactose, xythol, etc. to taste along with the priming sugar. The other is adding some form of malt sugar (dme, malt sugar, steeping carapils/crystal malt), which will not ferment down as far.

The first option is the one that I would do IF a sweet cider is what I am after (I'm much more of a fan of dry ciders in general). The malt option I feel is too wierd and close to 'malt beverage' for my liking, I say keep your malt for beer, keep it out of wine/cider making. IMHO. YMMV. HAND.




oh. and s-04 is my go-to cider yeast.

 

[david_42]

which is not supposed to attenuate all that much

Cider is all simple sugars, so you get almost 100% actual attenuation up to the ABV tolerance, which is 7-8%.

 

[Malticulous]

The other is adding some form of malt sugar (dme, malt sugar, steeping carapils/crystal malt), which will not ferment down as far.

That really intrigues me. Next time I brew a cider I think I will try steeping a pound or two of C-10.

 

[the_bird]

If you're looking for a somewhat sweeter cider, you've also got the options adding a non-fermentable sugar (like lactose). If you're doing a still cider (or kegging), you can kill the yeast with some campden tablets and backsweeten.