Hello all, I am new to hard cider so I made a kit from Northern Brewer back in September. I made a small one gallon batch of "Grimhilde Crooked Apple" hard cider. I had a small 2 1/2 gallon keg laying around (I keg my beer in 5 gallon kegs) and so I kegged the batch in that and cold crashed it until Christmas. Everyone really liked it. I didn't use the sweetener as I wanted to see how it came out without it and I figured I could always add sweetener to the glass if necessary.
It was very champagne like in comparison and you could taste the apple flavor too, it was more like an apple wine with carbonation. I liked it but I don't like champagne so much. Everyone else liked it though. But I think I would like it even more if it was not "champagne like" in character. I think it was due to the yeast in the kit which was "Cote des Blanc" dry yeast.
Which brings me to my question. Which yeast for hard cider would be better for just letting the apple wine like complextion come through? Kinda like when you want a neutral ale yeast like Chico or American ale, to let the malt come through and not influence the beer much. Any one know what yeast I can try next time to get the characteristics I am looking for?
John
It was very champagne like in comparison and you could taste the apple flavor too, it was more like an apple wine with carbonation. I liked it but I don't like champagne so much. Everyone else liked it though. But I think I would like it even more if it was not "champagne like" in character. I think it was due to the yeast in the kit which was "Cote des Blanc" dry yeast.
Which brings me to my question. Which yeast for hard cider would be better for just letting the apple wine like complextion come through? Kinda like when you want a neutral ale yeast like Chico or American ale, to let the malt come through and not influence the beer much. Any one know what yeast I can try next time to get the characteristics I am looking for?
John
