Anyone use ale yeast for TC?

[Ben711200]

I started out brewing doing turbo ciders and sort of progressed through beer kits and then to BIAB.. I fancied a cider again for the spring so had a bit of a play.

I made up a quick TC with 4 litres apple juice, some strong tea and 15 grams or so steeped crystal malt with the hope that it would help keep some residual sweetness. I also used some (recovered from the slurry of another FV) Nottingham yeast hoping that I would get lower attenuation than a wine or cider yeast. It's finished at 0.999 and certainly doesn't taste as painfully dry as previous TCs I've made. As an added bonus, it stuck to the bottom of the DJ like glue so even with my hamfisted syphon usage, my bottled cider was totally clear. I just wondered if this was something others have tried doing and if you've found similar?

Or.. Is it that when I started brewing ciders I was on a continual quest for higher alcohol content and loaded it up with too much simple sugar? I'll be continuing with Nottingham for cider regardless if I can repeat the results.

[seymour]

Ale yeast, cider yeast, wine yeast, baker's yeast, mead yeast, sake yeast, distiller's yeast, etc... they're all the same single-cell species of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Obviously, different strains exhibit some different fermentation characteristics due to brewery conditions, regional adaptations, natural selection, and so on... but to answer your question: there is no rule against using "ale yeast" to ferment cider. Saccharomyces cerevisiae just wants to eat sugar, it doesn't care too much whether it came from malted cereal grain, apples, sugar canes, grapes, etc. Leave the semantics out of it and do what you wanna do to brew what you wanna drink, right?

[WalesAles]

Good answer! Just drink it and love it!
WA

[Ben711200]

But if I don't use labels to describe the various strains and their marketed purpose, then it gets really complicated when I have to describe a yeast as 'that one that Seymour posted a link to that was discovered in someone's poo'

I guess it's a daft question as it's obviously a variable that is used to control the end result, but I can't remember ever seeing anyone using anything that wasn't labelled as being for cider or wine fermentation when throwing together a turbo cider.

[TC2642]

I use Young's wine and ale yeast in my ciders and wines with no problems at all. It'll top out at around 8-10% I would say but that's the maximum I would want for a cider or a wine.

[oldbloke]

I did a TC with Munton's Gold, maybe - just maybe, no side-by-side taste tests - it was slightly softer and fuller than Young's cider yeast

[seymour]

But if I don't use labels to describe the various strains and their marketed purpose, then it gets really complicated when I have to describe a yeast as 'that one that Seymour posted a link to that was discovered in someone's poo'

I guess it's a daft question as it's obviously a variable that is used to control the end result, but I can't remember ever seeing anyone using anything that wasn't labelled as being for cider or wine fermentation when throwing together a turbo cider.

Oh, I definitely take your point, and it's not a daft question, it's just the status-quo. I'm simply saying "their marketed purpose" is just that, a very arbitrary set of words which means nothing to a single-cell organism which doesn't have a brain, much less linguistic ability. That little bugger eats whatever tastes sweet, and leaves the marketing hype to us.

Brewers--homebrewers most of all--should think outside of these boxes. You said you haven't seen it; that's because brewers aren't nearly as creative as they should be. Every time you brew a batch of anything, that's an act of creation. Own it! Always feel free to substitute any Saccharomyces cerevisiae to the job of fermenting any sugar, regardless of what the package or anyone else says. You'll often get unique and pleasing results. Don't worry, it almost certainly won't be bad. For instance, Montrachet wine yeast produces exquisite Russian Imperial Stout. I only know because I tried. ...and no, I haven't tried any poo strains.

...that I know of.

[jmc]

I tried Fullers yeast in a TC. Worked well and as it doesn't attenuate as much as others not quite as dry.

I now use about 20% chipped apples in tc and think that cider yeast gives more flavour when more apple pulp in batch.