Beer Forum

I am a newbie to any type of brewing, my dad and I have just brewed our first batch of beer ( its a red amber ale). getting into the spirit of brewing i decided to try a batch of apple cider. keep in mind i just wanted to see how this would turn out. i bought a bottle of 100% apple cider no additives, added 1 cup of sugar and about 1/4 ts bakers yeast. i racked it after 2 weeks and then after one more week which was on thanksgiving)the fermentation started settling down. i sampled it when i racked it i thought it tasted rough. but at thanksgiving it seemed to have mellowed and tasted like a sour apple wine. is this a normal taste for a hard apple cider?

You used bread yeast? Tastes like bread, doesn't it. I did that once, a long long time ago. It makes an alcoholic cider that is drinkable, but you'll get far better results if you use wine or beer yeast, not bread yeast.

I typically don't get sour character in my ciders... might be coming from the yeast you used? My understanding is that bread yeast doesn't get as tightly controlled in terms of being pure strains, so you might have some extra stuff in there?

spiderwrangler wrote:I typically don't get sour character in my ciders... might be coming from the yeast you used? My understanding is that bread yeast doesn't get as tightly controlled in terms of being pure strains, so you might have some extra stuff in there?

Not only that but it isn't produced in the same sanitary conditions as brewing specific yeast. There could easily be bacterias present. It may not have come from the yeast but the process, as well. It's hard to say with the information given.

so i take it that using bread yeast can give you different results, i am already planning my next batch, this time i will use a cider yeast. thanks for the replies!

Clean well. When you think you're done cleaning, you're almost there.

Rinse well. When you think you almost done rinsing, you're a little past halfway there.

Sanitize with an appropriate sanitizer, per the instructions to the 'T'. Bleach & other household chemicals are not appropriate sanitizers.

Ferment with a brewer's yeast, per what was said above.



Follow those 4 things & you'll have much better results. There's other things to do, but those will set you up with a good foundation & there's no excuse for skipping them. I'd also add a 5th - take notes. Lots and lots of notes. Don't rely on your memory, write them down on a 'brew log' as you go.