Each year, during fall harvest and apple season, we get asked a lot of questions about making hard cider at home: What is the best yeast for fermenting hard cider? What difference can a yeast really make to the flavor of a hard cider? Can I use an ale strain or only wine and champagne strains? To help answer those questions, Northern Brewer team members Chip and Dan run a quick taste panel on a batch of hard cider that was split six ways and fermented with six different yeasts including three newer SafCider strains from Fermentis; Cote des Blancs from Red Star; and two ale yeasts — Safale US-05 and Nottingham from Lallemand. Check out our tasting notes and let us know which strains you like for hard cider in the comments below!
More Hard Cider Yeast Comparison:
Hard Cider Yeast
All Cider Making Equipment & Ingredients
Cider Making
00:00 – Intro & Split Batch Info
02:40 – Cote des Blancs (Red Star)
03:40 – SafCider AS-2 (Fermentis)
04:16 – SafCider AC-4 (Fermentis)
04:49 – SafCider TF-6 (Fermentis)
06:10 – Nottingham (Lallemand)
07:25 – Safale US-05 (Fermentis)