The sulphur taste is from stressed yeast, possibly due to temperature control issues or lack of oxygen during fermentation but most likely due to a lack of nutrients (read: nitrogen). Adding some nutrient at some point early on will help, which may give you better results with the yeasts you didn't like. DAP, Fermaid O or K, or boiled yeast are all options. Before you write off a yeast as making bad cider, try feeding it some nitrogen, oxygenating your must during active fermentation, and/or fermenting at a lower temperature. You might find that one of the yeasts you wrote off give you better results for your pallette under different circumstances.
In our first video, we did add Fermaid O, which supplied each of them with nitrogen. In any case, I wasn't writing off any of these yeasts for further use or experimentation. All I did was compare four yeasts, while controlling as many of the variables as I could (temperature, base juice, sugar, and nutrient added). I didn't intend to claim that only Safale S-04 makes good cider or anything like that; just that in my house, at that temperature, safale made the best tasting cider. So it's a very limited conclusion.
@@letswineaboutit lol I guess I should have watched the first video. I didn't get the impression that you were saying the Safale yeast was the only one there that could produce good cider, I think the point you were trying to make came across effectively, I just didn't realize you had added nitrogen to the brew. Interesting that you got sulphur fault then, I wonder what it might be.
@@beefburito No worries haha! I don't know what caused it. I suspect not oxygenating the must prior to fermentation didn't help. I'll also try fermenting at cooler temperatures.
@@letswineaboutit yeah, after watching the first video, that would be my conclusion too. It's harder to do with a juice jug that's that full, but I've mostly switched to buckets and a drill, which gives me much more room to work with and allows me to make larger batches than my jug so I can fill them to the neck after losses. My temperature control is pretty much limited to whatever my landlord sets the heater to minus how much I open the window (or how much I use the air conditioner minus how much money I have in my wallet) so I just try to use yeasts that aren't very sensitive to heat. Enjoying the channel. Keep it up!
Being a newbie to hard cider making I needed a refresher education on how to. Your video was well put together and humorous. I like it a lot. I started hard cider making last year. I get my juice from my apple tree in the front yard. DIY’d an apple masher from kitchen disposal and an apple press from a harbor freight machine press. I have two 5-gallon Speidel fermenters to ferment and rack in. I was excited to see the pineapple attempt as pineapple is a top-notch fruit for me. Love it. I will wait for an update as to how best to proceed with pineapple before attempting it for myself. I wonder if mashing up the pineapple putting it in a nut milk bag and throwing that into the mix would work. Probably not if racking in jugs, but doable in double fermenters system. One of your other commenters mentioned having to mess with the pH for pineapple. How do you and why would you do that? I'm definitely going to try the cinnamon and vanilla in this batch I have fermenting, presently, when I rack it. Also, I intend to try to make some Hard Cider from store-bought apple juice when I run out of fresh off-the-tree apples. Again, appreciate your video 'how to', great job, fellas.
Good video, just subbed! Love experiments like this, have you tried Cote des Blancs yeast with cider? I have had some really great experience using it!
thanks for taking the time to put out the video months after all the processes. i was just saying how its frustrating to watch someone make something and then the video is over. did these get better with age? in a perfect world, how long would you wait to open them after bottling to have the best product?
So far as I could tell, they did not get better with age. Interestingly, they tasted significantly less sweet when I opened them up a few months later compared to when I bottled them. Not sure why! Generally, people drink cider young.
Well thanks 🙏 finally someone who experimented all sorts of way to do it, I'll definitely gonna try this safale s 04 i got tired of the rotten taste of lalvin
Great video! Gonna do the apple pie cider with a little more cinnamon sticks and a quarter of it really high quality apple juice and the rest 3/4 organic apple juice. Also gonna make a malt wort for it.
If Freddy Mercury had a kid and Patrick Dempsey had a kid.. And they got into making wine for the global crash, I would be right here talking about it.. Nice work fellas.
After the yeast fermented, did you guys degash your cider when you're using that wine yeast? If you don't Degas it you're going to have some off flavors
We didn’t. It didn’t seem necessary because there wasn’t any discernible carbonation when we racked them; I honestly don’t ever degass. But perhaps that’s a mistake!
No! Make sure the skins are broken on something like blueberries, but the color will leach out completely and the freezing is as good as it gets for cell rupture. Pectic enzymes are the only other addition that will help, helps with clearing and extracting the most flavor and sugar.
im just trying to make my first cider, and theres about 1/2 inch of white something on the bottom of the 5ltr demijohn, is this normal? what is it? and what should i do?
Excellent question, and I don't know the answer. It might just be the fruit pulp and yeast that any ferment will develop - but if it is starkly white in color, I would take a second look. I'd post a picture of it on one of the homebrewing subreddits and see what they think.
totally awesome explanation for someone who is a novice. I have to give ya Sh*t about the "vanilla beanstalk" comment which made me laugh. vanilla beans are just vanilla bean pods, no stalk involved, just the pod of the vanilla orchid seed pod. vanilla orchid stalks might also be delicious, I'm not sure I've ever heard whether the vanilla orchids themselves are delicious or not but generally that's not what you are able to purchase, its just the pods :)
When you add priming sugar can your finished product sit there for the rest of its life or does it have to be consumed by a certain time to not explode
If you've measured out the right amount of priming sugar, then you can theoretically leave it forever (it will obviously go bad eventually for other reasons). Now, if you've added too much, then it could explode, yes.
@@letswineaboutit thank you! Also how do you know when it’s fully fermented? I know you said 1-2 weeks, but how can you tell when to add the fruit/next step? Subbed and thanks for the help!
Because pouring through a funnel would expose the cider to too much oxygen, which is always risky business post-fermentation. Oxygen at this point will contribute to off flavors and flatten out the cider pretty quickly.
no such thing as "hard cider. Cider is fermented apple juice. "soft"",,,well there is no soft cider just apple juice. Yer, I know it's an American ONLY term.
The sulphur taste is from stressed yeast, possibly due to temperature control issues or lack of oxygen during fermentation but most likely due to a lack of nutrients (read: nitrogen). Adding some nutrient at some point early on will help, which may give you better results with the yeasts you didn't like. DAP, Fermaid O or K, or boiled yeast are all options. Before you write off a yeast as making bad cider, try feeding it some nitrogen, oxygenating your must during active fermentation, and/or fermenting at a lower temperature. You might find that one of the yeasts you wrote off give you better results for your pallette under different circumstances.
In our first video, we did add Fermaid O, which supplied each of them with nitrogen. In any case, I wasn't writing off any of these yeasts for further use or experimentation. All I did was compare four yeasts, while controlling as many of the variables as I could (temperature, base juice, sugar, and nutrient added). I didn't intend to claim that only Safale S-04 makes good cider or anything like that; just that in my house, at that temperature, safale made the best tasting cider. So it's a very limited conclusion.
@@letswineaboutit lol I guess I should have watched the first video. I didn't get the impression that you were saying the Safale yeast was the only one there that could produce good cider, I think the point you were trying to make came across effectively, I just didn't realize you had added nitrogen to the brew. Interesting that you got sulphur fault then, I wonder what it might be.
@@beefburito No worries haha! I don't know what caused it. I suspect not oxygenating the must prior to fermentation didn't help. I'll also try fermenting at cooler temperatures.
@@letswineaboutit yeah, after watching the first video, that would be my conclusion too. It's harder to do with a juice jug that's that full, but I've mostly switched to buckets and a drill, which gives me much more room to work with and allows me to make larger batches than my jug so I can fill them to the neck after losses. My temperature control is pretty much limited to whatever my landlord sets the heater to minus how much I open the window (or how much I use the air conditioner minus how much money I have in my wallet) so I just try to use yeasts that aren't very sensitive to heat.
Enjoying the channel. Keep it up!
Possibly ph lvl?? I don’t know just guessing.
Awe I miss Sean and all his wine knowledge!
I miss him too!
Nicely done series! I enjoyed the yeast experiment and seeing how the various fruits worked out. I think I'll try some strawberry!
Thank you! Strawberry was the best for sure!
Being a newbie to hard cider making I needed a refresher education on how to. Your video was well put together and humorous. I like it a lot. I started hard cider making last year. I get my juice from my apple tree in the front yard. DIY’d an apple masher from kitchen disposal and an apple press from a harbor freight machine press. I have two 5-gallon Speidel fermenters to ferment and rack in. I was excited to see the pineapple attempt as pineapple is a top-notch fruit for me. Love it. I will wait for an update as to how best to proceed with pineapple before attempting it for myself. I wonder if mashing up the pineapple putting it in a nut milk bag and throwing that into the mix would work. Probably not if racking in jugs, but doable in double fermenters system. One of your other commenters mentioned having to mess with the pH for pineapple. How do you and why would you do that?
I'm definitely going to try the cinnamon and vanilla in this batch I have fermenting, presently, when I rack it. Also, I intend to try to make some Hard Cider from store-bought apple juice when I run out of fresh off-the-tree apples. Again, appreciate your video 'how to', great job, fellas.
Thank you for your kind words! I’ve never bothered with tracking or altering Ph when I work with pineapples and I’ve never had an issue!
Good video, just subbed! Love experiments like this, have you tried Cote des Blancs yeast with cider? I have had some really great experience using it!
I have not! But I will try it next time!
what's been your favorite yeast for cider? I saw Safale has a specific yeast for it.
thanks for taking the time to put out the video months after all the processes. i was just saying how its frustrating to watch someone make something and then the video is over. did these get better with age? in a perfect world, how long would you wait to open them after bottling to have the best product?
So far as I could tell, they did not get better with age. Interestingly, they tasted significantly less sweet when I opened them up a few months later compared to when I bottled them. Not sure why! Generally, people drink cider young.
This video was so helpful! Thank you guys so much for making this
Of course!!
Well thanks 🙏 finally someone who experimented all sorts of way to do it, I'll definitely gonna try this safale s 04 i got tired of the rotten taste of lalvin
thanks for the idea for the next cider!
Great video! Gonna do the apple pie cider with a little more cinnamon sticks and a quarter of it really high quality apple juice and the rest 3/4 organic apple juice. Also gonna make a malt wort for it.
That sounds amazing! More cinnamon, or at least longer extraction time, is definitely the move. Let me know how it goes!
Great video, I need to try making some
Looks good man
Thank you!
If Freddy Mercury had a kid and Patrick Dempsey had a kid.. And they got into making wine for the global crash, I would be right here talking about it.. Nice work fellas.
Haha thank you, I’m glad that I’m the child of Patrick Dempsey (I assume!).
Have you guys tried making Tepache?
Its a Fermented pineapple beverage
Love your content! I have a question for the pineapple - how about pineapple juice??
That might work better for sure!
@ Derp Derp - You will probably have to raise the pH to get it to ferment.
I love these fruits
After the yeast fermented, did you guys degash your cider when you're using that wine yeast? If you don't Degas it you're going to have some off flavors
We didn’t. It didn’t seem necessary because there wasn’t any discernible carbonation when we racked them; I honestly don’t ever degass. But perhaps that’s a mistake!
I'm wondering if blending the fruit before adding it to the fermenter is a good idea?
No! Make sure the skins are broken on something like blueberries, but the color will leach out completely and the freezing is as good as it gets for cell rupture. Pectic enzymes are the only other addition that will help, helps with clearing and extracting the most flavor and sugar.
Mashing it just creates a ton of sediment and losses at racking.
What if you mashed the pineapple and put it in a little cheese clothe bundle?
That would definitely be the better way!
im just trying to make my first cider, and theres about 1/2 inch of white something on the bottom of the 5ltr demijohn, is this normal? what is it? and what should i do?
Excellent question, and I don't know the answer. It might just be the fruit pulp and yeast that any ferment will develop - but if it is starkly white in color, I would take a second look. I'd post a picture of it on one of the homebrewing subreddits and see what they think.
totally awesome explanation for someone who is a novice. I have to give ya Sh*t about the "vanilla beanstalk" comment which made me laugh. vanilla beans are just vanilla bean pods, no stalk involved, just the pod of the vanilla orchid seed pod. vanilla orchid stalks might also be delicious, I'm not sure I've ever heard whether the vanilla orchids themselves are delicious or not but generally that's not what you are able to purchase, its just the pods :)
"Vanilla bean pod" - that's good to know haha, much appreciated.
I’m curious on ph of the wash when you started. Stressing the yeast will cause the poo smell lol. Some yeast react differently at different ph levels
For sure - this was before I started dabbling in Ph and learning about it. For best cider, accounting for Ph is important.
When you add priming sugar can your finished product sit there for the rest of its life or does it have to be consumed by a certain time to not explode
If you've measured out the right amount of priming sugar, then you can theoretically leave it forever (it will obviously go bad eventually for other reasons). Now, if you've added too much, then it could explode, yes.
Does it smells during the fermentation?
Sometimes. Sometimes it smells lovely. Depends on how healthy/stressed the yeast are.
Doesn't the new fruit cause an additional ferment?
Yes it does! That’s why we put the cider and fruit into a jar with an airlock, to let the CO2 from the fermentation escape.
Is it regular sugar to sweeten, then the fermentable sugar to add carbonation?
Erythritol to sweeten and regular (fermentable) sugar for carbonation.
@@letswineaboutit thank you! Also how do you know when it’s fully fermented? I know you said 1-2 weeks, but how can you tell when to add the fruit/next step?
Subbed and thanks for the help!
@@dubstep1233hydrometer and gravity reading are the only sure way to know.
In the apple pie version there was a cinnamon stick and what else ? Vanilla bean?
Yep, vanilla bean pod.
Why siphon when you could just pour with a funnel? Is there a reason?
Because pouring through a funnel would expose the cider to too much oxygen, which is always risky business post-fermentation. Oxygen at this point will contribute to off flavors and flatten out the cider pretty quickly.
@@letswineaboutit thanks! I'm about to start my 1st ever batch and need all the tips.
How about using pineapple juice instead?
You can, but that's not as fun haha
Miles is like a Steve from Blues Clues but for adults.
I will run with this forever lol
Hopefully I don't go bald tho
Hope you caught that strawberry lid was not on properly
You fixed it nice
You need to get more oxygen in before starting fermentation.
Agreed - I would change that next go-around.
Found you
Yep there you go haha
dude came in reafy to hate bread yeast the way u introduced it like its disgusting before even tasting it
.
You guys smell like fruits😂
You know, we probably do.
no such thing as "hard cider. Cider is fermented apple juice. "soft"",,,well there is no soft cider just apple juice. Yer, I know it's an American ONLY term.
It’s just cider