Steam cider?
  • daxdefrancodaxdefranco
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    Perhaps this is a disastrous idea. I've looked all over the net but can't find any information...has anyone ever heard of steam style cider? I really don't know much about steam beer (except that anchor steam makes some damn tasty beer) - what it contributes to the flavor, how it changes things, etc, except that it's using lager yeast at ale temperatures.



    So...could i use a lager yeast with apple juice and ferment at a normal temp? any ideas how this would come out?
  • KunkemonsterKunkemonster
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    Never heard of it, could always do a 1 gallon test batch. Just add the yeast and an airlock to the jug.
  • Eric-is-Cass'-BitchEric-is-Cass'-Bitch
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    Saw your post on homebrewtalk as well. Any updates?

    I'm waiting on pins and needles, as my next batch is going

    to be a cider. If steam cider works out, I can just use the

    dry lager yeast I have sitting around. If not, I'll have to order

    some cheap ass wine yeast. Updates please :)
  • daxdefrancodaxdefranco
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    I'm going to goodbeer this weekend to pick some stuff up (lager yeast included) and making cider next weekend. the guy that posted after me on homebrewtalk hasn't updated yet, so if he doesn't i'll let you know in about two weeks :)
  • gordsellargordsellar
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    The guy still hasn't updated, either... did your steam cider ever turn out? I'm guessing it was either unremarkable or bad, since neither of you updated the discussion on HBT, and you didn't here, Dax?
  • daxdefrancodaxdefranco
    3.00 KarmaSend daxdefranco a Message
    Actually, I'm not sure what happened with this, but steam cider never happened for me, and I guess not for that other guy either. I'm hoping I can find an orchard in Jeollanam-do (or some other source of cheap apples/apple juice) because I'd love to do a load of cider experiments this year.
  • gordsellargordsellar
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    A friend of mine down there was going to give me the contact info for his landlord, who was a local fresh-pressed apple juice supplier for his area. It never happened, but I'll ask him again and hopefully I'll have a contact for the fall. Fall's a long time away, though, so I think I'll try with some store-bought, pasteurized juice this March. Probably just work up a regular English cider yeast, though, as I have a test tube of the stuff and would like to get it built into a cake, for a second batch... maybe of ice-distilled juice that I could then ferment. (Depending on the alcohol tolerance of this stuff. I am also considering Abbey yeast, as it did a very nice job on a wheat I made a while back, and has a nice high alcohol tolerance.)
  • BardicBrewerBardicBrewer
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    I read in the book Wild Fermentation that a friend of the author makes a fruit wine by steaming the steaming the fruit and the steam condenses into the liquid he uses. He claimed it is an excellent wine.
  • Gwangj-brewGwangj-brew
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    "BardicBrewer" wrote: I read in the book Wild Fermentation that a friend of the author makes a fruit wine by steaming the steaming the fruit and the steam condenses into the liquid he uses. He claimed it is an excellent wine.



    Sounds bizzare, I can't see how the steam would carry anything fermentable, maybe I'm misunderstanding.
  • BardicBrewerBardicBrewer
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    Well, once the liquid is boiled and steamed condenses and cools back into liquid, then the yeast can go at it. As long as fruit is not toxic with pesticides the yeast will love it. Yeast will even go out a can of opened fruit cocktail which is what some prisoners use as their kicker for hooch.
  • gordsellargordsellar
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    Ha, okay, a misunderstanding here:



    Steam beer is an archaic name for what we now call California Common. We call it that, instead of "Steam Beer," because the Anchor brewery trademarked the style name. (Hence "Anchor Steam," which is a good beer.) It was called steam because, supposedly, when they tapped barrels of it, the beer was under enough pressure that it would let out steam, or something like that. (This bit I'm fuzzy on.)



    The deal is, it's a lager yeast used at a higher temperature than you usually use lager yeasts at. The lager yeast specifically used is a California Lager Yeast, and available under that name from Wyeast. (I have some, waiting for the fall which will be Steam Beer season at my house.)



    So the question, I think, was regarding using this yeast to ferment an apple cider, instead of one of the many other yeasts people use to make apple cider.



    I don't know about that, though I'd be curious to hear about results if anyone did make some. I wonder whether the esters and so on that develop would last through the long aging preferred for top-quality cider.



    I have read that if you keep the temperature really low during the bulk of fermentation for a cider, you get a much more apple-ey final product, with more of the flavors and aromas preserved because of the gentler fermentation. I can't (yet) attest to the validity of the claim, but gave it a shot with my current (ongoing) batch of apple cider, which was pure juice and yeast, and was mostly fermented at aropund 16-18 degrees Celsius, has just stopped bubbling and is ready to be kegged and then set aside to bulk age. I'll probably sample it but won't have real results to report till sometime in December/January.
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