Cider Question: What is the best yeast to use for making cider?

It seems like a simple question, but it’s really one of the most difficult to answer.  Rarely is this question answered properly.  More commonly, a quick answer is provided.  That quick answer can be complex, like use this yeast for fruity flavors and this yeast for phenolic flavors.  The quick response can also be simple, like use natural or wild yeasts.  You will noticed that I didn’t say these answers were wrong.  I just said they aren’t the proper answer.  The proper answer, like many involving hard cider, is that it depends, and it really does.  

Yeast perform two major roles in the cider making process.  The primary role is that they convert sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide.  However, just as important is that they create the aroma and taste of the cider.  The first role is a well defined process that is straightforward.  There are characteristics that can impact the efficiency of this pathway.  For example, the environment in which the yeast are living can influence which pathways are being utilized. All of this really highlights the second role of yeast and how fundamentally, it may be the most important of the two roles.  If all you wanted was to produce as much ethanol as possible, there are yeasts that are more efficient than others.  However, most of us aren’t interested in a cider that has slightly more ethanol but tastes like rotting plant material or vinegar.  We want a cider that has fruity or desirable aromas and flavors.  That makes the question of what is the best yeast to use to make cider, much more complex.  

What you are really asking is what is the best flavor for cider, but at another level, you are asking how do I create the best cider possible.  To properly answer that question, you have to understand your juice.  Your juice contains many different compounds besides sugars.  These compounds define how yeast strains react.  Each strain is unique because it has a unique set of genes.  That means it has its own preferences whether that is the type of sugar it desires or how it obtains the nutrients it needs.  The genes that make a strain unique, define the pathways it will use and the compounds that it will create.  These compounds form the aromas and flavors or precursors that can become these aromas and flavors.  Whether you inoculate with a yeast strain or you let natural strains compete, the results will vary depending on the juice.  That means the results will vary depending on the apples, but it’s not just the apple.  The process you use will also impact the yeast and its performance.  

Some yeast do not tolerate colder temperatures, just like others are less tolerant of warmth.  The temperature can force the yeast strain to turn on or off specific pathways, just like having too much or too little of a certain compound.  The same is true for oxygen levels.  Usually, respiration is a more efficient process for yeast to use to create energy, but in a high glucose environment, yeast can’t use the respiration pathway. They must use fermentation pathways. Ethanol tolerance can be another process related factor, but it’s usually not as much of a concern for hard cider because the sugar levels are lower in apple juice. If you add sugar and start making wine, it has an impact, but since most apples only have enough sugar to produce 5-8% ABV, selecting yeast that have high tolerance for ethanol isn’t that important. You can see how the question of what is the best yeast for making cider is not easily answered. The yeast you use depends on the apples and how you plan to ferment your cider, but it also depends on what type of cider you want.

There is not a single type of cider and you can use any apple to make good cider. You need to decide whether you want to create a fruity cider or a phenolic cider. Do you want a red cider, an amber cider, or a silver cider? The first question is what apples you will use. While cider has many different characteristics to wine, it also shares some. White wines tend to be fruity and served young while red wine tends to be phenolic and aged. Cider can have many of these same characteristics. While you can adapt apples to make them more phenolic by adding peels to increase the phenolic compounds, sharps will tend to produce fruitier cider while bitters will tend to produce phenolic cider. Sweets can be used with both. Like white wine, fruity ciders should be served young to preserve the fruity aromas while phenolic ciders should be aged, like red wines, to encourage the polymerization of tannins and other aging reactions that benefit from higher polyphenols.

Understanding your apples is important, but often blending varieties is needed. I suggest you assess the cider characteristics you want along with the apples that you have and select a yeast that will support your goal. However, you will usually still need to test the apples and yeast combination. If you are using mostly sharps and sweets, apples used for cooking and eating, I would plan for a fruity cider and select yeast the tend to create fruity esters. If you are going to use a lot of bitters and create phenolic cider, I would recommend using yeasts with phenolic traits. So what are fruity and what are phenolic yeast? Here are some ideas.

Fruity Cider Yeasts

Genus	Trade Name	Source
Saccharomyces cerevisiae	S-04 WLP705 M-02	SafAle White Labs Mangrove
Hanseniaspora uvarum	Y-120	The Shop
Torulaspora delbrueckii	WLP603 BIODIVA	White Labs Lallemand
Lachancea thermotolarens	LAKTIA Philly Sour Y-1978	Lallemand Lallemand The Shop
Saccharomyces bayanus	QA23	Lallemand
Pichia kluyveri	Y-17228	The Shop

Phenolic Cider Yeasts

Genus	Trade Name	Source
Saccharomyces cerevisiae	M-21 Witt M-41 Belgium M-29 Saison TF-6	Mangrove Mangrove Mangrove SafCider
Candida Zemplinina	YB-370	The Shop
Non-Saccharomyces	Wild/Natural	N/A
Debaryomyces hansenii	WLP692	White Labs
Kluyveromyces lactis	Y-17756	The Shop

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