My instant organic yeast is already starting to work! Impressive.
Apple cider won't ever fully ferment because there are some pentosugars which aren't fully available to yeast. Crude equipment like hydrometer aren't going to tell you the difference between available sugar and total sugar. 5 days is probably fine
So based on Reddit - you can use baking yeast and if apple cider ferments too much it just gets a sour taste - so no point in needing a stronger yeast for higher proof. Baking yeast will yield a 5% proof or whatever abv.
the proof level is twice the alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage. For example, an 80-proof spirit contains 40% ABV
Based on US standards, apple cider made with baking yeast that is 5% alcohol by volume (ABV) would be 10 proof.
So the problem in the above thread is his apple juice has preservatives in it - that slows the yeast and so bacteria develops instead.
Apple juice alone, once fermented, will be around 4-4.5% ABV. Adding sugar will bump that. One pound of sugar in one gallon will add about 42 points to the OG, which equates to about 5-ish% ABV.
a starting gravvity of around 1.050. After fermentation it will end around 1.000. That is around 6,5%. I'll use American units: adding one 12-oz can of apple juice concentrate per US gallon (3.89L) bumps the abv up to 9%.
You need a wine yeast to make cider: they've been selected for flavor, not CO2 production. Bread yeast will ruin your wine.
OG is Original Gravity, which is a hydrometer reading of a liquid's density before fermentation begins. It represents the amount of dissolved sugars and other substances that yeast will consume to produce alcohol. Brewers use the OG measurement, along with the Final Gravity (FG) taken after fermentation, to calculate a beer's alcohol content.
In terms of activity, the stuff works great. A packet of instant baker's yeast contains A LOT of yeast - we get bubbles coming out of the airlock within a span of hours at typical ale temps; which is much sooner than when we pitch in our fresh starter culture.
That said, after switching to more specialized brewing strains, there are noticeable differences in the final product. We noticed a more refined flavor when using specialized yeast strains. Brewing a good IPA using a US-05 vs a packet of RedStar resulted, in what I felt was a cleaner palate and nose and allowed the hops to really shine through.
EC-1118 will strip out all the apple flavor in my experience, and require some age to taste decent. Lately I've been using US-05 with good results... I don't add sugar, though.
most don't even know that we used generic supermarket yeast until I tell them. Perhaps it's just that it's a huge delicious malt bomb of a brew, and it covers up any off flavors well, but really...like I said, the difference is more subtle than you would think.
Also, you get fairly fast fermentation with instant yeast. That stuff is absolutely optimized to get kickin' as soon as it hits water and sugar. I've actually seen bubbles coming from the airlock much sooner with instant yeast rather than our starter cultures of US-05, S-04, or any other specialized brewing strains.
Now for the biology: Regardless of strain differences, if you're using S. cerevisiae, 95-99% of the metabolism is the same. Just about all of the fermentable sugars are going to go through glycolysis and end up as ethanol. Some strains will produce a little bit more acetolactate (which will be converted to the "buttery" diacetyl), but the vast majority of the carbon flux is going to end up as either carbon dioxide and ethanol. Other strains display a higher rate of Alcohol Acetyl Transferase and will synthesize more fruity ester compounds. However, again, the rate of production of these compounds is incredibly low compared to the the amount of ethanol produced.
So in short, if instant yeast is all you've got, the instant yeast will work in a pinch - you'll still pump out more than drinkable mead and cider. If you're really serious about making some quality mead/cider, and you really care about the nuances of aroma and flavor, I'd highly suggest getting a more specialized brewing strain.
Spoilage can occur if the dry yeast doesn't take off fast enough after the pitch. 5 gallons of sugar that is just under body temp is a great place for bacteria and such to latch on and take off. You want a vigorous fermentation kicking off as rapidly as possible to avoid this.
Flocculation is a natural yeast survival mechanism and a key characteristic in brewing that allows yeast to form clumps (flocs) and move out of suspension, resulting in a clearer product
Plenty of people ferment beverages with bread yeast. One thing that sets it apart is its inability to flocculate. Time, maybe some cold temps, can help the yeast settle. Bread yeast makes beer just fine, it just doesn't clear all that well and will probably have some phenolic off-flavors that are actually desirable in some types of beer.
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