I received a bottle of white labs wlp 070 bourbon yeast from a friend and wanted to know if anyone had ever used it for a cider or mead? The summary states that it is used in high gravity beers and bourbon liquors. Attenuation at 80%.
I was trying for a Cycer. 15 Lbs honey, 5 gal apple juice. Something that would start at 1.120 and end around 1.025.
Any comments?
We make cyser every year with fresh apple cider, honey, wine yeast, pectin enzyme, and sometimes spices. ( if you don't use pectin enzyme expect it to be cloudy).
I would expect that with this yeast, assuming it takes off in a completely different environment then what it was bred from, it will result in a very hot and dry cyser. We make a cyser with a bit less honey, i would say 12 pounds/5 gallons and 3gallons cider and 1 gallon water/5 gal. We brought it down from a higher gravity because it was still hot after bottling a year later, and that was with a yeast that was leaving residual sugar. It needed a few weeks aged in the bottle to mellow. If this yeast ferments it to dryness, which it might, I think it will be very hot and astringent. I would expect a few years in the cellar before you like it.
On the other hand, I wonder if you could make a good brandy by using this yeast and say a year later distilling with a still or by freezing then aging a few years.