Hi, I'm Kevin Lane from Fermentis.
And, today I'm going to talk to you about our new -- or relatively new -- SafCider portfolio.
Given that the apple harvest is coming up soon, and I think a lot of homebrewers will
be planning to make hard ciders, I think it's a good time for me to just kind of run through
the comparative of these four strains, how they're different from each other, what you
can expect from from each of these in terms of how they really express the apples in different
ways.
Starting with the original SafCider, if you have been making cider for three or four years,
three or four years ago we had one strain called SafCider.
There were no alphanumeric code names after that, it was just SafCider.
That actually became SafCider AB-1.
The AB stands for Apple Balanced.
So, it really is the most balanced in terms of how the yeast interacts with the apples.
It's not going to be too expressive in sweetness and mouthfeel and fruitiness and crispness;
it's going to just be a well-balanced, not too expressive yeast strain in your cider.
Next is the SafCider AC-4.
The AC stands for Apple Crisp.
This is really going to, in a comparative apple juice, produce a more crisp flavor of
the apples.
It's not going to be creating too much jam-like flavors, not going to produce any like cooked
fruit flavors.
Just really a crisp, smooth -- I don't want to say sharp, but in that kind of realm where
it's going to be really crisp on the palate.
Still not expressing too much in terms of ester profile, but really producing a nice
cider in the end that's nice and crisp.
SafCider AS-2 is the third strain in our cider portfolio.
The AS stands for Apple Sweet.
With this strain we found that in an apple media, for the fermentation, it's going to
produce more of those jam-like cooked fruit flavors.
Less on the crisp side.
The sweetness really isn't coming from residual sugar so much as it is on the flavor profile
and the mouthfeel of the cider in the end.
So, it's not sweetness in terms of residual sugar being present, it's more the fullness
of the body of the cider and, to some extent, a little bit of ester profile that's going
to give it a little bit more of that fruity, sweet character.
Lastly, we have SafCider TF-6.
The TF stands for Tutti Frutti.
Really, this is a very expressive yeast strain when used correctly.
It produces a lot of ester profile, a lot of intensity in flavor and aroma.
So, if you're really looking to add to the apple flavor, not highlight the apple flavor
but looking to add to the apple flavor, this is a great option.
It will really push out the esters.
It will really create a fullness of fruit flavor of combinations of different fruits
in that cider itself.
My one warning would be to maybe ferment with that strain a little bit cooler than the others.
Try to slow it down a little bit because it can get very aggressive in fermentation.
And if it does, then there could be potential for off flavor downstream.
The SafCider portfolio, when we selected it, was actually selected in more or less a French-style
cider.
So, in the French-style cider they usually from a cooler, slower, and then end up stopping
fermentation before it's really complete.
They target a specific gravity that they end at and they're doing it very slow and cold
so they can really control that point.
When they reach it, they can stop it at that point, and it's not that they miss it or they
overshoot.
So, it is a different cider process than I think I'm used to myself, I think most Americans
are used to, where you really go for dryness and you're going for a fast fermentation.
These were selected in a much slower fermentation and with purposely leaving residual sugar.
Not to say that you have to do that, of course, it's just how it was selected.
I think that that does translate to American cider for the most part, just that it might
be slightly different in the full perception.
But ,you wouldn't know that unless you did a cold and a slow versus a hot and fast fermentation
like we do in America.
We're really excited to have the whole SafCider portfolio out there for all of the home cider
makers, whether you're fresh pressing the juice yourself or buying the store bought
concentrate or juice, it will really give you the option to choose whichever flavor
or characteristic you're trying to highlight in your ciders.
So, happy harvest to all of you.