Reddit reviews Lallemand Belle Saison Ale Brewing Yeast (11 Gram)

The yeast you get from walmart will not make a good wine/hard cider/beer. You need yeast specific to wine/cider/beer for that. If you can order from Amazon, this yeast with a couple gallons of preservative-free apple juice will make a nice hard cider.

For this batch I used beer yeast. Saizon yeast to be exact. Although I just inoculated it with the muck that came out of a batch of saizon beer. You can buy yeast packets at your local beer brewing supply or order them. Technically you can use bread yeast from the grocery store, but a lot of people don't like the flavor. If you like dry wines you might not care though.

I personally don't give a rats ass what kind of yeast it is, I use whatever I can get easiest :-D

Once you have everything ready, activate your yeast beast. Mix up some sugar water, get it to about 110f or so. I just use like a cereal bowl and a tablespoon of sugar or so. Mix the yeast in and let it sit for awhile. If you leave it for a long time (like over night) cover it but realistically half hour is fine in my experience.

Alright, so get like 1lb of black raspberry. Mash it up, add some water and strain it through a cheesecloth or old tshirt or whatever.

Mix that with water so you have about 1 gallon of liquid. Add 3lbs of sugar, mix till all or most of the sugar is dissolved.

Have this in whatever container you're gonna ferment it in. Make sure it has like 3+ inches of room at the top. It will foam and stuff and it can shoot out the top if you don't leave room.

Inoculate with your activated yeast. Create some sort of air-lock system that let's it breath but doesn't let shit fall in.

How long it needs to ferment depends on various factors like how the yeast does, the room temperature, roll the dice etc.

The yeast will keep going until it either runs out of sugar, it gets cold (like 35f-ish) or the alcohol content gets high enough to stop it, which it won't with this recipe, although it will slow down a lot after 15% abv.

If you wanna do a big batch just get a brewing bucket from your local beer brewing supply store. Like $15-20 and you'll be set. Bucket, lid and air lock. 2 liter bottles work fine, basically anything with a screw on lid works fine.

My recommendation is to brew in clear 2 liter bottles. Rinse them out with hot water right before using. I don't bother with soap or whatever just hot water.

Keep the bottle somewhere you can see it, like kitchen counter. You'll see it start to bubble, that's c02 produced as the yeast eats the sugar. Feel free to sample it now and then. Both the alcohol content and flavor will drastically change over time. I drink that shit soon as it's not too sweet sometimes. Some people won't touch it till it's been re-bottled and aged for a few months. It does change flavor a lot but i don't care much.

Oh, don't use chlorinated water. If you only have it, just fill up a container, make sure it doesn't have a lid and let it air out for like 2-3 days, till the bleachy smell is gone. Or use a water filter, or buy filter watered I guess.

Once the bubbles stop or you feel ready to bottle it in the fridge. The yeast will go dormant overnight and then sink to the bottom. Then you pour off the top, leaving the yeast at the bottom. Some anal people will re-do this several times to make it super clear. Again, I don't give a fuck. Sometimes I don't even bottle it. I have one of these things. The idea is you brew beer in a regular bucket, then pour off the top leaving most of the yeasty shit behind, then let it settle in that bucket and the tap sits up an inch or so, so what ended up in that bucket sits below so it doesn't go in your bottles.

I however, just fill up my wine glass right out of the tap, no fucks given. I will end up bottling it so i can make room to brew more though, but for now it's convenient.

https://www.amazon.com/Lallemand-Belle-Saison-Brewing-Yeast/dp/B009YN7Y9Y