Glossary · Microbiology
Apiculate yeast
Also written Hanseniaspora, Kloeckera. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Lemon-shaped, weakly fermenting yeasts — Hanseniaspora and its anamorph Kloeckera — that dominate the first days of a wild cider fermentation before alcohol suppresses them.
- Subject
- Microbiology
- Also written
- Hanseniaspora, Kloeckera
In more detail
Apiculate yeasts are prolific producers of esters, notably ethyl acetate, and contribute much of the aromatic complexity that distinguishes a wild-fermented cider from an inoculated one. Their tolerance of ethanol is low, so they typically disappear at around 4 to 6 per cent alcohol.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Microbiology
Hanseniaspora valbyensis
The apiculate yeast most consistently reported as dominating the first days of a spontaneous cider fermentation, and a major contributor to its aroma.
Microbiology
Kloeckera apiculata
The anamorph name for *Hanseniaspora uvarum*, still in wide use in cider writing, and often used loosely as a collective term for all apiculate yeasts.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Microbiology
Wild yeast
Yeast arriving with the fruit and resident in the press house and its equipment, as opposed to a pitched commercial culture. The term covers both useful and spoilage species.
Microbiology
Microbial succession
The orderly replacement of one microbial population by another during fermentation, as rising alcohol, falling sugar, falling nutrient and falling oxygen change which organism can compete.
Chemistry
Ethyl acetate
The ester of ethanol and acetic acid. At low concentration it reads as fruity and solvent-like; at higher concentration it is the nail-varnish note that accompanies acetic spoilage.
Microbiology
Non-Saccharomyces
A collective term for the yeasts other than *Saccharomyces* present in juice and early fermentation, including *Hanseniaspora*, *Metschnikowia*, *Torulaspora* and *Pichia* species.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Peer-reviewed literature on cider fermentation microbiology
Various journals · peer-reviewed literature · registered as competent for this subject
Covers the microbial succession of spontaneous cider fermentation, the role of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the early stages, malolactic conversion by Oenococcus and Lactobacillus species, and the organisms behind the principal spoilage faults.