I've brewed beer for a while, extract and grain, and I may give that up in favor of cider. Its just TOO easy and so far, I've gotten a better product out of it.
OK... True. I've been making beer, cider, mead, and wine for over a decade. I find beer to be the most enjoyable because I like the process and the control of the outcome vis-a-vis the ingredients and process. But it is time consuming. Before the baby I'd brew a beer and make a mead during the mash and a cider during the boil. But I have the fermenters to do so.
I actually think the real value of homemade drinks is in the cost offset. I could never brew a Budweiser clone cheaper than its street price. But I only brew Belgian farmhouse and Trappist style beers that run upwards of $12/bottle and it costs me $1/bottle. I can't find ciders I like outside of crazy expensive English and French varieties but the homemade stuff tops American producers for pennies. Same with mead.
As I write this I have a cider fermenting (5 gal Costco apple juice, 2 lbs. turbinado sugar, champagne yeast), recently bottled my mead (10% abv dry sparkling), and have a saison on tap while I plan my next beer which will likely be in line with Westvletern 12. I say keep brewing and use the gaps to do the easy stuff.
On yeast.. For ciders and meads I only use champagne. It tastes clean and highlights the original apple or honey. YMMV but I like that. I used to buy mead specific yeast from Wyeast but the results weren't worth the cost in my book.
