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best type of yeast

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Hollywood13

Hollywood13

NewBee
Registered Member
May 7, 2014
28
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Augusta, GA
Im looki n g to make this a hobby but came up with the initial idea of doing this for an exclusive drink at my wedding reception my question is what is the best yeast to use for making mead im look for a % between 14-20% but dont want it to be a really dry mead
 
My recommendation would be Red-star Cotes De Blancs, that tends to leave some residual sweetness (except in cysers (maybe because of higher acid content?)), and is pretty tolerant of temps (I'd still try to keep it under 75). Congrats on your wedding! I just had mine a few weeks ago. And welcome to GotMead.

What kind of turnaround time are you looking for?
 
Thanks for the welcome I hope to have great experiences here ... And the wedding isn't for another year so im trying to get it together early so it can have at least a year to age
 
Can you keg? I only ask because you could do a sweet mead with a light honey for an SG ~1.110-1.120 and use D47, leave it on the yeast for most of the aging then force carb it for a semi-sweet champagne style mead.
Specifically what style, abv, sweetness are you looking for? This will dictate what yeast should be chosen. BOMM is an option, but if your looking for more of a wine/champagne like mead wine yeast will be the best bet.


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I am allowed to bring my own to the venue and I hadn't thought of making it like a champagne and im looking for the abv to fall between 14 and 20 as for type of sweet my attention had frequently been drawn to Melomel recipes abs think I may be leaning towards that
 
Actually I was going to say bottle it from the keg, something about the presentation of a bottle is appealing. The keg is one of the easiest ways to carbonate a sweet mead, that's why I asked.
What side of 14-20? 14-16 is a lot easier than 18-20. For the first, most yeast strains will reach that, for high abv there are only a few that can do it good, and it's going to take longer to age. A great Abv for meads is 14%, not too strong, but it has enough honey to get the flavor and not have to worry about body/mouthfeel issues. D47 does this very well and will chew through ~100 gravity points (plus or minus 5-10 depending on technique).


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oh ok well that is something to think on then I may look into what you said about the keg thing but that doesn't alter the flavoring of the mead does it ... and im thinking probably around 16 I don't want the batch to be too potent might nake a small personal one on the higher end to see how that turns out and as far as the aging goes im looking at at least a year to age any thing longer than that won't meet my deadline
 
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Trust me 14 is going to be better than 16abv given the time frame.
Booster blanc (@0.25g/L, or ~1g/gal) and tannin ft blanc soft (@0.05g/L or ~ 0.2g/gal) reduce a lot of the "new mead" flavor, and making it sweet will help a lot as well. Also oak tends to bring the meads into their own a little faster then no oak meads. Also, make sure you give plenty of nutrients, around 200-250ppm YAN (2-2.5g/L, or 7.5-9.5g/gal fermaid K, or mix in some fermaid O towards the end), and stir as often as possible (>4 times a day) as they seem to require less aging. This holds true for any low N, low sulfur production, wine yeast, the only variable is the desired abv, which can be sidestepped if you don't mind using potassium sorbate and SO2 to stabilize it and backsweeten.


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your being a great help so far but like I said being new to this I don't know a whole lot about the processes but isnt potassium sorbate bad for you like toxic bad ... if I can avoid aging any extra chemicals to it I would prefer to go that route .. ive got a copy of compleat meadmaker on the way in the mail hopefully itll help me out so I'm not as lost in the whole process but hey we all start somewhere right
 
If you're really a beginner, as in hasn't made any type of fermented beverage before, I really suggest you read the JAOM thread (that's in the general members section) and the BOMM thread. I think given your one year time frame, you have enough time to try out JAOM, which is ready in 2 months or so (three tops) and very very easy to make. You don't even need any of the special equipment, just go to the local supermarket. THEN...once you're done with that, you will know if making mead is for you or not. Because frankly, if you can't get a JAOM to work, BOMM is going to be worse. BOMM however, is ready in as little as 30 days! It just requires more specialized ingredients and equipment. If your JAOM turned out great, then BOMM will be easy peasy lemon squeezy. AND you will be ready with plenty of time to age it for a few months, which only makes BOMM even better. But these things can't be rushed. (any more than we already are)
 
yea im a begginer as in this is gonna be my first batch but I will try the suggested forums you have there and see how it works out for me
 
All wine yeast tends to have a temp range where it'll work best, without causing flavour issues or make fusels.

The D47 mentioned by Bob is a good yeast, but needs fermenting at less than 70F/21C otherwise its known to produce fusels in honey musts.....

K1V-1116 just happens to have one of the widest temp ranges (10 - 35C). If you had time etc then you could do experiments etc.......

As it is, a year or so isn't that long in the mead world. I suspect you'd be better placed thinking on the lines of the JAOM and/or BOMM recipes.
 
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