what yeast?

[forgotten]

hey chaps & chapettes,



just wondering what yeast you use for a sweet mead? my first tasted just like a mead should but since then they have all been a tad dry.



any advice??


cheers

rob

[lockwood1956]

it isn't the yeast that creates the sweetness, its the residual sugar.....


treat it like a wine....ferment to dry....stabilise and sweeten.



the mead makers generally start with a very high starting gravity, hoping the yeast will expire leaving residual sugar, a slightly chancy method in my mind....i like control over my winemaking process

regards
Bob

[forgotten]

ahh right....


on my latest mead i used the stabalising and sweetening method to see what effect that gave but this was still nothing like the first one i did (still the best one i have done and the only wine that i have made without making a note of my ingrediants)


the only thing i can nail the difference to is the yeast. Im pretty sure i used a bakers yeast the first time, and correct me if im wrong but this would not ferment as far as a normal wine yeast because you dont need the same strenght yeast for bread???


i want to perfect the mead as its one of my favourite drinks but finding it hard to perfect the recipe.....trial and error is the name of the game though..

[fatbloke]

ahh right....


on my latest mead i used the stabalising and sweetening method to see what effect that gave but this was still nothing like the first one i did (still the best one i have done and the only wine that i have made without making a note of my ingrediants)


the only thing i can nail the difference to is the yeast. Im pretty sure i used a bakers yeast the first time, and correct me if im wrong but this would not ferment as far as a normal wine yeast because you dont need the same strenght yeast for bread???


i want to perfect the mead as its one of my favourite drinks but finding it hard to perfect the recipe.....trial and error is the name of the game though..

Firstly, I'll point you toward http://www.gotmead.com/forum/index.php though as Bob points out, you'll probably notice the tendency to start with a lot higher gravities than might be normal with wines.

That said, I'd say that if you have a good look around gotmead (main site i.e. the "non-members" bit - and the same in their forums) you'll see that it's quite possible, to start a little higher than normal wines, but then it's fed with additional honey and staged nutrients.

Careful recording of the gravities during the feeding with extra honey will allow you to know when the yeast is likely to be reaching it's alcohol tolerance level, so you can then get it to the right level of residual sweetness.

Or, there's another technique of backsweetening with either honey, but that can make a haze form, that takes a while to drop out, or with something that tastes like honey, but isn't - a good example of which, is Chenin Blanc grape concentrate.

The only downside being that just getting Chenin Blanc in the UK is a bit of a PITA - it only seems to be available as whole kits, rather than just tins like you might find advertised in the US.

I'd suggest that you read up on feeding (a.k.a. chaptalization) extra honey and staged nutrients. Oh, and while it might seem like an advert, I'd also suggest aiming at using Lalvin/Lallemand yeasts and nutrients. Mainly because they publish very extensive data on the yeasts and also exactly what's in their nutrients. The yeasts, well a selection, can be obtained online from a UK based HBS - as for the nutrients, well I got those from ebay, a place in California I think it was. Even with the shipping, it didn't work out too much additional cost - they go quite a long way (got half a pound weight of both Fermaid-K and GoFerm).

I don't think it's necessary to go to the extend of obtaining stainless steel air stones, or small supplies of pure O2. That's a little excessive, though there do seem to be those at gotmead who will go to that extent....

Hope that helps a little

regards

jtfb

p.s. Oh and you could always see if you could track down some Wyeast "sweet mead" liquid yeast. That way you can start with a normal(ish) gravity must - the only downside being that it can be very, very finicky to use...... the only place near that I'm aware of that stocks it, would be Brouwland, in Belgium.

[lockwood1956]

the only thing i can nail the difference to is the yeast. Im pretty sure i used a bakers yeast the first time, and correct me if im wrong but this would not ferment as far as a normal wine yeast because you dont need the same strenght yeast for bread???

that is correct!

the bread yeast would expire at around 8 to 9% Alc leaving residual sugar