Delaney

Recipes 

Hey,

I'm planning to make two batches of mead soon, one being a sweet mead, the other being a dry mead. Unfortunately, I will only have 6 months to ferment prior to bottling.

Therefore I seek suggestions for a yeast strain that would be well suited to dry/mead fermentation given this parameter of time.

Thanks for the help!

Health and Happiness

RobertRGeorge

Recipes 

Maybe others can suggest something different but I have found it impossible to rush mead aging. I made an orange mead in 2008 that tasted foul. I gave up on it but tried some last night and it was finally really good.

That said, a wine yeast such as champagne or montpellier would ferment it out pretty fast, perhaps in as little as 3 days. That at least would give you a head start on your bulk aging.

Kunkemonster

Recipes 

I've had very drinkable braggot and brochet mead in 3 months with WYeast 1056, granted they were less than 10% ABV. They key is enough healthy yeast, proper fermentation temp, staggered yeast nutrient/energizer, and degassing/vigorous stirring during the first week. In fact my braggot reached terminal gravity in two weeks. Check out this BrewingTV episode

moviebrain

Recipes 

I agree. If you only have 6 months target less than 10% abv, search for a fermentation method called Staggered Nutrient Additions (SNA), and aerate every 12 hours until you are 1/3 of the way to your final gravity. I found that my mead was very drinkable at 4 months and pretty great at 6, though it keeps getting better (just past 11 months)

Phunhog

Recipes 

I think you need to look at using some wine yeast. I have had good results using Lavlin D-47. I only fermented mine for 3 months and it turned out really good..winning a 1st and consistently getting in the high 30's in comps. Of course they still need a long aging period.

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