Lalvin 71B is a FAST starting yeast!

Started a mead about two hours ago, and tried out the Lalvin 71B-1122. It's already bubbling away! I've never had that happen with anything else I've ever fermented.

I started it in about 4 ounces of 80F water that was mixed with a small spoonful of honey, and let it bloom while I prepped everything else. When I went to grab the starter, it had tripled in size.

Guess my next addition for nutrients will be faster than normal!

I love 71B-1122, especially for melomels.

Also Lalvin D47 works great also for sweet meads.

Roger

It's no quicker than other yeasts really.

What it means, is that you prepared a nice, well balanced must, that the yeasties think is the "dogs bollocks". Hence they've dropped a cog and are eager to get on with the job.

Plus, you made a starter, so that must have also reduced the lag phase to next to nothing....

Nothing for the yeasties to do but get munching.....

I realize this thread's a few months old, but I just started a batch of plain ol' mead, my first one. I was shooting for 1.100 but ended up at 1.080 because I undershot the honey, and probably overshot the volume of H2O.

I pitched most (80%?) of a vial of White Labs 720, I think, a mead-specific strain, along with the appropriate amount of energizer and nutrient and whammo! 2 hours later I have really active fermentation.

So far I've brewed about 10 batches of beer and a couple small batches of cider and wine, and this is the fatest start I've ever seen. :rockin:

binkman said:

I realize this thread's a few months old, but I just started a batch of plain ol' mead, my first one. I was shooting for 1.100 but ended up at 1.080 because I undershot the honey, and probably overshot the volume of H2O.

I pitched most (80%?) of a vial of White Labs 720, I think, a mead-specific strain, along with the appropriate amount of energizer and nutrient and whammo! 2 hours later I have really active fermentation.

So far I've brewed about 10 batches of beer and a couple small batches of cider and wine, and this is the fastest start I've ever seen. :rockin:

Click to expand...

Well that's the point of following a recipe, but then checking it with a hydrometer to confirm where you're at. There's no guarantee that the honey you used had the same levels of sugar as the original author of the recipe.

Hence, you'd have done the water honey bit, when you check it, it shows 1.020 lower, so you just add a little more honey then check again, and again etc etc until your results give you want you're looking for.

The liquid mead yeasts are finicky as hell to use so if it's fermenting well, then that's got to be good.

Just make sure that you follow the usual steps for fermentation management and you'll get a decent result......