LV1116 Yeast??

I was recently given a package of LV1116 yeast. Can this be used to make mead? I've never made mead before and wondering if this strain of yeast would work.

That's a great yeast for fruit meads....

so how does one go about making a Fruit Mead? I have all of the fermentation and sterilization equipment, along with bottling equipment.

I've seen a general recipe to heat H20 to 160degrees for 15 minutes, flame out, add 2.5# honey per gallon of H20, stir in, then cool to about 75 degrees and pitch yeast.

What are the additions to a recipe to make a fruit mead? How much fruit? Is it whole fruit or pureed? Does the fruit need to be heated to sterilize? Is the fruit added to primary or secondary? How long does the fruit remain in the fermentation tank?

Sorry for all the questions... I'm reading a good Mead will take at least 9 months and will require racking every 4-6 weeks during the secondary fermentation.

I have Sanke kegs that I ferment in (7.75 gallon). Is all the racking necessary or can one allow the mead to sit in the secondary for 9 months to clear?

BankerJohn said:

I was recently given a package of LV1116 yeast. Can this be used to make mead? I've never made mead before and wondering if this strain of yeast would work.

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Assuming you mean Lalvin K1-V1116, the short answer is yes.

Here's what Keller has to say about that strain:

"Lalvin K1-V1116 (Montpellier) : This strain tends to express freshness of the grape or fruit variety, especially in Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Chenin Blanc, but also in fruit such as peaches, nectarines, kiwis, and strawberries. Because it produces such flowery esters as isoamyl acetate, hexyl acetate, and phenyl ethyl acetate, the natural fresh fruit aromas are retained for a longer period compared to standard yeasts. It is recommended for French hybrid whites, mature reds, and ice wines as well. This strain ferments well under stressed conditions and may be used to restart a stuck fermentation. Known among enologists as the original "killer yeast," K1 dominates almost any fermentation and is capable of fermenting to 20% alcohol if sufficient nutrients, nitrogen, and fermentable sugars are properly employed, but 18% is quite reachable. It is a fast fermenter and can tolerate a huge temerature range (50-107° F). It is not, however, tolerant of concurrent malolactic fermentation."

Here's a link to the above info & a whole lot more:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp
Hope that helps. Regards, GF.

That yeast will make some of the best tradtional meads you'll ever taste.

What are the additions to a recipe to make a fruit mead? How much fruit? Is it whole fruit, chunks or pureed? Does the fruit need to be heated to sterilize? Is the fruit added to primary or secondary? How long does the fruit remain in the fermentation tank?

Really depends on what fruit you're looking to use, and who you ask... I made a blackberry melomel just before Thanksgiving 2010... It's a 3 gallon batch, so I used 8# honey, 3# fresh (mashed up with a potato masher) blackberries, and Lalvin D47 yeast. With your yeast, you could use more honey, depending on how dry you want it to go. With mine, you'll finish DRY and still have yeast looking for more food.

So I had the 3# in primary for a week, before I racked off of them into my carboy (started in a bucket)... Once fermentation was complete, I added first 3#, and then 1.5# of fresh, mashed, blackberries. I racked between them, letting the berries stay in no more than 7 days.

General consensus is to rack off of fresh fruit within 5-7 days.

I wouldn't heat the fruit, or the honey used. If the honey is solid, then you'll need to use a little heat to get it to dissolve. Only use what you HAVE to there. This is the method used by the majority of people on the Got Mead? site. MedsenFey is over there, giving out solid advise on a regular basis. Check out the pages there, TONS of solid info about all kinds of meads, ciders, etc...

I would pick a fruit you either like to eat, or like the juice of. Just be aware that the flavor will be different once fermented... But, you can always add more fruit to the batch once fermentation is done, if you want to increase the flavor profile. I would advise against back sweetening (if the mead finishes too dry for your liking) until it's at least several months old. There are plenty of times where someones stabilized a batch, back sweetened it too soon, only to have it be too sweet after it's aged for several months...

I agree with Golddggie. It depends on what fruit you choose to use. As a general rule I use 2-3 lbs of raw fruit per gallon of mead. The most complex flavor profile I get is when I put 1/3 the fruit in the primary fermentation and the reamining 2/3 in the scondary. The 2-3 lbs per gallon works best for berries and cherries, while when I use delicate flavors like kiwi and asian pears/pears I use more like 4-5 lbs per gallon.

As far as whether to chop or puree, again its a matter of preference. I chop my cherries and berries, but puree my kiwi's, apple, pears, etc and then strain out the juice. It almost seems like a "must" to freeze the fruit befor hand too. Gets the best results.

K1-V1116 works pretty good... my preference (as well as many on the forum) one of the best yeast to use with a Melomel (fruit mead) is Lavins 71B-1122.

Best of luck and welcome to the fold.

So far I've used mostly D47, EC-1118 and most recently 71B-1122... I put 71B in my hard lemonade batch... It's been going for just over 2 weeks now, so it's not done just yet. I plan on checking it before the weekend is over to see where it's at...

Any thoughts on 71B for the hard lemonade? Just curious as to how it should come out more than anything... Seems like it could bring some nice things to the batch... I do plan on trying out the rest of the Lalvin stable at some point. Just need to wait until I'm bringing money IN so that I can afford to buy honey...

Also, do NOT run your fruit through a blender or food processor. Use a potato masher, or spoon to mash it up. You don't want to cut into the seeds.

I appreciate the advice I'm hearing. Thank you!

Do I need to heat the water in the beginning to 160 then flame out to then add the honey? I have a counterflow chiller that will allow me to cool the water down with no problem.

We have a local apiary & roadside stand that sells 'local' honey. This time of year, the orange groves are blooming and most of it will be a mix of orange blossom and clover. I'm going to pick some up later today. From what I have read, I'll ask for some of the "dirtier honey" to pick up more flavors from the pollen.

It is probably too soon to talk about bottling since it seems this batch will go for a while. But, when do you bottle it off? I have grolsch .5L bottles. Is this ok, or are they better in a champagne bottle with cork & wire hood?

BankerJohn said:

I appreciate the advice I'm hearing. Thank you!

Do I need to heat the water in the beginning to 160 then flame out to then add the honey? I have a counterflow chiller that will allow me to cool the water down with no problem.

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"Need to"? Nope, not at all... Many mazers don't heat their honey at all. I have only seen ONE person who's claiming that heating/boiling honey is 'good' to do. I would lean more towards the majority here. Look at it this way, do you think they heated their honey 1000+ years ago? I seriously doubt it.

We have a local apiary & roadside stand that sells 'local' honey. This time of year, the orange groves are blooming and most of it will be a mix of orange blossom and clover. I'm going to pick some up later today. From what I have read, I'll ask for some of the "dirtier honey" to pick up more flavors from the pollen.

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No need to get 'dirty' honey. If they do a reasonable filtering, it's just getting the bee parts out of the honey, as well as any pieces of honeycomb. As long as their not heating it up over 100-110F, it's fine. NOT heating your honey up will let all those subtle flavors come through. I would plan on letting it ferment out dry, then adding more to bring in some more flavor at the end. Just be very careful with how much honey you add at the end. Use small amounts, giving plenty of time to dissolve/disperse, and then taste it as well as take a hydrometer reading. I would leave it more on the dry side early on, so that when it ages, it gets better (most often it mellows and tastes sweeter with age).

It is probably too soon to talk about bottling since it seems this batch will go for a while. But, when do you bottle it off? I have grolsch .5L bottles. Is this ok, or are they better in a champagne bottle with cork & wire hood?

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If you're not going to carbonate it, as long as you're 100% sure the mead is above the tolerance of the yeast, and any added sugars don't ferment (you may need to give it a few months there) then you can bottle in wine bottles if you want. Only if you carbonate would you need to use either bottles made for beer, or champagne. I plan on putting mine in frosted wine bottles, and corking them. That way, I'll be able to tell, at a glance, what batch is inside what bottle. Of course, I plan to label them too.

so I picked up 10# of honey and intend to make a 4 gallon batch. Do I start with 4 gallons or a little more to account for loss during siphons, etc.

Also, do I sterilize the carboy before starting? Do I need to boil the water then cool? Do I spinkle dry yeast on top or mix it in?

I'm getting excited about trying this. Call me guinea pig

BankerJohn said:

so I picked up 10# of honey and intend to make a 4 gallon batch. Do I start with 4 gallons or a little more to account for loss during siphons, etc.

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With only 10#, you'll max out at just under 12% ABV. I wouldn't make any additional must for this batch. So mix in your honey and go for the 4 gallon total volume.

Also, do I sterilize the carboy before starting?

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Yes, just like when you brew beer. Sanitize anything touching the must once you have it mixed. If possible, I would sanitize what you mix it with... If you're going for the no-heat method, then using the sanitized carboy, makes it far easier.

Do I need to boil the water then cool?

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If you have good filtered water, no. But, if you don't like how your water tastes cold, then boil the volume and cool it to at least under 100F before mixing in the honey. There is some contention on this, but I'm going to refer to the method most mazers on the got mead site stick to. If you want to get bottled water, then you can simply open the bottle up and pour it right into the sanitized carboy. Mix in the honey and you're good...

Do I spinkle dry yeast on top or mix it in?

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With a must that low in OG, you don't need to do much with the yeast. But, I would at least rehydrate it as per the packages instructions.

I'm getting excited about trying this. Call me guinea pig

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Just wait until you get to TASTE the mead when it's done and aged for a decent amount of time. :rockin:

I would add nutrient to the must before you pitch the yeast in. DAP is one of the more common nutrients used.

the yeast I will supposedly die off at about 17-18% abv. How much water should I use to get about a 16-20% (MAX) abv that the yeast will handle? If I add fruit, will it increase the abv? Any recommendations on fruit? If I remember, you recommend adding fruit after the first week of ferment, right?

What is DAP and what if I don't have any?

Heating is not an issue since I have the burner, boil pot & chiller to cool stuff down.

If you go with 3 gallons of must (so just over 2 gallons of water, since 12# of honey is 1 gallon, typically), you should get an OG of ~1.120. If you treat the yeast right, and it ferments down to .998, you're looking at 16.3% ABV

I would trust the stated tolerance of 18% for Lalvin yeast.

Depending on what fruit, and how much you add, you'll get more sugars for the yeast to munch on, increasing the alcohol in the mead.

For when to add the fruit, it depends on what you're looking for. For what fruit to add, what do you like? You can add almost anything you can get your hands on. I would just make sure you're getting good quality fruit before adding it. I would advise either waiting until fermentation has been going for a while, and then add the fruit, or do it right off the bat. But, only add some fruit. Get more for post fermentation additions. Like once it's pretty much hit a low SG... If it's close to 1.010, or lower, then you can add some more fruit. Let it go through that, then add more... I would only leave the fruit in the must for 5-7 days before racking off of it. Any longer and you could get flavors you don't want, and need to age out.

DAP can usually be found at LHBS, or pretty much all the online vendors. You might need to look in their wine making section, or wherever they put nutrients. Or search their site for DAP.

I wouldn't heat the honey above 100F... If you do the water, you can either chill it with the chiller, or let it cool on it's own. We're not talking about a lot to start with here.

A 3 gallon batch is a good first run for a melomel (mead with fruit)... You won't spend a lot on either the honey or the fruit...

Depending on how MUCH fruit flavor you want to add, plan 1-3# per gallon of must. So if you want light fruit flavor, go with 2-3# total. If you want medium flavors, 3-5# would probably be good. If you want a stronger flavor, then 6-9# would be in the right range. Before you add any more fruit, though, taste the must. I would even give it a week or two to mellow before adding more. Then taste and decide if you want more. If you add just a hair more than you think, it will age back to probably just under what your goal was... It's a balancing act.

Keep in mind, you can add more fruit, easily, as long as it's still in bulk form. It's pretty much impossible once you bottle it up. Unless you decide to serve it with a little bit of the same kind of fruit in the mead (not a bad idea either)...

With the ABV range you're looking at, I would plan on serving/drinking this in the 9-12 month time frame. On the shorter scale if you bulk age it longer.

With a 3 gallon batch, and using fruit too, you'll probably end up with about 2-1/2 gallons, maybe a little more, by the time it's done... If you're looking to get closer to 3 gallons, then you'll need to get more honey and make more must... Personally, the first time, I would just let it ride and adjust after this batch for future ones. Just means you'll probably want to start another batch sooner.

so the nearest LHBS is well over an hour drive. How important is DAP?

Order it online then... You can boil some bakers yeast to get some nutrients, but you'll want what DAP has to offer too... Or fermaidK or Fermax...

DAP is Diammonium Phosphate

You can also use yeast energizer, if you want... DAP, fermaidK and Fermax are all pretty bloody cheap... Get the 2oz bottles to start and just make sure you have enough before you start another batch. The folks on got mead have threads posted about how much nutrient you'll want to use for a specific batch size... I don't remember, off hand, exactly how much you'll want to use, but they have it posted...

I DID IT !!! I couldn't wait.

Sterilized bucket, yeast pitching jar, honey stir spoon and yeast stir spoon in Starsan. Used 2 gallons water and just under a gallon of honey. stirred all the honey in very well - enough to make a froth. Tried to measure on my refractometer but it pegged well in excess of 1.15; the whole screen was clear so I'm guessing over 1.2, After mixin up the honey, I pitched the 1116 yeast in water at 106 degrees for 15 minutes, stirred and mixed it into the must. sealed the bucket and plugged it with an air lock. The whole thing is sitting in my bathtub waiting to go a week before adding fruit.

I'll decide on the fruit during the week and find something fresh next weekend

Wish me luck. Golddiggie, I think that there will be a 2011 Christmas present bottle with your name on it for all your help.

According to the calculator tool, you should have had an OG of about 1.120-130 depending on how much volume you ended up with... It could take a while to go into full solution...

I know of some people that do basically what you did, add a small amount of nutrient, and then just let it ride. If you have any bakers yeast handy, boil that in a small amount of water, to kill it dead, cool and pitch it in. Keep an eye on it. If you don't see much movement, give it a few days.

If you are able, I would plan to aerate at least until you hit the 1/3 break. You can either just shake it to do that, or make a tool. I uses a 3' length of silver solder rod, bent it in half and locked it into my drill chuck... 1-3 minutes a day is good there. You might need a blow-off tube there. Although with a bucket, you could just use a sanitized whip/whisk to aerate.

Let me know what you decide for fruit...

"aerate until the 1/3 break" What is a 1/3 break?

"Blow off" tube? UH-OH... I'm in a 7.5 gallon bucket. Let's hope my wife allows me to do this again

I'm just gonna try this with just the water, honey and yeast and no nutrient addition. Living in Florida means that our aquifer is heavy on phosphate (they mine the stuff for fertilizer and road bed materials). We'll see how this goes.

Is it done yet? (I feel like a little kid again)

The 1/3 break is the point where 1/3 of the sugars have been consumed by the yeast... Basically, when the OG has dropped by 1/3... Depending on how active your fermentation is, you could hit that in a week, it might take longer. In my batches, giving it some nutrients and aerating it, I hit that point after a week (some a little sooner)...

That much head space will be fine while it's actively fermenting. Probably a good idea to add your first round of fruit in there. I would rack to a 3 gallon carboy after the 5-7 days on fruit. Let it rest for a week, then rack onto more fruit... You can repeat until you get the amount of fruit flavor you want...

I remember things like that about Florida... Lived in the Space Coast for ~10 years (went to college in Savannah, GA)... Glad to be back up in New England though... I don't have to worry about the roaches carrying switchblades anymore.

my smallest fermenter is a 5 gallon Sanke Keg with the spear removed. I'll add fruit a week from tomorrow and fruit for 5 days per your recommendation. Then rack and add more fruit for another 5 days. Then, I'll plan to rack it up into the sanke fermenter for a good month or more.

Is it done yet?

since we are in strawberry season (we just had our strawberry festival to kick off the season), I am thinking that I may fruit this with fresh strawberries and fresh pineapple chunks. What do you think?

Is it done yet?

when does the fermentation begin? LOLOL I keep checking it about every 20 minutes to see if it has started off gassing.

Is it done yet?

I would hold off on using the Sanke until you're done adding fruit...

Strawberries could be really good. I would just make sure you get good, fresh, ripe ones... It sucks how many strawberries we get up here are a poor shadow of what good strawberries are really like. Seems like we can only get really good ones for a very short period of time each year. Even then, it's a crap shoot if the package you buy is going to be good, or just suck.

I would keep the first batch with less flavor elements. If you want, pull off a gallon and put pineapple in it. Or once the strawberry addition is done, add some pineapple to just a portion (1 gallon) of it. You can always make another batch and put more flavor elements into it... Down there you should have plenty of honey harvests as well as enough seasonal fruits to make a lot of different things without waiting a long time.

Your lag time will vary... Usually you're post lag within 24-48 hours. Of course, that depends on the OG of the must, and what else you've done to help the yeast.

Mead isn't like beer you know... Not nearly as many extra nutrients for the yeast to use. That's why many of us help our little helpers along early on.

The sanke will only get used after about a 6-8 weeks, then let it sit in the sanke for for a good 3 months to settle out before bottling... unless you recommend otherwise.

I don't know if I would use something with ~2 gallons of head space for aging. I'm planning on getting some corny kegs to age mine in... Probably 3 gallon cornies, since I can balance my three batches to fit those better. Since fermentation will be done by the time you're looking to age, you really won't get any CO2 coming off the must... So unless you can cover the mead with CO2 in the sanke, I'd pick something else.

should I bottle age them? Ok to store in .5L Grolsch bottles or can I use beer bottles with Crown Caps?

I wouldn't bottle until you're 100% sure it's done fermenting and tastes good/great. I'm not planning on aging any of mine until they're at least 9 months old. The longer you bulk age it, the better it will be.

I'm planning on putting mine into frosted wine bottles. I have a floor corker already, so there's no issue there. Plus, mine will not be carbonated.

the fermentation is going strong today - and it smells VERY sweet!

So you only had about a 2 day lag time... Not too bad considering it's your first batch.

it was going pretty strong at 24 hous. I gave the bucket a good swirl and light shake yesterday at about 18 hours.

the fermenting is still going strong. Stopped by the LHBS (closest one is almost 2 hours drive) and picked up a few one gallon jugs to separate the Mead and bulk age each a little differently.

I suspect it will still be going strong for another 1-3 weeks... My melomel hit close to it's FG after just under 2 weeks... Lower OG than what you probably made... I used D47, so I wanted it to pretty much cap out at 14% (which it has)...

Just looked at my batches of mead earlier tonight... Need to rack them all soon... Planning on doing the blackberry melomel first... Plan to taste it before racking, to see if it's close to being ready for bottles... If it is, I'll get bottles over the next few weeks. The others will probably go a while longer. I have about 7 gallons of traditional mead total right now. Looks so damned good too...

1 week update:
Fermentation is still going strong. I have not opened the bucket/fermenter to look. Daily, the must/mead has been getting a swirl or two to offgas the CO2.

When should I transfer into a secondary?

If you've not added the fruit yet, let it go until complete. If you've added some fruit, I would rack off after the fruit has been in there for 5-7 days. Same thing once fermentation is complete, leave it on the fruit for 5-7 days before racking again...

I looked at my blackberry melomel the other day... Looks like I'll be racking it either this weekend or sometime next week. I need to bottle up my strong Scotch ale first. I need to check on the hard lemonade too. If that's ready, then I'll wait to rack the meads until after the lemonade is in bottles. That way I can use that 3 gallon carboy to rack into as I clean carboys. I'll also rack the balace of the 5 gallon batch either into my other 5 gallon carboy, or into one of the 1/6 Sanke kegs I picked up yesterday.

no fruit added yet. I'm thinking to wait until the heavy fermentation slows before adding fruit as the fruit addition may bring on a secondary ferment if there is yeast still looking for sugars and the ABV is not high enough to kill off the yeast (still gotta get a hydrometer; my refractometer for the NACL H2O fish tank didn'r read high enough to get a good OG.

Adam, you got 5 gal Sankey's? WAY COOL!!!! I just picked up drilled bungs so I can ferment in mine

Yeah, got 4 5.16 gallon Sankes sitting in the kitchen/brewery now... Three are clean, one is getting a second soaking of PBW... Want to get one or two of the tall 1/4 size too. The orange cap fits on the openings of the kegs... Going to try the large universal too, see if that fits. I think it will, so I'll have options.

For your fermentation, as it starts to slow, and reaches a lower SG (like under 1.010) you can add some of the fruit. I would start with ~1# per gallon to start. Give it a week, then rack. See what the SG is and repeat... Nothing wrong with letting it have some time between fruit additions too.

BTW, got your email, just haven't replied yet...