Dry Yeast BOMMs

With all of the amazing work done by folks like LoR on experimenting with quick, tasty meads, there has been a ton of requests or questions on using dry yeast strains to create a solid, tasty, quick mead.

Although I have not made LoR's BOMM myself, I have tasted it from others in the area who have made it and I love it. This led me to experimenting with several wine yeast strains using the BOMM as a basis for my recipe.

I had great luck with Red Star Cote Des Blanc and was disappointed with Lalvin D47. With that in mind I decided I would do some small 1 gallon test batch trials. I know that LoR has said that he is also going to do some dry yeast trials in the future.

In the meantime, I am going to order some dry yeasts and a pack of 1388 to test several quick meads all at one time. I decided to try these experiments for those who have trouble getting liquid yeasts for whatever reasons whether it be their location or the time of year, for newbies (of which I still consider myself having only a little under 40 brews), and for multiple other reasons.

The first experiment will be 5 1 gallon batches using 1388, Cote des Blanc, Belle Saison, M27 and at least 1 other that I have yet to decide (suggestions welcome!).

For this first group, I plan to use both the Cote des Blanc and the 1388 as the controls of the experiment. In subsequent groups I will use the 1388 and the best one from the previous group.

I am going to use this thread to report back on all of the batches.

Any suggestions on dry yeast strains are more than welcome. I used D47 and was extremely unhappy, it is just now drinkable at a few days less than 6 months. Cote des Blanc was quite good at 2 months although a touch hot. At 2 and a half months it is tasting excellent.

The basic recipe I intend to use is this:

Water and white clover honey to 1.09 feeding nutrients at start, 1.06 and 1.03 I will then rack when it reaches between 1.02 and 1.01. After it clears entirely, I will use campden and sorbate to backsweeten to 1.015 (my personal preference for mead, not too sweet but not dry either). I will provide tasting notes at 1 month, 2 months (prior to backsweetening and again prior to bottling), 3 months (from the bottle) and again at 6 months (from the bottle). With the Cote des blanc and d47, both were entirely clear without fining or cold crashing, campdened/sorbated and backsweetened at 2 months which is what I plan for most of these trials. Then bottled 1-2 weeks later.

I am using white clover honey for 2 reasons; 1) I get 5 gallon buckets at no cost and it is one of the cheaper varietals for those who have to buy it, and 2) so that the flavor of the varietal being used will have less of an impact compared to what yeast is being used.

Wish me luck!

Nottingham and T-58 are on my list. My hypothesis is that it's got a good chance if it make decent cider or golden strong ales.


Better brewing through science!

See my brewing site at www.denardbrewing.com

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

loveofrose said:

Nottingham and T-58 are on my list. My hypothesis is that it's got a good chance if it make decent cider or golden strong ales.


Better brewing through science!

See my brewing site at www.denardbrewing.com

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

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Good call on the T58! Would be good to test in the first group against Belle!

I have to be honest, I think Nottingham makes a great, clean ale but I am not a fan of it in cider like almost everyone else is. I do plan to test it though since it is a beast of an ale yeast, so it will be in my second test group for sure.

Looking forward to your experiment results.

I am planning on trying this with M27. My target OG is 1.12 and FG of 1.011 which should yield a mead at 14%ABV (the upper limit of M27). I plan on supplementing the yeast nutrients at 1.09 and 1.05. My goal is to make a BOMM that attenuates due to alcohol percentage and does not require any conditioning (adding sulfites) to arrest yeast growth if back sweetening.

This will be my first mead. I will be making this tomorrow.

Do you have to stabilize mead like wine when bottling?

I'll be backing up HB_in_Subic's experiment using Mangrove Jack's M27 Belgian Ale Yeast (dry) as soon as I can get my hands on some. I will use Orange Blossom honey and try to match his O.G. I made a control (albeit at 12% ABV) using Wyeast 1388 already. This one I have stabilized and will sweeten with more OB honey. I can make another one gallon batch using Wyeast 1388 at the 1.116 O.G. he got and not stabilize as Bray usually does.

Go for it HawleyFarms! We are right behind you. Let's do this!

I have found the exact same thing, tried D47 many times and some other yeasts as well, at this time I favor Coates De Blanc by far, especially if I'm using a fruit addition.

Looking forward to your results!

Hows your batch coming HawleyFarms? I'm going to start my M27 in Orange Blossom Honey mead batch shortly here. I've been dawdling. The one concern I have is that the M27 optimal temperature range for fermentation is 79 - 90 degrees F and I will be fermenting that from 0-10 degrees lower temperature than the minimum. I do have RedStar Cote de Blancs too. I'm impressed you can get any honey variety at no cost. My wife buys me quarts of good Orange Blossom honey for $12.99 when she goes down to San Diego (not cheap). However it does make good mead.

buzzerj said:

Hows your batch coming HawleyFarms? I'm going to start my M27 in Orange Blossom Honey mead batch shortly here. I've been dawdling. The one concern I have is that the M27 optimal temperature range for fermentation is 79 - 90 degrees F and I will be fermenting that from 0-10 degrees lower temperature than the minimum. I do have RedStar Cote de Blancs too. I'm impressed you can get any honey variety at no cost. My wife buys me quarts of good Orange Blossom honey for $12.99 when she goes down to San Diego (not cheap). However it does make good mead.

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Not any variety, just white clover is free. Same exact honey they use for Honey Brown lager.

Although we did get two colonies of honeybees this year as well so wildflower will now be 'free' to us as well.

As far as the dry yeast bomms go, this spring has been so tough and busy for us that I just haven't been able to get anything started. I already ended up with 2 batches of infected beer and 3 gallons of honeywine vinegar. Still have a 6 gallon batch of beer that is probably skunked and a 3 gallon batch of our hopped cyser that needs to be bottled.

I just moved so I have not been able to start my M27 experiment vs. Wyeast 1388 with Orange Blossom honey. Our new apartment is much cooler in temperature than our last place so the M27 yeast will be fermenting at much lower temperatures than it's rated for. I did do a Ataulfo Mango wine with my Cote des Blancs yeast. That is coming along nicely.

I'm curious about the M27.. anyone have any results to report?

hey dudes ! skol, sounds like fun , let us know how the results are , im interested in the BOMM technique as far as quickness and flavor are concerned, and whether it's worth it using an ale yeast, as i use the cookie cutter 1118 lalvin.

I have used M27 several times. It produces a "Saison" taste that is not for everyone. M27 does well with the temperature in the 80s during the 1st few days.

I agree with LoR, that Wyeast 1388 produces a much better Mead without phenols. I make all of my meads, melomels and cysers using the BOMM technique (regardless of which ale yeast that I am using). Some batches have been ready in one month (clear).