Beer yeast in mead.

I'm sure this a dumb question, but has anyone ever tried making a mead with a beer yeast like nottingham? And what were the results?

I'm thinking about making a mead, but the only yeast I have left is a packet of nottingham, and my local homebrew shop is a bit far for just a packet of wine yeast.

You can always try it and see how it comes out, but some beer yeasts will not go up to the normal alcohol percentage of normal meads.

Seems to me that you should figure out the maximum alcohol tolerance of the yeast, and then formulate your batch based on that. If you calculate where you want your final gravity to end up, and then figure out how much honey to use to get your mead there with the Nottingham yeast, it should work.

One other thing to consider would be to make a yeast starter. Pitch the yeast in a small amount of the must you are going to use for your final product, and add some of the go-ferm or a similar product to it. Let it grow in the smaller batch size until it is going strong, and then toss the already fermenting must into your larger batch of mead. This will give your yeast the best chance to do its job, as it will already be adapted to the final medium that will be its home.

Other than the only question is, how will it taste.

here's an experiment done that was put up on basic brewing radio.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr11-08-07meadyeast.mp3

I just put down 11 gallons of Mead using US-05 dry ale yeast. Its one of the better beer yeasts to use for Meads.

I've used Wyeast 1056 american ale, and it's been one of the best meads I've ever made. I used a light, local wildflower, but orange blossom apparently plays best with the fruity esters from the 1056.

I use Nottingham for mine

Thanks for answering my question, I think I'm going to try a low gravity mead using Nottingham yeast.

Hey has anyone ever tried making a dandelion mead?

Check the Great Mead Experiment at OBC. The link is at the bottom of the page.

GuitarBob said:

Thanks for answering my question, I think I'm going to try a low gravity mead using Nottingham yeast.

Hey has anyone ever tried making a dandelion mead?

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I've considered it. I'm trying a dandelion wine this year. Maybe I'll do a dandelion mead next year.

I've used S-33 in many meads. its the old Edme Ale yeast strain, and will hit about 13% ABV before it craps out.

works well.