Can I use S04 to make wine?

[Phishfinder]

Hi guys,

Is it alright to use S04 to make a concord grape wine? I'm very new to brewing/winemaking and from what I understand different yeasts die off at different alcohol levels. Will S04 take the juice far enough or will it die off and leave an insane amount of residual sugar? If S04 isnt good, can I use EC-1118 or D47 which my local wine store has readily available?

Thanks in advance!

 

[pumpkinman2012]

You are correct regarding the beer yeast not being able to ferment the wine to dry.
I highly recommend the EC-1118 if this is your first time trying to make wine, it is a workhorse yeast that can ferment a brick! The D47 yeast is usually recommended for white wines.

I hope that this helps

 

[theDREWery]

You can use beer yeasts to make wine, but it can produce flavors you may not want.

S04 is common enough in ciders and apfelwine, and has an alcohol tolerance of about 10%.

It can ferment wines and ciders dry; the attenuation listed has to do with the complex sugars in beer wort, while wine and ciders have simple sugars that will ferment completely.

 

[Phishfinder]

Thanks Guys! Went with ec-1118.

Good times ahead.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I make few wines (one, I've made one), and that was with wine yeast, but I've used English yeast in cider before. Think of it this way, where an English yeast would pull a beer of cider gravity (1.055 or so, approx) to ~1.010-1.015, and a wine yeast would pull a cider to ~0.990-0.998, English yeast in a cider might pull it to 0.998-1.005 or so. That's been my experience at least. No reason the same wouldn't be true to wine, up until the alcohol tolerance is reached (and wine typically starts much higher gravity than apple cider, cider won't reach ale yeast tolerance even fermented dry, but grape must will reach the tolerance of most strains).

Point being, it'll still attenuate pretty fully, even to dryness, but won't get quite as dry as a wine yeast. It depends on what you're going for. But as far as the actual wine flavor characteristics when using English ale yeast, I'll let the winemakers handle that part (like I said, it works well in cider, don't' know how it'd work in wine).