Champagne Yeast

[Dlax006]

As I went to my local farmers market/brewers supply store, I bought everything to make my second batch of beer. However, they had no beer yeast available, which frustrated me because I have no other local stores near me that have the stuff I need. They did, however, have all sorts of different wine yeast. Now I'm new to the whole brewing scene, so I'm sort of at the whim of others advice. I ended up calling and asking a few of my friends (one of which has been brewing for quite some time) and asked them if I could use any of this wine yeast to brew beer with. My friends said that the champagne yeast should be sufficient. So, that's what I used in my current brew. My question to all of you is, what should I expect from using such yeast? Should it act the same as beer yeast? If I ever run into this situation again, are there specific types of yeast I should look for in the future? Thanks in advance for any help/advice/opinions! Cheers!

 

[porcupine73]

Well I have yet to have champagne yeast disappoint me thought I don't really brew beer specifically. It seems to me beer yeasts mostly impart important flavors such as 'bready' to the beer, whereas champagne yeast is very much neutral. But champagne yeast is hearty, ferments very fast, and has a high alcohol tolerance, and somewhat neutral on the taste. Most homebrew shops at least it seems to me will carry the Danstar line like Windsor, Nottingham, etc. Some might have the Wyeast wet packs. I guess it depends on what is popular locally. Beer yeasts it seems to me need a lower temperature, at least initially, to avoid off flavors, whereas champagne yeast would be more forgiving.

So bottom line yes your brew will ferment, but it may lack some of the flavor a beer yeast imparts.

 

[Dlax006]

Well, that's not so bad. I am going for a fall, apple-cinnamon flavored beer, so perhaps the neutrality of this yeast will benefit this brew. I'm considering going online and buying a bunch of different types of beer yeast just to have on hand. Do you think using champagne yeast will effect the ABV at all? Thanks for your input!

 

[JLem]

Wine yeasts will work fine in beer, though like mentioned above they will impart different flavors. Here is a GREAT podcast about using wine yeasts in beer (among other topics) - http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Sunday-Session/The-Sunday-Session-11-23-08-Shea-Comfort

Well worth a listen.

 

[porcupine73]

The yeast will effect the ABV only if the yeast cannot tolerate the potential ABV. It seems champagne yeasts usually will take 18% ABV; other yeasts may tolerate lower (or higher) levels. So then it depends entirely on how much sweetener you had in your must; extremely roughly the estimate is 1 lb sugar per 1 gallon water is 5% ABV.

 

[Dlax006]

Alright, much appreciated. I will definitely give the podcast a listen. I'm extremely green when it comes to brewing, but I'm very intrigued and interested at all the different methods and flavors created. It really is an art. Thanks again for the information!

 

[daksin]

Wine yeasts may not be well suited to fermenting the complex sugars present in beer wort. Wine musts are extremely simple, so try not to be very upset when the beer does not ferment as dry as you would like. Apart from that, I have never fermented beer with wine yeast so I have no practical experience. In the future, lots of online retailers sell a huge selection of great dry and liquid yeasts with pretty cheap shipping so I would try to get some of that in the future for best results, as long as you can get ingredients locally.