Quick, need a low alcohol tolerance yeast

[Timmyg316]

Hi all,

Just about to go buy ingredients for brewing. I want a lager yeast with low alcohol tolerance. Also, how do I tell how tolerant a yeast is to alcohol?

 

[homebrewhaha]

I would recommend checking out the specs wyeastlab.com or whitelabs.com assuming you're using liquid yeast. Sorry I don't have a more specific recommendation.

What is your reason for desiring such a yeast?

ETA: Just a quick look at the wyeast site shows their lager yeasts mostly falling in at 9% alcohol tolerance.

 

[Timmyg316]

I would recommend checking out the specs wyeastlab.com or whitelabs.com assuming you're using liquid yeast. Sorry I don't have a more specific recommendation.

What is your reason for desiring such a yeast?

I'm working with honey. I find adding honey later in the process saves some flavor. A yeast that would die out at a lower alcohol percentage should save even more.

I was actually just checking that site out. There was one that has an attenuation of 65-70%, it was the lowest on the list, what do you think?

 

[rinhaak]

Have you thought about Addi g the honey to secondary? Very little would be fermented out that way, I imagine, and you'd probably retain a lot of the honey flavor

 

[Timmyg316]

Oh, I'm doing a lot to retain flavour, I actually add honey 11 days after the boil to maximize flavour, but I still need MOAR!!! changing the yest is just one small part of the plan.

 

[homebrewhaha]

I'm working with honey. I find adding honey later in the process saves some flavor. A yeast that would die out at a lower alcohol percentage should save even more.

I was actually just checking that site out. There was one that has an attenuation of 65-70%, it was the lowest on the list, what do you think?

I haven't used honey, but a lower attenuating yeast sounds like a plan if you're trying to retain more of the sweetness.

 

[inhousebrew]

Are you bottling this? If not you could kill the yeast off and then add honey. Maybe. There's that stuff they use for wine. Just brainstorming.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

I don't know of a brewers yeast that isn't going to chew right through honey. Even a low attenuating yeast will ferment honey dry because only a small fraction is long chain sugars.

However, using a low attenuating yeast will leave some of the sugars from the malt which might keep a little more of the sweetness you are looking for.

From wikipedia the typical composition is:
Typical honey analysis:

Fructose: 38.2%
Glucose: 31.3%
Maltose: 7.1%
Sucrose: 1.3%
Water: 17.2%
Higher sugars: 1.5%
Ash: 0.2%
Other/undetermined: 3.2%

 

[david_42]

I recommend you add some honey malt to your recipe. It is a much more reliable way to add honey flavors to a beer.

 

[CBMbrewer]

Yeah. Add honey malt. Or do like they do with wine; kill the yeast post-fermentation then back sweeten with honey. Or both.

 

[daksin]

Have you thought about Addi g the honey to secondary? Very little would be fermented out that way, I imagine, and you'd probably retain a lot of the honey flavor

Nope- there are still tons of yeast around and they will eat every last bit of simple sugar you add. Adding to the secondary probably helps avoid CO2 scrubbing of some nice aromatics, but you're still going to get hardly any flavor from the honey.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Doesn't matter when you add honey. If there's viable yeast, the yeast will ferment it. The only way it's not going to ferment is if there's no viable yeast (filtered out, pasteurized, using K-meta, Campden tabs, or whatever it is they use), or if they're in a situation where they're unable to ferment (exceeded alcohol tolerance, too cold, etc). If you're kegging, you can cold crash, and keep it cold after you add the honey so the yeast never get to work on it (but if you warm it up they'll go to work on it), or knock out the yeast some other way. If you're bottle conditioning you need that yeast active to carbonate, and the only way I know of you'll be able to do it is to add the honey, bottle, and then pasteurize the bottles at just the right time. And unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing, that's a recipe for disaster.

That said, if you're looking for honey flavor you'll get that whether or not it ferments if you add in secondary. If you want the sweetness too, you'll need to get it from the malt, or do one of the above.

 

[Timmyg316]

Are you bottling this? If not you could kill the yeast off and then add honey. Maybe. There's that stuff they use for wine. Just brainstorming.

Bottling. I still don't have a lot fo the more sophisticated equipment

 

[Timmyg316]

I recommend you add some honey malt to your recipe. It is a much more reliable way to add honey flavors to a beer.

This is part of the plan

 

[Timmyg316]

In my experience, the later you add the honey the more flavour is carried though fermentation. The yeast begin converting the gain into alcohol, making the level of alcohol higher and the solution more inhospitable for yeast before the honey is added. The effect is small, but noticeable.

This is what I went with http://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=132 since the guy at the shop seemed quite knowledgeable

Thoughts?

 

[Qhrumphf]

The sugar will get consumed either way. Adding honey later preserves volatile aromatics and flavors that are driven off during the boil or CO2 scrubbing during fermentation. You still don't get sweetness from it. Although honey flavor could i suppose give a perceived sweetness with or without any actual sugar content.