Which yeast is your favorite dry yeast for making mead?

[Maylar]

Which type/brand of bentonite do you use?

LD Carlson is the stuff the wine making merchants sell. Seems to be high quality stuff.

 

[NeverDie]

Update: Using the PFSSSSTTT! criteria, which turns out to be quite sensitive, it may be that only one to four of the yeast strains has completed fermentation. Most likely just one, but I'll know more in a few days.

 

[Maylar]

It could just be outgassing of CO2.

 

[Miraculix]

Shouldn't they all ferment dry anyway? Just take a gravity reading, under 1 = finished.

The bottle can make sounds due to changing air pressure and trapped co2. Doesn't have to be active fermentation.

 

[Amadeo38]

Shouldn't they all ferment dry anyway? Just take a gravity reading, under 1 = finished.

Not if your OG overshoots the alcohol tolerance of your yeast strain. For example, my most recent semi-sweet mead stopped at 14% (EtOh tolerance max for D47) and left just enough sugar in solution for an FG of 1.020. I racked it so many times afterward that I was confident enough to bottle without any agents to stop further fermentation and without the need to backsweeten.

 

[Miraculix]

Not if your OG overshoots the alcohol tolerance of your yeast strain. For example, my most recent semi-sweet mead stopped at 14% (EtOh tolerance max for D47) and left just enough sugar in solution for an FG of 1.020. I racked it so many times afterward that I was confident enough to bottle without any agents to stop further fermentation and without the need to backsweeten.

In this case, the og was so low that this wouldn't happen.

 

[NeverDie]

In this case, the og was so low that this wouldn't happen.

Correct.

It's by design. It's the main design philosophy of the BOMM approach: start the OG low enough that it will always ferment totally dry. This way you have pretty much total control over ABV. Then stabilize and backsweeten. It's the opposite of the JAOM approach, where the final ABV is less predictable. In theory, BOMM gives you high repeatability, so that you can gradually optimize your outcome and then nail it every time. That's the upside. The downside is that the BOMM approach requires a lot more work, whereas JAOM approach is set and forget. Those are the trade-offs.

 

[Amadeo38]

I understand the question now. I thought the question was, “shouldn’t all meads ferment dry?”, but it was more of a, “shouldn’t all yeasts ferment this particular batch dry?”

 

[Miraculix]

I understand the question now. I thought the question was, “shouldn’t all meads ferment dry?”, but it was more of a, “shouldn’t all yeasts ferment this particular batch dry?”

Yes, correct!

 

[NeverDie]

Update: D47 is the first yeast strain to be unequivocally done. It hasn't lost even a gram in 6 days, and if I shake it in a sealed container, there's no PFFFT! when I open it. It's also fully flocculated and clear. It took only about 30 days to go from pitched to completely done.

I'll measure final SG's later.

 

[NeverDie]

Update: Fresco yeast is the second one to unequivocally finish. Started with OG 1.103 on 3/19 and was done on 4/9 with FG 0.996. So, that is 21 days from start to finish. It is, however, still hazy, and I'm doubtful that will clear on its own.

 

[NeverDie]

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me so far is that many of the yeast strains seem to have, to varying degrees, a haze problem. I'm very annoyed! I wasn't expecting this from a simple traditional mead without any fruit or juice added. What is causing it? How to prevent it? How best to treat it if it happens?

I hadn't explicitly added any calcium to these experimental batches. If had done so, would it have prevented the haze, or is it unrelated to that?

I'm considering to first cold crash (for how long? A week?), and if that doesn't work, to try Bentonite.

 

[bob1852]

What is causing it?

proteins and other compounds in the honey

How to prevent it?

Bentonite in the primary

How best to treat it if it happens?

SuperKleer or other fining agents (or filtering), and give them time to work, prior to bottling.

 

[Miraculix]

I think it's the yeast itself. Maybe calcium would have helped.

I found that all the beer yeasts that I used in meads didn't even clear half as well as they did in beer. Beerwort has lots more protein then honeywater but also more calcium so I guess it's the calcium missing.

 

[NeverDie]

What's strange is that the 71B batch was clear initially (in fact, IIRC, it was the first to clear) and then it seemed to develop a considerable haze later. Go figure.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

What's strange is that the 71B batch was clear initially (in fact, IIRC, it was the first to clear) and then it seemed to develop a considerable haze later. Go figure.

Do you know the mineral analyticals for your water? Perhaps @Miraculix is correct in his association of haze with a deficiency of calcium in the water.

 

[Maylar]

Very few meads clear without some kind of help.

 

[NeverDie]

What's strange is that the 71B batch was clear initially (in fact, IIRC, it was the first to clear) and then it seemed to develop a considerable haze later. Go figure.

All I have to go on is the Ozark spring water analytics report posted online, which showed almost no calcium (maybe 5ppm or something like that, IIRC).

 

[bob1852]

Very few meads clear without some kind of help.

Same with beer...

Which is why us homebrewers do vigorous boils, kettle fining, cold crashing, gelatin, etc...

The techniques and additives are slightly different in the mead/wine world, but they're still well known. I don't understand the reluctance that many people have to using them...

 

[Blacksmith1]

Odd, all the meads myself or my stepson have made cleared and did so quickly.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Odd, all the meads myself or my stepson have made cleared and did so quickly.

What yeast?
Do you happen to know your water ion levels?
You live near Tampa?

 

[Blacksmith1]

We use florida spring water so it's very high in calcium, and yes Tampa is just across the bay.

 

[RPh_Guy]

We use florida spring water so it's very high in calcium, and yes Tampa is just across the bay.

You know this because you have the report for it or just guessing?

 

[Miraculix]

We use florida spring water so it's very high in calcium, and yes Tampa is just across the bay.

Thanks, another hint

 

[NeverDie]

Same with beer...

Which is why us homebrewers do vigorous boils, kettle fining, cold crashing, gelatin, etc...

The techniques and additives are slightly different in the mead/wine world, but they're still well known. I don't understand the reluctance that many people have to using them...

I'm not disagreeing, but what had been confusing to me is that I don't think I've seen even one mead recipe that called for adding clearing agents at any stage. Maybe the authors all just assume we're doing it? Many of them seem quite detailed about everything else, so it would be odd for them to omit it.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I know this because the substrate under most of florida is calcium carbonate, due to it being an ancient coral reef. All the spring water here contains some calcium, most of it contains a lot.

 

[NeverDie]

We use florida spring water so it's very high in calcium, and yes Tampa is just across the bay.

What's the name of it? Maybe we can look it up some water chemistry analytics for it in the spring water database that I linked to on the brand name thread.

Also, reiterating rph_guys question: which yeast strains?

 

[Blacksmith1]

Zephyrhills is the most prominent

 

[NeverDie]

Zephyrhills is the most prominent

51ppm calcium
http://www.mineral-calculator.com/compare-waters/2299.html

about 10x my stuff.

Which yeast strains?

 

[Blacksmith1]

Mostly S-04 S-05 and K1-v1116 for me stepson also uses bread yeast which he winds up cold crashing to get it to clear sooner.