Which yeast is your favorite dry yeast for making mead?

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I will keep you guys posted and thanks @RPh_Guy for the tips.
Honestly off flavors have not been an issue following the relative BOMM protocol, except for my last batch which is due to an entirely unrelated situation. I make hot sauce using the same equipment and well, an airlock (the stopper in particular) used for a previous batch of sauce was sanitized with Star-San (instead of sterilized using an oxidant) and the hot pepper aroma had absorbed into the bung. This flavor then transferred into my last cyser to a small degree, I just noticed. It is faint, and slight; honestly I may be the only one that notices it but I do notice it and it will be a thorn in my side until the last bottle.
 
I will keep you guys posted and thanks @RPh_Guy for the tips.
Honestly off flavors have not been an issue following the relative BOMM protocol, except for my last batch which is due to an entirely unrelated situation. I make hot sauce using the same equipment and well, an airlock (the stopper in particular) used for a previous batch of sauce was sanitized with Star-San (instead of sterilized using an oxidant) and the hot pepper aroma had absorbed into the bung. This flavor then transferred into my last cyser to a small degree, I just noticed. It is faint, and slight; honestly I may be the only one that notices it but I do notice it and it will be a thorn in my side until the last bottle.

If it truly bothers you, I've found that adding enough tanins will disguise the taste of almost anything. This will completely shift the taste away from your target, but in your case it may nonetheless be an improvement. The resulting flavor is more wine-like than mead-like per se, but the final result can still be quite enjoyable.
 
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Good advice. I think better sanitation or complete separation of my airlocks for hot sauce and wine / brewing is a better choice. This one, I have o take on the chin. That said I will order some tanins too, just in case things don't go to plan/
 
Just as a follow up on the 2 batches that I've written about here. It's bottling time now.

1) A cyser with local orchard cider and California orange blossom honey, fermented at 60-ish with Renaissance Fresco yeast. It's been oaking for 2.5 months on a combination of American and French oak cubes. This is absolutely the best cyser I've ever made. It has an obvious apple aroma and a floral/citrus honey taste. Exactly the flavor profile that is claimed by the manufacturer. 12.5% ABV.

I have more of this yeast in my fridge that I'll try on this year's cider.

2) A mesquite traditional with Lalvin D21, also at 60-ish. Very clean but totally lacking any honey aroma or flavor. No body, no noticeable tannin. Just a meh white wine. No fault of the yeast, I think the choice of honey was just too mild to be noticeable. I'm gonna do an acid adjustment and see if I can bring out some complexity. It needs something, for sure.

This is odd, because mesquite is often used in mead making demos, and supposedly it makes an outstanding traditional. I also used the optiwhite and booster-blanc additives that are supposed to add body and retain aroma (at least in wine).

Anyway, with 500+ replies and 12000+ views, I'd say this was a rather informative thread. Thanks, @NeverDie
 
You're welcome! My pleasure. And a big thank-you for all your contributions too.

Closing the loop on the Mangrove Jack's M05 yeast nutrient experiment: it turned out that TOSNA 3.0 low nutrients produced the best taste.

Out of all the yeast strains that I tried at room temperature, I ended up liking M05, Hothead, and Voss the best. All 3 seem to perform quite well at room temperature. JAOM at room temperature also worked out quite well. The Fresco yeast is pretty good too.

By the way, given enough time M05 does seem to clear quite well all on its own without the need for any finings like Bentonite. It doesn't clear as quickly as some yeasts, but it does get there eventually.
 
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You're welcome! My pleasure. And a big thank-you for all your contributions too.

Closing the loop on the Mangrove Jack's M05 yeast nutrient experiment: it turned out that TOSNA 3.0 low nutrients produced the best taste.

Out of all the yeast strains that I tried at room temperature, I ended up liking M05, Hothead, and Voss the best. All 3 seem to perform quite well at room temperature. JAOM at room temperature also worked out quite well. The Fresco yeast is pretty good too.

By the way, given enough time M05 does seem to clear quite well all on its own without the need for any finings like Bentonite. It doesn't clear as quickly as some yeasts, but it does get there eventually.
Good evening!

Any more updates on your excessive testing? Any long-term results?

Cheers!
 
I'm glad to see this thread float to the top again; I'd forgotten about it, so thank you to whomever gave it a bump. I'm getting ready to start a 1 gallon batch of mead, and I never did get around to trying AW4 yeast like I mentioned 2 years ago so I might do that now. I need to see what I can glean from the BOMM thread and Dr Denard's web site to give it the best chance I can. (KHC03, adding the nutrients at 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks, frequent degassing, etc.)
 
I'm glad to see this thread float to the top again; I'd forgotten about it, so thank you to whomever gave it a bump. I'm getting ready to start a 1 gallon batch of mead, and I never did get around to trying AW4 yeast like I mentioned 2 years ago so I might do that now. I need to see what I can glean from the BOMM thread and Dr Denard's web site to give it the best chance I can. (KHC03, adding the nutrients at 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks, frequent degassing, etc.)

According to loveofrose, w15 should be the closest to the original bomm yeast.

And here you can find his most recent dry yeast protocol:

https://www.youtobrew.co.uk/
 
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I want to use one of the 30 or so packets of yeast I have in the fridge already, or Voss slurry from one of the jars. (Voss would be a good choice but I don't know if I can keep a small batch warm enough for it to be happy) I just ordered 100g of Go-Ferm; I have everything else and the GF should get here Monday. I was going to start it tonight but GF seems to be an important and perhaps essential piece so I'll wait and catch up on my reading.

Also I'll increase my batch size to 5 liters to match the info on YTB. I know I could scale everything down, but why? My fermenter has graduation marks up to 6L and will hold a little more than that. And I get one more bottle and several generous tastings that way :)
 
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