Which yeast?

[iceman_ii]

Maybe I am missing something here, but you are talking about 10 lbs of honey and 5 gallons of Apple Juice, of which you think you may only use 5 lbs of honey during the fermentation and back sweeten with the other 5... in either case you are talking about 5 gal of apple juice and 10 lbs of honey... apple juice ain't necessarily cheap, but 10 lbs of honey is what, $60 or so? Seems to me that cheaping out and using whatever yeast you have available is false economy... you would save $5 on a package of Mead yeast, and risk $80+ in other consumables?

Maybe it's just the newb talking, but personally, I wouldn't risk it. I would just buy some mead yeast, not just use the best of what you have in the refrigerator (some of which by your own admission is rather long in the tooth). This isn't olympic diving, when you (or your friends) taste your product, you don't get extra credit for "degree of difficulty"

EDIT:
And sorry if I came across as a bit of a prick, not trying to be, just trying to understand...

 

[Newsman]

Maybe I am missing something here, but you are talking about 10 lbs of honey and 5 gallons of Apple Juice, of which you think you may only use 5 lbs of honey during the fermentation and back sweeten with the other 5... in either case you are talking about 5 gal of apple juice and 10 lbs of honey... apple juice ain't necessarily cheap, but 10 lbs of honey is what, $60 or so? Seems to me that cheaping out and using whatever yeast you have available is false economy... you would save $5 on a package of Mead yeast, and risk $80+ in other consumables?

Maybe it's just the newb talking, but personally, I wouldn't risk it. I would just buy some mead yeast, not just use the best of what you have in the refrigerator (some of which by your own admission is rather long in the tooth). This isn't olympic diving, when you (or your friends) taste your product, you don't get extra credit for "degree of difficulty"

EDIT:
And sorry if I came across as a bit of a prick, not trying to be, just trying to understand...

Well, I'm unemployed right now. I already had two 5# jugs of Honey and. 4 gallons of juice, so it wasn't like I had to go.out and buy all of the ingredients. Besides, QA23 is a wine yeast that was recommended for its flavor, and I had several packets in my fridge, so why not use it?
I also have a packet of champagne yeast if it's too sweet when fermentation is done.

 

[iceman_ii]

Well, I'm unemployed right now. I already had two 5# jugs of Honey and. 4 gallons of juice, so it wasn't like I had to go.out and buy all of the ingredients. Besides, QA23 is a wine yeast that was recommended for its flavor, and I had several packets in my fridge, so why not use it?
I also have a packet of champagne yeast if it's too sweet when fermentation is done.

Sorry, I didn't understand, now I do. Now it makes perfect sense!

 

[bernardsmith]

There is (I think) no such thing as a "mead yeast" other than a yeast which a lab has labelled their yeast as such***. Certainly there are dozens of strains of lab cultured yeasts and each strain has been cultivated to highlight certain flavors and characteristics of the substrate they are added to. There are yeasts which ferment better at lower temps and those that ferment better at higher temps. There are yeasts that make enormous demands on nutrients and yeasts that are cultivated to produce nary a molecule of H2S. Some yeasts produce glycerols up the wazoo (and so add mouthfeel to a thinner bodied wine) and some yeasts that thrive in high alcohol, high acidic environments. The best yeast to use is the yeast that best suits the conditions you are fermenting in and the outcomes you are seeking.

***While it is possible that a lab harvested and has been cultivating a strain of yeast it isolated from a naturally occurring indigenous fermentation of honey in the wild in some very isolated part of the planet my money is on a standard strain of yeast that they are simply selling as suitable for mead making... which is just about 99.99 % of any lab cultured Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

 

[AzOr]

I’m a bit late to the game but my go to is Imperial Bubbles. It’s for cider but I’ve used it in cysers and it goes to 12% easily. For me it retains quite a bit of apple character.

 

[Newsman]

I’m a bit late to the game but my go to is Imperial Bubbles. It’s for cider but I’ve used it in cysers and it goes to 12% easily. For me it retains quite a bit of apple character.

Yeah, just a touch late. But it might help someone else in the future

 

[Newsman]

Update: I've been cold crashing going in a week. Just tasted my first sample and ALL I can taste is the alcohol. I dropped a couple vanilla beans in there this morning. I'm planning on racking to secondary later this week and will try to recover the beans and drop them back into the secondary for a few more days. Think I'm definitely going to need to let this age so I taste more than alcohol. Not sure I need to back sweeten as it doesn't taste DRY, just no flavor, as such. No apple, no honey. Just alcohol.
That being said, it's definitely drinkable as-is if all you care about is alcohol.
Just as a guess, I think this probably came out close to 15% ABV. Maybe next time I'll put less honey in as I'm not overly concerned about alcohol content.
Thinking about buying some Hawaiian honey. There's a guy on Facebook who lives on Hawaii selling various exotic honeys. Here's a link to one of his posts: https://m.facebook.com/groups/2113021078752834/permalink/4322266904494896/

 

[Maylar]

You got what you wanted...

Because I don't really care. I just want something alcoholic to drink.

 

[Newsman]

You got what you wanted...

I'm hoping the flavor comes our with age