Yeast for mead???

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thebrewersgrimm44

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I have some Scottish ale yeast could I use this to make mead or do I need a specific yeast for this???
 
only if you want a sweet mead.

ale yeast aren't as alcohol tolerant are wine yeasts.

check out the wine yeast offered at brew or wine shops on line. some help to bring out the fruit aroma and some produce a dry finish. you can decide what you need for the style of mead you're vinting.

GD:mug:
 
I've only done one mead, so I'm by no means an expert, but I used Montrachet wine yeast and was pleased with the results. It fermented out super-dry (which is what I was looking for, not being a fan of sweet meads).
 
Depending on the Scottish Ale yeast you maybe ok. I used Edinburgh Ale yeast and while I maxed out at 14% it was not too sweet but it was very much a sparkling mead.
 
From articles and books I have read, the Lavlin 1122 Narbonne yeast is the yeast of choice for sweeter meads. Ken Schramm and Curt Stock both use it extensively, and I have been extremely pleased with the results I have had so far.
 
71B carries a caveat.......

Don't leave a finished batch on the lees too long as its been found that it can give autolysis type off flavours.

A max of about 2 months is the time frame that works well and doesn't leave any yeast related taste issues.

As for the other commentary, any yeast will make a sweet or dry mead as that depends on how much honey is used in the recipe/batch. The yeast should be thought of as a guide to strength. Whatever you use if you know its tolerance you can ammend the honey/SG accordingly for dry or you can just step feed honey incrementally to max out the tolerance.

There's little point trying to make a batch with all the sugars up front if aiming for sweet as you just end up with problems as the majority of wine yeast can do 14% or so quite easily a lot will go higher.....

Don't know about the ale yeast as I dont make beers but there's no reason not to try......
 
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