yeast suggestions

[Cjtabares]

I will be making mead with meadofoam honey and with carrotblossom honey. I have 7 lbs of each. I plan on making a total volume of 2 gal with each type. I want about 14% abv so i will use use enough honey to get an og of ~1.11. I will save the rest of the honey to back sweeten. I am looking to showcase the honey and will be only using honey, water, yeast, and nutrients. I ha e no way to change the temp of fermentation right now so it will ferment so it will have to be a yeast that does well around 70 degree f. I have read that DV10, ICV-D21 and QA23 are good but am lookin.g for opinions on these or other yeast. Any help would be great.

 

[fatbloke]

To achieve 14% ABV, you'll need a gravity differential of 103 or 104 points. Most yeast is capable of that. Though I already mentioned liking D21 over at Gotmead, the other one I like for traditionals is K1V-1116. D47 is one that is mentioned a lot, and while it can produce good meads, you do have to be careful to keep the ferment below 70F/21C, otherwise it's known to cause fusel production which can't always be aged out.

Now your problem is more likely gonna be that it's easy enough to reach about the 14% mark, but whether you'll like it or not is a different issue. If you reach your desired strength, then taste it (particularly when it's young/fresh off the gross lees) it's likely that you'll find it bloody horrible....... yet that's not unusual with young meads. So I'm gonna suggest that you think on "type" a little. Now dry meads aren't to everyones taste (I like big, dry, red wines like bordeaux's, but I don't enjoy dry meads). I also am not a big fan of sweet or dessert type meads. Hence I make mine as mediums i.e. a final gravity of 1.010 to 1.015 yet I don't try and get that in one go. I ferment dry, then after the usual racking and stabilising, I then back sweeten to the required level - usually before I finish the clearing process as I like to use honey - which can cause a protein haze, so by sweetening at this stage, I only have to clear it once irrespective of whether I clear it with time, racking etc or whether I hit the batch with finings.

Dunno if any of that is helpful or not.....

p.s. for what it's worth, if you searched for all the Lallemand range of yeasts (lalvin is just one of their brand names), you'll drive yourself up the wall with detail and minutia. All of the descriptions on the lallemand listings are for grape musts - so you should only use the main points for guidance i.e. low nutrient, wide temperature range, potential maximum alcohol tolerance, etc etc. If I was asked in the street as a blunt "which yeast ?" I'd probably say for a safe bet, the K1V-1116 - good potential maximum tolerance, wide temp tolerance, low nutrient requirement and the "K" designator is the "killer factor" where it will become the dominant strain in a ferment, which is handy if you're concerned about "uninvited yeasty guests".......

 

[Cjtabares]

Thanks very helpful. And thanks for the ps, i have been looking at all their yeast reading the descriptions. My head was starting to spin.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

here are a couple links that have great info on a variety of yeasts, I am a fan of Lalvin strains, they always work well and are consistent.

An easy to follow chart:

http://www.winemakermag.com/guide/yeast

some about specific Lalvin strains, each has another link to a more in depth data sheet.

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/K1V1116.asp

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/D47.asp

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/EC1118.asp

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/RC212.asp