Yeast

[ZackN]

Hey wine makers!
I just received 10 packets of Lalvin ICV D47 yeast from my coworker.
It says its good for whites and meads, but can I make a fruit wine with it?
It has a best by date of 2/2015 and i am pretty sure he said it was in his fridge, so it should still be pretty good. He made some mead with it and commented on the very intense hangovers.

My first batch was a 1 gal batch of welches wine. Made a few months ago, aging now.
This was an experiment for me because I usually make beer.

I started making wine because I found out that my great grandfather used to make wine, and I wanted to carry on a family tradition.

Anyway some recommendations on to inoculate with the yeast would be helpful! I saw some strawberry wine that looked really tasty...
Thanks!

 

[Arpolis]

D47 can be good for wines. If you let the wine sit on the settled yeast for about a month or so it imparts a little citrusy character. Only thing is you want to ferment cold with it. Keep temps as close to 60*F as possible. At higher temps closer to 70*F it produces fusel alcohols which can make a 10%ABV wine taste like 20% with no benefit. That may be where your friend gets the hangover because I always boste that my meads never give hangovers.

 

[ZackN]

Awesome thanks!

A general beginning question, is the wine usually racked off the lees after its done fermenting?
The batch of welches that i did sat on the yeast for a month or so, and after i read that your supposed to rack it off within a few days of fermenting or something like that.
Just curious what normally is done.

 

[Arpolis]

Depends on the yeast. With D47 I like to leave it longer. Lalvin 1116 or other champagne yeasts I just rack it when I get a chance to do it. Lalvin 71b you want to rack pretty quickly. If you use bread yeast or generic random brand then rack it quickly within a week of 1/4" of lees collected at the bottom and if less then that then at most every 3-4 weeks till no sediment drops.

 

[ZackN]

I started a welches white grape wine about 7 days ago. Seems to be fermenting well but with less foam than usually. I think I read somewhere that this is a low foaming yeast so that is pretty nice. Been moving it from garage to house to keep it in the high 50s. Went up to 64 for about 12 hrs, but back to about 58 after that.
I have been using an infrared heat gun to monitor temps, hopefully its somewhat accurate.

I wanted to do the peach wine, but was unable to find any of the frozen peach concentrate in my local store.
OG was surprisingly high at 1.112 but I didn't add all the water I needed because of fear of foaming. Ill report back in a few months with how things are going.

I plan on using the yeast cake from this wine to make some skeeter pee for for the summer.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Straight from Lalvin website:
The ICV D-47 is a low-foaming quick fermenter that settles well, forming a compact lees at the end of fermentation. This strain tolerates fermentation temperatures ranging from 15° to 20°C (59° to 68°F) and enhances mouthfeel due to complex carbohydrates. Malolactic fermentation proceeds well in wine made with ICV D-47.

Recommended for making wines from white varieties such as Chardonnay and rosé wines. An excellent choice for producing mead, however be sure to supplement with yeast nutrients, especially usable nitrogen.

An excellent choice for dry whites, blush wines and residual sugar wines.

Make sure that you have a yeast nutrient such as Fermaid K, this yeast can eat up all the nutrients fast and become stressed. I'd hydrate with Go-Ferm to ensure maximum cell reproduction.