# Sweet Mead Yeast



## wineforfun (Mar 24, 2013)

For any of you sweet mead makers, what do you recommend for a yeast. I have read Lavlin D-47 and 71-B are good. The recipe I have used calls for Sauternes. 
Recipe is
3 1/4lb honey
2tsp acid blend
1/4tsp tannin
3/4tsp yeast nutrient
2 campden tablets 
water


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## Dend78 (Mar 25, 2013)

i used the liquid Wyeast dry mead yeast on my first mead, and I wish i would have used the sweet mead but live and learn. the smack pack worked really well for me but that was my first experience with it.


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## seth8530 (Mar 25, 2013)

wineforfun said:


> For any of you sweet mead makers, what do you recommend for a yeast. I have read Lavlin D-47 and 71-B are good. The recipe I have used calls for Sauternes.
> Recipe is
> 3 1/4lb honey
> 2tsp acid blend
> ...



The yeast you have listed up above are great mead yeast... Just make sure you follow a very rigorous stepped nutrient schedule to make sure the yeast stays happy.


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## Deezil (Mar 25, 2013)

I'm going to be trying some off the beaten path, white wine yeasts on some meads here in the near future - R-HST, BA11, W15, etc - although the impact of the yeast might be a bit overshadowed by the processes... Eventually i plan to do side-by-side comparisons with the different yeasts in batches made identically, but not this year 

D47 is basically the Meadmaker's main-stay.. 71B works well too.. I've heard that the smack packs work nicely (Wyeast) but they're too spendy for me

I've never used Sauternes myself, so i dunno there..


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## fivebk (Mar 25, 2013)

I used 58W3 on a batch of straight mead made with orange blossom honey. It just went to secondary a week ago so can't say how it will turn out. I like to experiment!!!!!!

BOB


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## joshs (Mar 25, 2013)

D47 is my preference for sweet mead but you should ferment low. Low 60's is best for me. Just used this with an orange blossom mead.

Josh


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## mmadmikes1 (Mar 25, 2013)

I am using D-47 almost entirely for mead now days. with an alcohol tolerance of 14% I dont have to make rocket fuel to kill the yeasties. I don't sorbate or K Meta my mead so dead yeast is good yeast when I bottle. The yeast also work wonderful for mead


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## Dend78 (Mar 26, 2013)

Deezil said:


> D47 is basically the Meadmaker's main-stay.. 71B works well too.. I've heard that the smack packs work nicely (Wyeast) but they're too spendy for me



for sure 6.00 in comparison to 1.00 yeah there is for sure a difference there and a mead is already pretty expensive once you get honey and any fruit your going to use.


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## wineforfun (Mar 26, 2013)

Thanks for the info. I threw in 2 packs of the 71-B. I hope it isn't too much for my one gallon batch. The LHBS thought it would be fine since my SG is 1.104.

I was pretty set on D-47 but then started reading all the sulfur issues some people keep having with it, so got spooked. I will probably give it a go next time to compare.


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## seth8530 (Mar 26, 2013)

1 pack is more than enough for your batch.


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## Polarhug (Mar 26, 2013)

I used Burton Ale Yeast for my blood orange mead. Strain says: "It provides delicious subtle fruity flavors like apple, clover honey and pear." Started the batch at 12% - Yeast stopped at about 10% abv and gave me some residual sweetness.


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## fatbloke (Mar 26, 2013)

And here's one for the OP to contemplate some.

Mead yeast ? Ok, so it's been what ? 150 years or there abouts since Pasteur understood yeasts pretty much in the same way as today.

Fine.

Then there's the fact that Meads, as most people think of them, were mainly drunk by the Vikings, Saxons, etc. The closest to them here (UK), was the Normans, who came from France and were already (apparently) into wines from further south.

Yes, there also seem to be some archaic recipes, that apparently date back to tudor times, though were the Tudors big on mead ? dunno, they probably drank anything with alcohol in it, which would have been wines, beers, ciders, etc etc.

Either way, given that peoples of those periods of history, didn't understand fermentation too well, and they don't seem to have had the faintest idea of yeast strains etc, 


How in hells name do Wyeast and White Labs manage to find a "mead yeast" strain after what, a minimum of about 500 years ? I haven't heard of any samples of mead being found and analysed, otherwise there's be much greater choice of "mead yeasts"......

Hence as the historic recipes seem to suggest using beer yeast sludge, or mouldy bread or other source of yeast to ferment with, these so called "mead yeasts" are little more than over priced marketing bollocks. Sure, they do seem to work/do the job, but that's about it. No guarantee of historical accuracy etc, certainly no proof that they were ever used for mead making until White Labs and Wyeast started telling up that was what they were for.......

Personally, I'd go with some more recent guidance and suggestion(s).

If you read of Brother Adams (Buckfast Abbey, bee breeding mainly, but also he made meads) written stuff, where he mentions his mead making, he alludes to originally using "Maury" yeast. That became unavailable and he changed to using the Montpelier strain up to his death in the mid-90's.

Now "Maury" is a small AOC region/standard. It's entirely enclosed by the Roussillon AOC area. The only yeast I can find that seems to emanate from that region/area is D21. Whether that is the same strain, I don't know. It does seem to be good for making meads, particularly traditionals.

The Montpelier strain ? Well that's easier, both to find out about, as well as obtain in home brew packs. In the UK it would have most likely been packaged by Gervin, as their "Varietal E". But I believe that when "British Diamalt" when **** up, and the Gervin yeast part was bought by Muntons, it seems to have been dropped. Still not an issue though, as it's also the same under that name, as it is under another one we all know and will likely have heard of i.e. K1-V1116. Which is also good for meads, especially traditionals......coincidentally !

So there you go. 2 yeasts, with recent "form" for meadmaking, which while not really "genuine" mead yeasts, seem to be pretty damn good for meads........


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## joshs (Mar 27, 2013)

fatbloke, 

Thank you for the information on the The Montpelier strain. I find that very interesting!

Regarding the "mead yeasts" from Wyeast and WL's, I look at it a bit differently. I don't think they are saying these are "traditional" mead yeasts that were discovered. To me, I think they have tested different yeast strains and these are the two (sweet and dry) that they consider to work well. 

I personally have never used any of their "mead yeasts" so I can't comment on the end results. I tend to stick to D47, 71B and V1116 but that is just my preference. 

Please keep the history notes and stories coming as I love to learn more about these sorts of things.

-Josh


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## fatbloke (Mar 27, 2013)

joshs said:


> fatbloke,
> 
> Thank you for the information on the The Montpelier strain. I find that very interesting!
> 
> ...


Well you could be on the nail there Josh, but given that things brewing/wine making tend to err on the traditional. 

I know that PDO's etc only have legal standing in the EU, but they do like to try and prevent things like that unless they truely are new.....

And the wyeast dry mead is fine but their sweet mead one is finicky as hell to use giving stuck ferments or non-starters from the get go. WL aren't available here......


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