# ICV - D-47: Leave on lees



## richmke (Oct 28, 2014)

I was reading about ICV-D47 for making a Riesling. It says that "when left on lees, ripe spicy aromas with tropical and citrus notes are developed".

Ok, so what constitutes "when left on lees"? How long do I leave it in the primary?

Yeasts I can get locally are:
Lalvin EC-1118
Lalvin ICV-D47
Lalvin 71B

I want the acidity, and I read that 71b helps reduce acidity (ferments malic acid). 

Thoughts on yeast for a Riesling?


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## geek (Oct 28, 2014)

Good question as I am not making a grape wine but a peach/mango fruit wine with also D-47.


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## WineQuest (Oct 28, 2014)

I won some pretty cool awards with a Riesling using D-47. Keep your fermentation nice and cool. Can't speak to keeping it on the lees though, I racked off as soon as fermentation was done.


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## spaniel (Oct 28, 2014)

Site ate my post. Don't feel like retyping it all now. 

Basically, I am a fan of D47 for white wines of around 10% ABV where residual sweetness is desired (Reisling fits this nicely). In my experience, there are better choices for high acid (think 71B) or dry white (think 71B or Cotes des Blancs) wines. My Cayuga with D47 was a silver medal at the Indy International Wine Competition. Same juice using Cotes des Blancs (bronze) or 71B (my opinion) not as good.


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## richmke (Nov 2, 2014)

I pitched D47 at 74 degrees (sprinkled on top), and then put the pail in my basement. 2 days later, stirring each day, nothing. So, the next day (day 3), I bought some more D47, and rehydrated the yeast first. As I was pitching it, I noticed effervescence. I took a temp, and it was down to 65 degrees in the basement. I guess I needed to wait longer at the colder temp for action. 

At day 4, it is bubbling nice and slow. It will probably take 2-3 more days (total of 6-7 days) to reach SG of 1.01 before racking to the secondary.


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## geek (Nov 2, 2014)

Almost same experience here with a peach mango I just stabilized, but mine took close to 48 hours to start sizzling and finally took off nicely.


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## Deezil (Nov 3, 2014)

richmke said:


> I was reading about ICV-D47 for making a Riesling. It says that "when left on lees, ripe spicy aromas with tropical and citrus notes are developed".
> 
> Ok, so what constitutes "when left on lees"? How long do I leave it in the primary?
> 
> ...



Left on the lees, refers to post-fermentation.. Leaving it on the gross lees - the fluffy sediment that drops first - will give you some H2S/rotten egg kind of thing, so you want to rack off that.. But after that, comes a finer, sur lees, which is mostly spent yeast - in this case, what gives you those notes they're speaking of.. but they don't sound very good with Riesling, to me.

Here's what I did with Riesling



richmke said:


> I pitched D47 at 74 degrees (sprinkled on top), and then put the pail in my basement. 2 days later, stirring each day, nothing. So, the next day (day 3), I bought some more D47, and rehydrated the yeast first. As I was pitching it, I noticed effervescence. I took a temp, and it was down to 65 degrees in the basement. I guess I needed to wait longer at the colder temp for action.
> 
> At day 4, it is bubbling nice and slow. It will probably take 2-3 more days (total of 6-7 days) to reach SG of 1.01 before racking to the secondary.



It will take longer to start, it will take longer to finish, it will take longer to degas, it'll take longer to clear... But it will have more aroma, more flavor, and be a better outcome, when done with Riesling. When you rack to secondary, stir up the sediment first - you dont want your cool & slow fermentation to stall because you left a majority of the yeast colony behind in the sediment; i find its more cruical on cold ferments than warmer ones - there's not as much activity to carry the yeast farther up in the primary at higher concentrations


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