Help!! I blended yeast strains

[Sentinal]

Hello Everyone... This is my first post here and need some help/reassurance..lol.

I have 10 gallons of 75% Carmine and 25% CabernetFranc crushed grapes...just pitched the yeast but may have made a big mistake. I pitched both Pasteur Red and Premier Cuvee about an hour ago. Same manufacturer. I pitched both because thats all I had on hand, so it wasnt a mixup. Brix are over 25.. Temp is 72F. I have noted characteristic of both yeast strains as far as alc tolerance, ferment speed and both are very close with the red being a tad more agressive. Im hoping it will not get stuck fermentation from these yeasts competing. Im just a bit worrried about this....do I need to? Any help with this would be great.

 

[St Allie]

hello and welcome to the forum!

well that is an interesting question, I'm having a stab in the dark on this one...

my opinion is...

I believe the stronger yeast will win out..

Just as if you had pitched, for example, a lalvin champagne yeast into a wild yeast fermentation.. you'd expect the lalvin to win over the wild one.

I don't see an issue with stuck fermentation , you may want to throw in a bit of extra yeast nutrient in case both yeasts exhaust available nutrient, you don't want the sulphur thing happening.

Looking forward to the replies on this

Allie

 

[robie]

St Allie is right. The stronger will win out. The only side affect might be that it will take a little longer to get started, because the two will be dueling for awhile.

Not to worry, though, give it up to 72 hours to start. Don't go by bubbles to determine if fermentation is going, go by the SG reading. It will drop when fermentation gets going.

 

[Sentinal]

St Allie is right. The stronger will win out. The only side affect might be that it will take a little longer to get started, because the two will be dueling for awhile.

Not to worry, though, give it up to 72 hours to start. Don't go by bubbles to determine if fermentation is going, go by the SG reading. It will drop when fermentation gets going.

So fermentation wont start until the yeast strains finish competing? So would I have been better off just adding one packet or the other to my 10 gal batch?

 

[St Allie]

It'll be fine..

take the SG again in the morning/evening? ( what time is it there?) and see whether the SG numbers are changing.

Allie

 

[ellijaywinemaker]

No I think they are saying that even though the stronger yeast will win out in the end but it will start fermenting maybe just at a slower pace.

 

[robie]

So fermentation wont start until the yeast strains finish competing? So would I have been better off just adding one packet or the other to my 10 gal batch?

Yes, especially if you had made a yeast starter or one or the other. If you let the starter go long enough, your yeast population will easily quadruple before you pitch it.

 

[Wade E]

I dont think it will be slowed down at all, one will start sooner then the other and that will be it.

 

[Sentinal]

I dont think it will be slowed down at all, one will start sooner then the other and that will be it.

I sure hope your right...I think I have a great blend of grapes and would hate to screw it up with yeast! I'll check it in the morning...if Im gettn activity by then, I'll stop worrying..lol. If I have none by tomorrow evening; I'll just repitch with straight Pasteur Red.

 

[Sentinal]

I checked the fermenters this morning at about 4AM...about 10 hours after pitching yeast; and they were VERY active. Its almost 9am now and everything seems to be goin well so I am at ease now. I have never mixed yeasts in my 5 or so years of making beer/wine. I'll pass info along as far as how it effects my wine and its final state. I usually press the skins in 5 or 6 days but my buddy has a vineyard and lets this particular blend set a month before pressing so I may do the same this time. Thanks for the comments.

 

[robie]

Good for you. As I said, the worst thing that could have happened is you "might" have a slow down. You obviously didn't and I'm not surprised.

What some of us do at times is to look at what benefits a particular yeast will be for a given variety of wine. If you like what two different yeasts will provide, such as one makes a wine with more mouth fill, while another makes a more fruit-forward wine, you can separate the fermentation into two separate vessels. You put one yeast in one vessel, one in the other. After fermentation is complete, the two vessels are combined to make one batch of wine. This way the wine will have the benefits of each yeast.

It's fun to experiment, so don't be afraid to try!