I haven't tried the American Ale yeast with a mead, but I believe several
others in this august forum have, with generally good results if memory
doesn't fail me.

Waes hael,
Tidmarsh Major
tmajor@parallel.park.uga.edu
Birmingham, Alabama

One of my favorite strains for ales and also meads is the Wyeast London III
strain #1318 which they describe as: "From traditional London brewery with
great malt and hop profile. True top cropping strain, fruity, very light,
soft balanced palate, finishes slightly sweet. Flocculation – high;
apparent attenuation 71-75%. (64-74 deg. F)" I like this yeast because it
performs very well in warm temperatures, in fact I use it for all my summer
brewing in San Diego. I have used it in two melomels, (sour cherry and
prickly pear cactus), a spiced braggot, and a traditional mead made with
cherry honey. The results were very nice and there were no noticeable
flavor defects. Each of these meads are less than a year old and all are
quite drinkable right now. This strain will ferment to around 12% or a
little more with no problem at all. This one seems to preserve fruit flavor
and aroma very well, I haven't done any side by side fermentations against
other strains, but I have been pleased with the level of fruitiness in my
melomels made with it. It is easy to get a moderate amount of sweetness
with this one with about 3# honey per gallon. A nice benefit of this yeast
is that the fermentation is fast and the mead clears quickly, my
traditional cherry mead was crystal clear in 9 weeks, the braggot and
melomels in under 6 weeks.

A strain I use in cooler weather is the White Labs California Ale strain,
(WLP001). This is reputedly the same yeast that Sierra Nevada brewery uses
and it packs a real wallop in the alcohol tolerance department for a beer
yeast. I have made barley wines of 14% alcohol content and a mead that I
estimate around 16%. It has a fairly clean flavor profile as long as you
ferment below about 65 deg. F. White Labs describes this strain as follows:
"Our best selling strain, this yeast is famous for its clean flavors,
balance and ability to be used in almost any style ale. Attenuation is
73-80% Flocculation is Medium. Optimum fermentation temperature is 68-73
degrees."

If I were going to use a Belgian strain, I would try the following from
Wyeast:

1388 Belgian Strong Ale yeast
Robust flavor yeast with moderate to high alcohol tolerance. Fruity nose
and palate, dry, tart finish. Flocculation low; apparent attenuation
73-77%. (65-75 deg. F)

1762 Belgian Abbey Yeast II
High gravity yeast with distinct warming character from ethanol production.
Slightly fruity with dry finish. Flocculation medium; apparent attenuation
73-77%. (65-75 deg. F)

I have had great results making a Trippel strength honey beer with only
pale malt and 1# wildflower honey per gallon using the 1762 strain.

Another one that intrigues me is the Swedish ale yeast from Wyeast, I have
used it in a couple of beers and it is very good, I have also had a cider
made with it and it also was very good. You should be able to make a very
light mead using it with some residual sweetness with only about 2.5# honey
per gallon, I intend to try this soon and I will report my results in the
future.

1742 Swedish Ale yeast
Stark beer Nordic-style yeast of Scandinavian origin, floral nose malty
finish. Flocculation medium; apparent attenuation 68-72%. (64-74 deg. F)
A.K.A. 1187.

For more info on Wyeast go to: http://www.wyeastlab.com/

Whitelabs also has a web site at: http://www.whitelab.com/

Some final notes, use your usual amounts of yeast nutrient for the ale
yeasts, they don't have any special need in that regard. As for pitching
rates, I always grow a starter of at least 1 quart before I make a batch of
mead. I prefer a half gallon starting with an O.G. around 1.040 and adding
progressively stronger amounts of must as the starter grows until the O.G.
of the last addition matches that of the target mead. The quantity of yeast
in a fresh Wyeast package is about 1/20th what you really need for 5
gallons, and the older it is the less cells you have. White Labs is better,
there is enough yeast in one of their packages for a 5 gallon batch of
medium gravity mead, for higher gravities, do a starter. And make sure you
aerate the hell out of your must, this will help the yeast get off to a
strong start on a very big job and helps the fermentation to finish quicker.

I hope this helps,

Martin

>
>1) Will the wax in the must fall out with the yeast after primary, so I can
>rack to a carboy and not worry about wax carryover?

Can't answer that as I have never had this problem. You might want to try
straining it out while racking, but I don't know how that would work.

>
>2) If I do get some wax carryover into the carboy, what can be used to
>dissolve it and clean the carboy?
>

This I can answer. Hot water. Pour it in, let the wax melt then cool and
form a film on top. bust up the wax and pour it out. You might need to do
this more than once. Don't ask how I know this.

Initial Ph was about 3.6 – 3.8 (hard to tell with those silly litte
strips). The Edme batch Ph was about 3.4 this afternoon, so I
added about 2 gm CaCO3 which took the Ph down to about 3.8.
Fermentation re-started within about 10 minutes! Amazing.

I'll wait a couple more days for the Vierka
and, if nothing is happening yet, add some CaCO3 to get down to
4.0 or so. Anyone have experience with the Vierka yeasts? That's
the only sherry yeast I can find at the moment…