No one here is gonna endorse this approach, even I can't endorse it yet, but I used some of my first batch of mead, with a little water, to rehydrate my beasties for the second batch. At the moment, Betelgeuse is bubbling away happily.
looking for simple recipe - strawberry melomel
- Thread starter SirGlugsalot
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Right - the clear message here is that there is no one way, as CG noted. However, for rehydration of dry yeast I think it is a good idea to follow the manufacturer's recommendations. Lallemand want you to rehydrate in plain warm (104F) water, or water that has some GoFerm added to it. The yeast will do well enough in plain water for most uses, but GoFerm adds just enough of the right organic nutrients to allow them to beef up cell walls as they rehydrate, which allows them to deal with the osmotic shock of being plunged into a sugar water bath that much more effectively.
Some other yeast manufacturers (notably DSM in Europe) recommend rehydration in a mixture of water and some of your must, and I'm pretty sure that LeSaffre (makers of Red Star) still say that pitching dry directly into a "wine strength" must (around 1.090 SG) is OK. Alchemist is correct - I can't endorse the approach of rehydration into finished mead with water added.
But the bottom line is this - yeast are pretty resilient little critters, so as long as you follow an approach that makes some sense and it doesn't stress your yeast too much, you'll have a successful fermentation. I usually follow the Lallemand instructions to the letter (including use of GoFerm), because I want to make sure that I have as many viable and healthy little yeasties in my must as possible. Perhaps I'm a bit anal; I like to think that when I treat my yeast well, I'm helping them to overwhelm any competition, and I'll end up with cleaner ferments (with fewer chances of infection) that way.
Some other yeast manufacturers (notably DSM in Europe) recommend rehydration in a mixture of water and some of your must, and I'm pretty sure that LeSaffre (makers of Red Star) still say that pitching dry directly into a "wine strength" must (around 1.090 SG) is OK. Alchemist is correct - I can't endorse the approach of rehydration into finished mead with water added.
But the bottom line is this - yeast are pretty resilient little critters, so as long as you follow an approach that makes some sense and it doesn't stress your yeast too much, you'll have a successful fermentation. I usually follow the Lallemand instructions to the letter (including use of GoFerm), because I want to make sure that I have as many viable and healthy little yeasties in my must as possible. Perhaps I'm a bit anal; I like to think that when I treat my yeast well, I'm helping them to overwhelm any competition, and I'll end up with cleaner ferments (with fewer chances of infection) that way.
My main tip would be simply to use as many pounds of strawberries per gallon as is possible (based on cost and primary bucket size), and then if it turns out too acidic after 5 or 6 months of aging simply stabilize and backsweeten. I think one or two split vanilla beans would probably do wonders to round out a strawberry mel and make it really sing too.
Not if you use enough fruit!
- I think that's an Oskaar quote from someplace
Rehydrating yeast properly means you get the greatest number of active yeast in your pitch, and that improves the odds of success. While yeast can tolerate all sorts of harsh environments, there is no advantage to rehydrating yeast in a stressful situation. Mead is usually acidic and has alcohol - a very clear yeast toxin. Pitching dry yeast into a stuck fermentation with a reasonably high alcohol level usually fails as the alcohol stuns the rehydrating yeast. While you can certainly rehydrate yeast in a dilute mead, it has the potential to reduce the number of active yeast and will not provide any advantage in fermenting your batch.
Even in what I consider to be (relatively) small amounts for fruit per gallon I've never seen this "lost" character from adding fruit into primary, they always come out more or less exactly how they should.
The aromatics from delicate fruit (peaches, for example), can be lost if a relatively small amount of fruit is added, and an aggressive strain of yeast (such as EC-1118 ) is used in the fermentation.
Delicate fruit it totally makes sense to me, I've just found with most other fruit that the "loss" of fruit character seems to be more from my tendancy to ferment to dryness and certain fruit losing their normal character without the sweetness. I've gotten the impression with stuff like strawberries that if I backsweetened it would go back to being much more fruity...
My cherry wine. Lovely colour, no cherry aroma, no flavour at all. 5 lbs cherries for a gallon. I should try it again to see if it's come back...
That's decent pounds per gallon too. I was going to mention my dry cherry mead was junk, but I figured it was just due to being dry cherries (the sweet cherries rather than tart).
