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Recommendations for yeast

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T

THawk

Crazy Martian Cat
GotMead Patron
Mar 15, 2011
637
2
18
On one of 7000+ islands in the Pacific
I'm looking to make a blueberry mead. Base recipe is a sweet mead:

3.5 lb Clover Honey
Water (balance of 1 gallon)
Yeast Nutrient
Yeast Energizer
Yeast

Question is -- what kind of yeast do I use?

I have the following on-hand: D-47, EC-1118
I have the following in transit: K1V-1116, 71B

After one to two weeks I plan to rack this onto about 24 oz of frozen blueberries...
 
My favourite blueberry yeast is RC212, but you don't have that one and it's difficult to work with frankly. Of the ones you listed 71B would be my choice.

EDIT: and I wouldn't rack after a guestimate amount of time, I'd wait until fermentation is finished to rack out of primary. Now, that said, I personally also add my blueberries during primary!

EDIT2: Also be advised the amount of berries you're using will end up with a pink-medium purple mead with a mild blueberry flavour, but adding it in secondary might help get more "fresh" flavour out of it.
 
I read somewhere that the ferment does funky things to the fruit during the primary which is why I was thinking of adding it to the secondary...

I was also trying to get a nice fruity flavor to it sort of a mead version of a drink I remember in Boston -- Bluebeery Ale (in that case they dunk the berries before serving)...
 
It doesn't do anything funky to the fruit, more subtle fruits may lose a lot of their fruitiness and aroma, but robust fruit like blueberries do just fine. It does result in a different taste for sure, more wine-like, but it will still taste like the berries, personally I prefer it, but many people do prefer secondary additions. Secondary will make it taste more like the unfermented fruit, may have a little more "fresh" aroma as well.

Sounds like secondary is a good bet for you, especially with this smaller/medium amount of fruit.
 
I don't think they'd be very nice to eat, but you try it and tell me how it was! Make sure you mash the berries a bit before adding them, or you won't get much anything out of em.

If you add during both you'll get a bit of both worlds, can be a great thing. For the sake of the learning experience I'd say just do one, then make changes later, over time you'll start picking out what came from what.
 
How about just adding the fruit to primary after the fermentation slows? Or will you stop fermentation when you rack to secondary? If you don't stop the fermentation should kick back in again unless the yeast has reached its limits...Also, if adding after fermentation has stopped, this will dilute the mead and lower the ABV, right?
 
THawk said:
I'm looking to make a blueberry mead. Base recipe is a sweet mead:

3.5 lb Clover Honey
Water (balance of 1 gallon)
Yeast Nutrient
Yeast Energizer
Yeast

Question is -- what kind of yeast do I use?

I have the following on-hand: D-47, EC-1118
I have the following in transit: K1V-1116, 71B

After one to two weeks I plan to rack this onto about 24 oz of frozen blueberries...
Click to expand...

I have herd great things about D-47. I now have a Orange blossom and raspberry mead going in D-47. It has now been in secondary for about 3 weeks and they both are very drinkable already.

Roger
 
How aggressive a fermenter is D-47? I seem to have more activity in the must where I pitched EC-1118 even if I pitched that one after the D-47...

The batch with D-47 is a 1-gallon batch of Orange Blossom Traditional Sweet and the EC-1118 batch is an apple cyser. Both have 3.5 lbs of honey (Clover in the latter) but I accidentally overdosed on the Fermax (3x the recommended amount!) in the latter...
 
THawk said:
Read it in another thread that fruit should be in the secondary for only two weeks max or they may rot... So I'm most likely going to rack after 2 weeks...
Click to expand...

This is not true. The alcohol and established yeast population will keep things "clean".

Tiwas said:
How about just adding the fruit to primary after the fermentation slows? Or will you stop fermentation when you rack to secondary? If you don't stop the fermentation should kick back in again unless the yeast has reached its limits...Also, if adding after fermentation has stopped, this will dilute the mead and lower the ABV, right?
Click to expand...

This is generally what I do, wait til late in the ferment to add the fruit, though I have no strong rationale or justification for it, but it works. If you rack it to secondary and add fruit, there will still be yeast to break up the sugar, but the population will be lower, so it'll just take longer. You'd need to sterile filter it or stabilize it with K-sorbate and metabisulphite (Campden) to stop the fruit from being fermented. Yes, the ABV will be slightly lowered if you do this.

THawk said:
How aggressive a fermenter is D-47? I seem to have more activity in the must where I pitched EC-1118 even if I pitched that one after the D-47...

The batch with D-47 is a 1-gallon batch of Orange Blossom Traditional Sweet and the EC-1118 batch is an apple cyser. Both have 3.5 lbs of honey (Clover in the latter) but I accidentally overdosed on the Fermax (3x the recommended amount!) in the latter...
Click to expand...

D47 is definitely a slower fermenter than EC. The extra nutrient is probably playing a role as well.
 
Per wayneb:

Generally you don't want to leave a mead that has finished fermenting very long on the "gross lees," which include bits of fruit pulp, spices, misc. bee parts, etc. Gross lees will start to autolyze (i.e. "rot") after a couple of weeks, and can result in some unpleasant smells and/or tastes. I generally recommend that folks rack off of the gross lees asap after primary fermentation has finished.

Fine lees, which are only residual yeast that have gone dormant after the fermentation (and which usually drop out of suspension for several weeks after racking out of the primary fermenter) are a different story, and extended time on fine lees using a "sur lie" protocol can add depth to your mead. But even then you need to be using a strain of yeast compatible with sur lie, or you can get some nasty off-flavors in your mead as a result.
__________________
Click to expand...
 
I used D47 on my Blueberry, Raspberry and Blackberry Melomel and added the fruit in the secondary. Color was dark and rich and the flavor was spectacular. My wife said that she didn't think any of the bottles would make it past 6 months.

Also, the rasp and blackberries broke apart, but the blue berries swelled back up. My daughter and I ate several of the 14% berries..very nice. Like a dry berry bomb...lol

I had no problems with the fruit spoiling in the secondary, and Ken Schramm mentions in his book that he does mostly secondary fruit additions.

Enjoy,
Mike
 
When you leave fruit in a mead for extended periods there is a risk that you will either have:

1) sulfur odors - I'm not sure that is "rotting" but the smell isn't too different. This may occur with wines if the wine is allowed to sit on grape pulp in the gross lees for too long.

2) excessive tannins - if it is a high-tannin fruit (elderberries as an example), you can get frank bitterness and wicked astringency that makes an unpleasant mead.

3) vegetal character - sometimes grassy/herb-like aromas and flavors will leech out.

There is no hard and fast rule. Depending on your recipe and the yeast and the honey and residual sweetness and so forth, you may find that extended time on fruit works for you. In some cases it won't be a problem. In other cases, it will leave you with a awful mead that you'll spend a long time trying age into drinkability.

You pay your money - you take your chances.
 
Somebody somewhere suggested that Cotes dec Blancs is a high maintenance primadonna.

That's proving to be true for Red Rope. Slow to warm up, but bubbles like mad when I give him some pollen.
 
I have a traditional orange blossom sweet mead in the primary with D-47. Airlock is going at the rate of 1 burp every 4-5 seconds. Is this normal?

It's bubbling but not as violently as the apple cyser ( EC-1118 ) or even the JAO...
 
Last edited:
Don't know with that yeast, but my traditionals with XL 4632 (Wyeast dry mead) is burping at least a couple of times every second :)
 
My problem might be temperature... Room temperature is in the low 20's Centigrade... D-47 has a range of 15-20 (though I don't know if there's a fudge factor there)... Maybe I should have used 71b to do my sweet mead... :(
 
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