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Yeasts for 65F to 75F temperatures?

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Intheswamp

Intheswamp

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 9, 2012
257
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South Alabama
I'm trying to figure out which yeasts to keep on hand. I first thought D47 was good...I ordered several packs of it to have on hand and then found out that at temps above 70F there's a good chance of fussels forming. :(

Our inside temperatures here run from 65F to 75F...cooler temps naturally in winter and warmer temps naturally in summer. Usually the temperature holds around 70F.

The temperature "ranges" given by the manufacturers are broad and I've seen some of the experienced folks mention that there are certain yeasts that work better in lower or higher temperatures. Can someone tell me some of the yearst that work better in the 65 to 75 degree F range?

Something that I'm curious about... Red Star Cote Des Blanc and Lalvin 71B-1122
are compared to D47 sometimes and from what I can tell produce similar meads. But, I've never heard whether these two yeasts work "ok" above 70F...????

Thanks any help, I just don't want to spend time and money and end up with rocket fuel that takes 10 years to mellow out. :eek:
Ed
 
Below 70, any of those yeast are fine, and generally speaking most any yeast will be. At 75 you can use 71B with good results. I've seen good batches with Cote des Blancs at 75, but I'm not as confident. D21 and K1V can be very good at high temps.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
D47 can get kinda yeasty and gross at anything above 65, I generally only use it in winter when I can keep the fermentation range around 58-62 and let it go low and slow, then once it's racked off the gross less I let it sit on the fine lees for a couple months at lower temps and swirl the fine lees back into suspension for a "sur lie" aging. K1V, EC1118, D21, DV10 are really the only wine yeasts I trust at higher temperatures. K1V can't really be beat for a nice clean ferment with little to no worry/hassle at a wide range of temps. I really like doing a K1V batch at temps in the mid to upper 50's, has a green apple smell to it while it's going but disappears with age and comes out a very clean, fresh product. As for low temp beauties D47 is good, R2 is great if you keep the temp really low (~50-54) and Assmanshausen is a good low temp yeast too but has lower attenuation, good for a medium-strength mead ~13% if babied correctly.
 
K1V is good all-around. I think 71B will be fine up to 75F, although it's likely to be even more fruit-bomby as the temperature goes up.
 
Thanks everybody for the replies.

I guess I'm trying to settle on a couple (maybe three) yeasts to work with so I can get some familiarity with them over a period of time. Being in south Alabama we have more hot weather than cold weather. I'm thinking of doing most of my fermenting during the winter when I feel that I can hold the temperature down around the 70F mark or below...but, we're subject to have a 20F degree night and the next day zoom back up into the 70's...somewhat of a roller coaster at times. Because of the fluctuating temperatures I'm figuring on doing all my fermenting (and aging, too) inside the house where I can keep a fairly constant temperature.

From what I'm seeing I'm thinking about sticking with Lavlin...seems to be the more "tried and true" from reading folks comments here and other places. I'm really not interested (for now) in high percentage alcohol meads....13%-14% range sounds good to me. Would there be certain ones of the yeasts that have been mentioned that would work better for lower %ABV meads? Or, am I even asking the correct questions? ???

Right now I'm thinking along the lines of 71b, K1V, and EC1118.

Thanks again,
Ed

ETA: I think my focus will be on pyments and melomels with the occasional traditional.
 
RC-212 is a nutrient hog but doesn't seem to give me any temperature-related problems with summer brewing (no AC here), I use D47 in the winter, EC-1118 for difficult ferments, bottle carbing or when I want to make something with a high alcohol content, 71B when I think I can remember to rack it off the lees, RC for anything fruity and special that's worth babysitting, and K1V for any other application... I think K1V is probably the Swiss Army Knife of yeasts, I haven't ever heard anything bad about it unless you don't like esters, which it can sometime produce at certain temperatures (low, I think).
 
You can use the "high alcohol" yeasts for dry meads of lower alcohol, and if you like you can backsweeten them to get a sweet mead.
 
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