# Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast Is 1084?



## Ronin (20/1/11)

Hi everyone,

I was reading a brewboard thread the other day which seems to confirm that the Wyeast Sweet Mead 4184 is actually 1084 Irish ale?

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtop...056&hl=4632

(Post 10)

Anyone heard of this? I'm hoping so because it's one in my collection and I might give it a run.

James


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## brettprevans (20/1/11)

I read the response differently than u. I read tge alleged wyeast response as them saying that 1084 will have similar results. I could be wrong. If it is the same ill be pissed as I have both


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## barls (20/1/11)

they are completely different yeasts. the only one that is close to the wyeast one is the white labs one. i cant pick them apart.


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## brettprevans (20/1/11)

I recon tge guy emailed wyeast and asked I'd they are rhe same without explicitly asking if they are the same strain. 
Surely wyeast would get pinged of they were trying to sell the same yeast as 2 differant yeasts.


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## Ronin (20/1/11)

citymorgue2 said:


> I recon tge guy emailed wyeast and asked I'd they are rhe same without explicitly asking if they are the same strain.
> Surely wyeast would get pinged of they were trying to sell the same yeast as 2 differant yeasts.



I'll email them with a very specific question and see what I get


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## Airgead (20/1/11)

The sweet mead yeast may well be an ale strain as they have a fairly low alc tolerance so its easier to end up with a sweet end product without ending up at 18% or more. Most ale strains top out at 10-12% compared to wine strains that are 12-18% in general.

Cheers
Dave


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## KudaPucat (21/1/11)

I've heard the sweet mead yeast is oft used for making mead, as it's one of the few that have 'mead' in the name.
But that is where the relationship between it and good mead ends. Of all the experienced brewers I've spoken to, I've heard only a couple of tales of success, and these were 2nd hand stories.
Personally I wouldn't use it because of this. It's supposedly a finnicky yeast that is very temperamental. I'm much to haphazard to deal with anything that requires me to control temp/pH/YAN to any great degree, and it's not stocked at my LHBS so I haven't bothered with it.
D47, EC-1118 I've used to success, and I want to try some ale yeasts next. Perhaps this 1084 might be a good place to start.


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## barls (21/1/11)

ive been using it as my primary yeast with not one problem for a coupe of years now. hell i even did a braggot that i served at club night at anhc with it.


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## Tanga (21/1/11)

If it's very specific it's probably not a good choice - which, based on what KudaPucat said, could be the 'Wyeast - sweet mead's problem. Barls - do you have temp control?

Ronin - do you?

If you're a bit leery of doing an experiment with a full 20 L (or even 5) then juice and soft drink bottles great mini-fermenter, and fit in a normal fridge for 'cold conditioning', or a bucket for temp control. Try a mead with a the Irish 1084 and see if you like it. The yeast may or may not be the same as the sweet mead, but it seems it's similar at least, and if you like it, then it doesn't really matter. =)

PS - let us know how it works out.

PPS Barls, what was your braggot recipe?


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## brettprevans (21/1/11)

KudaPucat said:


> .... all the experienced brewers I've spoken to, I've heard only a couple of tales of success, and these were 2nd hand ...


Plenty of 'experianced' brewers out there that can't brew or may be treating all yeasts the
Same even though they shouldn't. 

Let's wait to see what wyeast replies to barls.


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## Ronin (21/1/11)

citymorgue2 said:


> Let's wait to see what wyeast replies to barls.



Here's what I sent them:

I have a question regarding the 4184 sweet mead yeast. I have read that 4184 is actually the same strain as the irish ale yeast 1084. Can you confirm that this is actually the case or are they two different yeast strains?

Thanks,

James

I will post the reply when I get it.


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## brettprevans (21/1/11)

Sorry ronin. Not sure why I thought it was barls

Very interested to hear the response


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## barls (21/1/11)

Tanga said:


> If it's very specific it's probably not a good choice - which, based on what KudaPucat said, could be the 'Wyeast - sweet mead's problem. Barls - do you have temp control?
> 
> Ronin - do you?
> 
> ...


i have a chest freezer that i ferment in some of the time, also i do most of my meads from march to oct when i dont need to control the temp as it sits at about 14-20 and is constant and as ive said ive never had a batch stall or fail.
sorry not sharing that recipe atm as they no longer make one of the grains, willing to give you the version before though
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=374039
just a point of interest, the sweet mead when fermenting i get the smell of peaches in the brew room, while when using 1084 i get nothing.

still have a bout a dozen bottles of different versions and am planing another dark braggot soon with choc wheat to replace the choc chit, which is the one that they dont make anymore


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## Tanga (21/1/11)

Ah thanks. I'm not an AG brewer, so it's a bit above my head atm, but I think I can adjust that recipe pretty easily. Caramunich is steepable, yeah?

How'd it turn out, go down well?


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## barls (21/1/11)

very well.
carramunich is steepable i think.
if you go to the end of the link i put up it has thoughts on it and how everyones turned out.


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## Tanga (21/1/11)

Yeah, definitely repeatable in extract. It's a high OG - but then I'm getting the impression that's usual in a bragot.

/Off Topic (sorry guys - looking forward to hearing the results too).


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## Tanga (23/1/11)

Just stumbled upon this again:
http://www.solorb.coAm/mead/rcdyeast.html

Backs up what I found with D-47. Did you get a response yet? Pitched the yeast?


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## brettprevans (23/1/11)

Tanga said:


> Just stumbled upon this again:
> http://www.solorb.coAm/mead/rcdyeast.html
> 
> Backs up what I found with D-47. Did you get a response yet? Pitched the yeast?


Link has a typo. Fixed
http://www.solorb.com/mead/rcdyeast.html

Seems odd that the guy is commenting that 'ut seems that the mead yeast doesn't lik low nutrient musts'. Yeah no shit. No yeast likes a low nutrient environment. Some may handle it better but no yeast likes it. His mixed results are probably due to him not handling yeast and must environment properly. Benoticable doesn't pay attention to pH either

But interesting to read. Thx tanga


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## Tanga (23/1/11)

citymorgue2 said:


> Link has a typo. Fixed
> http://www.solorb.com/mead/rcdyeast.html
> 
> Seems odd that the guy is commenting that 'ut seems that the mead yeast doesn't lik low nutrient musts'. Yeah no shit. No yeast likes a low nutrient environment. Some may handle it better but no yeast likes it. His mixed results are probably due to him not handling yeast and must environment properly. Benoticable doesn't pay attention to pH either
> ...



Yeah, lol, my first attempt at nutrients was to add vegemite to my first lot of mead (first brewing I ever did). It didn't work - the mead took freakin' years to eat through that honey, and mostly bottle bombed in the process. Thank god I found this site.

Haven't heard much about pH though - what do you use to test that, those pool test strips?


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## brettprevans (23/1/11)

Hey back in the 'coopers instructions are the bible' days (14 years ago) me and my mates put vegimite into a batch of our beer. Don't quite remember the reason though. No taste differance at all. Mind u it was probably only a tablespoon worth!

pH strips can be bought from site sponsors. But yeah the work rhe same as the pool pH strips. Or u can use a pH meter but good ones are pricey. There are a few current threads on pH meters if ur interested. My iPhone doesn't seem to want to play nice with AHB search engine at the moment so I can't find them.


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## MHB (23/1/11)

A decade or so ago there was talk that the Dry Mead was the same as EC1118, so I split a batch of Raspberry Melomel and did half with each, chalk and cheese, the one with the Dry Mead went on to win a national gold medal, the other never quite made it past very drinkable.
Its easy to toss an opinion around on the internet, but I would be very careful placing too much weight on it unless the author can give some supporting information. Not directly related to the Sweet Mead discussion but based on experience a good mead yeast isnt the same as a good wine or ale yeast for that matter.
MHB


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## brettprevans (23/1/11)

MHB said:


> A decade or so ago there was talk that the Dry Mead was the same as EC1118, so I split a batch of Raspberry Melomel and did half with each, chalk and cheese, the one with the Dry Mead went on to win a national gold medal, the other never quite made it past very drinkable.
> Its easy to toss an opinion around on the internet, but I would be very careful placing too much weight on it unless the author can give some supporting information. Not directly related to the Sweet Mead discussion but based on experience a good mead yeast isnt the same as a good wine or ale yeast for that matter.
> MHB


That's pretty much my thoughts. Hence we wait with baited breath for wyeast's answer. 
Also good to get some feedback from actual tests


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## felten (23/1/11)

citymorgue2 said:


> Hey back in the 'coopers instructions are the bible' days (14 years ago) me and my mates put vegimite into a batch of our beer.


Does that make you a kraftbrewer?


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## Ross (25/1/11)

Wyeast rang me this morning in reply to my email requesting info on the sweet mead strain. I can confirm 100% that the sweet mead strain is not 1084.

Cheers Ross


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## Ronin (25/1/11)

Ross said:


> Wyeast rang me this morning in reply to my email requesting info on the sweet mead strain. I can confirm 100% that the sweet mead strain is not 1084.
> 
> Cheers Ross



Excellent, thanks Ross, they hadn't replied to my email.


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## brettprevans (26/1/11)

Ross to the rescue once again. Cheers Ross

Now to get the word out to the other brewing websiteS like brewboard


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## Ronin (29/1/11)

For the sake of completeness, here's the reply I got from Wyeast:



James,

The strains are banked and propped as two separate strains here. The sweet mead is an ale strain.

Please let me know if you have other questions.


Jess Caudill
Brewer/Microbiologist
Wyeast Laboratories, Inc.
P.O. Box 146
Odell, OR 97044 USA
Phone: 541-354-1335 Fax: 541-354-3449
[email protected]
www.wyeastlab.com


Not the definitive answer that Ross got, it's actually quite ambiguous. You can bank the same strain as two different ones quite easily. I do trust that Ross got a definitive answer though.

I do wonder which ale strian it is?

James


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## Ross (29/1/11)

James,

Yes, 2 different strains, I pushed Jess for a definitive answer after a similar reply.

cheers Ross


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