# Do I Need A Yeast Starter?



## Asuly (22/3/10)

Yes Yeast starter, do you need one for mead? Im going to make an atempt on a a medium show mead contain 5.7-6.4 kg of honey for about 15L of water. OG 1.094-1.112.or might go just a bit sweeter for this one 8kg of hoeny

any-how im going to use Wine Yeast-Premier Cuvee 5gm Fermentation Characteristics Strong fermenter with short lag phase Good alcohol tolerence: 17% alc/vol

Just wonderin about how to even do a yeast starter for mead?
also cna some one let me know what type or brand of yeast they used with the most joy was it dry or lic yeast?



Thankyou again guys and happy brewing hay! :lol:


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## Wolfy (22/3/10)

Asuly said:


> Yes Yeast starter, do you need one for mead? Im going to make an atempt on a a medium show mead contain 5.7-6.4 kg of honey for about 15L of water. OG 1.094-1.112.or might go just a bit sweeter for this one 8kg of hoeny


I'm no expert, but I have _The Compleat Meadmaker_ here on my desk and _he _always recommends using a starter for liquid yeasts and correctly rehydrating the right amount of dry yeast.


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## barls (23/3/10)

i t totally depends on what form of yeast you are planning on using. Personally i prefer to do a starter so not to use too much me my dry yeasts.


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## Airgead (23/3/10)

You usually don't do a starter as such with dry yeast but it does pay to follow the rehydration instructions pretty carefully.

Also - be aware that with that yeast, regardless of how much honey you add (unless you add heaps more) you will end up with a dry mead. That yeast will ferment out absolutely dry unless you max out its alcohol tolerance which as you said is around 17%. Adding a little more honey to finish "a bit sweeter' just won't work with this yeast.

if you want to go sweet with that yeast you will need to aim for an alc % of around 16%. Let that finish then feed it a little bit at a time until it can't take any more. Your big danger is getting impatient and adding too much in one go and ending up with something too sweet.

Cheers
Dave


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## Wolfy (23/3/10)

MrMalty has a very useful yeast pitching guide, so you can get a good estimate of how much yeast you should use for optimal fermentation based on volume and OG, there are settings for dry, liquid and re-pitched yeast, so you should find it very useful: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

If you visit the Fermentis website (they make RedStar Premier Cuve dried yeast) you can download the PDF information for your yeast strain, which includes their recommended re-hydration procedure: http://www.fermentis.com/FO/80-Wine/80-11_...&MarqueId=2 
I only just noticed that they recommend using 1/3 must and 2/3 water, as opposed to using only water.


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## jiesu (23/3/10)

Wolfy said:


> MrMalty has a very useful yeast pitching guide, so you can get a good estimate of how much yeast you should use for optimal fermentation based on volume and OG, there are settings for dry, liquid and re-pitched yeast, so you should find it very useful: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
> 
> If you visit the Fermentis website (they make RedStar Premier Cuve dried yeast) you can download the PDF information for your yeast strain, which includes their recommended re-hydration procedure: http://www.fermentis.com/FO/80-Wine/80-11_...&MarqueId=2
> I only just noticed that they recommend using 1/3 must and 2/3 water, as opposed to using only water.




Wow thanks for that Wolfy. what a great tool.


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