mead yeast

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Alex.Tas

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Hi,

thinking of making a mead in a few months once i cen get some good cheap(ish) honey. I'm wondering what the maximum alcohol tolerance of WB06 would be?
I've recently made a german wheat beer, and it gave some great flavours (clove and some banana). It made me think of mead flavours. Has anyone used this yeast before for mead?
any other foreseeable issues?

cheers,
 
The WB06 spec sheet doesn't say what the tolerance is. You could assume around 12%. That seems to be average for a beer yeast.

The main problem is that the esters produced by the yeast are at least in part dependent on the various precursor chemicals available in the wort. A honey/water mix has a very different chemical profile to a malt/water mix so the ester production by the yeast may be very different.

So the yeast may or may not put out banana/clove esters fermenting a mead. The only way to be sure is to give it a go. Try a small batch and see what happens.

At least clove is easy to add if the yeast doesn't produce it.

Cheers
Dave
 
to get the bananna/ clove you need the pv4 precursor to be present, this is created in the mash. so you wont get it in the final product.
ive used both english and belgian strains and they both work well if you want a lower alcohol version
 
I find myself wondering whether adding some DME or a liter or two of wort might provide any ester precursors without being too apparent in the mead.
 
Just put cloves in your mead if you like cloves. Not sure about banana though.
 
Yep. That's why a ferulic acid rest when making a heffeweizen gives more clove flavours in the finished beer.

In a mead, no ferulic acid so no clove from the yeast.

As Gav said, just throw in some cloves. Actually, one clove will probably do. Cloves are strong stuff.

Not sure what to do if you want banana though (other than recommend counselling). The ester is isoamyl acetate but I'm not sure what precursors give that flavour. There is a paper on this - http://www.asbcnet.org/meetings/proceedings/2012/AbstractsDetail.cfm?AbstractID=420


This showed that the more FAN (free amino nitrogen) in the wort, the more isoamyl acetate was produced. We analyzed the relationship between the quantity of this ester and the amount of the amino acids valine and leucine, which are biosynthetic precursors of isoamyl acetate. As expected, in the wort with low FAN content, valine and leucine were depleted during fermentation, inhibiting the formation of isoamyl acetate.
My guess is that amino acid levels in honey are very low so very little ester will be produced. I suppose you could mash up a banana...

Cheers
Dave
 
I make good mead but I suggest that the best mead yeast are the ones for white wine...In past I tasted some mead made with beer yeast but the esters that thay will form are not armonious with the flavour of mead....when you drink that u can feel this esters that go in an other direction...
I done mead with champagne yeast and you can obtain a dry mead with lots of alcol they survive untill 18%abv
or sweet wine yeast and the result will be a mead more sweet and with less alcol 14%abv...
I've also try the white labs and wyeast yeast for mead and they give good result too.
above the beer yeast...
mead is more similar to wine than beer...

Maybe but I never try to do that you can use your Idea for make a particular braggot with a weizen yeast...
 
Where can I buy a bottle of mead in Australia?
are there any productor?
Is mead important in Australia?

unfortunatly in Italy is near to be forget...there are only some beekeepers(is it the right word?!) who produce the drink of the gods!
 
Bws and dan murphys both stock it. Thanks for the sdvice everyone
 
having had at least one of the two at dans and bws, i say forget maxwells and go for a proper mead.
try mudgee or tassie for a good example.
 
really they have mead???
I can't immage that!!
wow!I always look only if they have some good beers..tomorrow I will have a look!mudgee and tassie!right!!
thanks guys!
 
They usually only have Maxwell's which iisn't really mead. Its lolly water flavoured with honey. Mead (good stuff) is almost impossible to get here. Which is why we make it.

There used to be a good mead maker in mudgee years ago. Not sure now though. A lot of them only sell cellar door so you need to go there.
Cheers
Dave
 
Yeah right..the situation is like in Italy...I m lucky because I was near to one of the best meader in italy..massimo barbiero is his nane...and he teach me how make a good mead..the first rule is....
BE PATIENT!
He gave me a bottle(like xmas present)of his reserve mead 6year in bottle.....WOW!!
Anywa in Italy there are other 3good mead:Taurini, luna di miele, and another one but I don t remember the name...sorry!
 
I saw the maxwell on liquorstre in surry hills, not expensive 16$ but I left it in the shop and I bought a bottle of bigfoot of sierra nevada.. :drinks:
 
Yep... 71B which is my go to yeast for mead was developed for Beaujolais and other light, fruity red styles. Hard to get in a homebrew size though.

Cheers
Dave
 

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