Using Wine Yeasts In Your Brews

[stephenkentucky]

As well as being a brewer I am a winemaker, I was wondering whether anyone has tried using some of the commonly used wine yeasts which are available, for beer production. Styles I think may work would be something like Lalvin ICV 254D for dark ales, this is a terrific older variety of sachharomyces cerevisiae, which is commonly used for shiraz, it is a killer strain which is known to kill indiginous strains. Another potential would be Prisse-de-Mousse the classic champagne yeast used by Dom - Perignon as well as a large number of French champagne houses. I reckon that this would work with Wits and Heffe's beautifully. I may be way off track here but if anyone has tried these or any other wine yeasts I would love to hear what your experience was. As all the wine strains of yeast owe their discovery and initial development to brewing ( the hint is in the name cerevisiae, meaning beer) I think that it could be interesting to take some of the wine strains back to their origins. Also I have these yeasts in Kilo lots.

 

[felten]

There was a great podcast on TBN with a guy from lallemand talking about exactly this that sparked my interest to try it, but the LHBS local to me don't seem to stock any lallemand wine yeasts.

 

[barls]

here where i asked the same question not 3 months ago.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=51920

 

[stephenkentucky]

here where i asked the same question not 3 months ago.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=51920

Thanks guys for the heads up re the previous posts and podcasts, also if any one wants to try some wine yeasts I can supply some for experiments I have a fair range of yeast at hand

 

[Muggus]

EC-1118, Champagne yeast, is quite a versitile yeast.
I used it in an Imperial stout once because I was going to be away for 2 months whilst this beer was fermenting. The good thing with the yeast is it gives off favourable characteristics when left of lees, and even when the yeast itself is starting to autolyse.

 

[Wolfy]

but the LHBS local to me don't seem to stock any lallemand wine yeasts.

Check Wine-making shops, such as WineQuip in Reservoir, THBS (in Tasmania) has a good range of wine-yeast and they will post yeast for the A.Post cost price which is about 75c.

 

[felten]

Cheers Wolfy

 

[manticle]

Haven't visited babblebelt for a while. Checked it out today and lo and behold - an old thread which has been ressurected. You might find some interesting info in a few of the posts.

http://www.babblebelt.com/newboard/thread....tpg=1&add=1

 

[brycehobson]

Quoting here... the key component with the wine yeast in order to ferment fully is the addition of Convertase (glucoamylase enzyme), ... quote below from babblelet. I'd be keen to know if it can be sourced locally.

Shea suggested a few ways to deal with the maltotriose issue. One heavily discussed option was the use of Convertase AG-300 enzyme. This enzyme will break up long chain sugars (including maltotriose) into simple sugars when added in small amounts to the fermenter. The wine yeast is then able to ferment all of it (and will until bone dry.) By splitting a batch into 2 fermenters, one could add ale yeast to one batch and AG-300 & wine yeast to a second smaller batch, then blend later, cold crash the yeast hard, and re-add a strain for bottling (unless you keg of course.) I'd have to check the podcast again for the exact amounts, but I'm pretty sure the suggested amount of Convertase AG-300 to use worked out to around a few ml per 5 gallon batch.

 

[crozdog]

EC-1118, Champagne yeast, is quite a versitile yeast.
I used it in an Imperial stout once because I was going to be away for 2 months whilst this beer was fermenting. The good thing with the yeast is it gives off favourable characteristics when left of lees, and even when the yeast itself is starting to autolyse.

Hi,

I haven't tried it, but have heard that EC1118 is also good for rousing stuck ferments or getting a few more points out of a big beer. Have also read that it is often used by those with "water purifiers" instead of "turbo" yeast.

Beers

 

[Muggus]

Hi,

I haven't tried it, but have heard that EC1118 is also good for rousing stuck ferments or getting a few more points out of a big beer. Have also read that it is often used by those with "water purifiers" instead of "turbo" yeast.

Beers

Yeah, definately.
It has an alcohol tolerance around the 17% mark, and not to mention being used in Method Champenoise, where it's basically innoculated into a wine that's already at 10%+ abv, with bugger all nutient left after primary after ferment, and generally with pH around the 3 mark, then subdued to ferment a further 24g/L sugar in a bottle for another 15 months minimum, and produce favourable autolysis flavours...it's a pretty hardy bloody yeast! :beerbang: