Yeast for Mead Makers

As a mead maker, you have a wide selection of yeasts. The most popular ones are wine (both white and red) and champagne yeasts. However, an important difference between beer brewing and mead brewing is that almost all available yeasts are dry yeasts. For the mead maker, more so than for the beer brewer, proper yeast rehydration is very important. Without it, you can end up with malformed yeast cells with up to 50 percent of the cells becoming useless for fermentation.

Fortunately, rehydration aids for dry yeast, such as Go-ferm and Goferm Protect Evolution (for difficult or stuck fermentations) from Scott Laboratories, make it easy to properly rehydrate your yeast. Just follow the instructions on the package and then make sure not to throw the mixture into your must (must is to mead what wort is to beer) too hot. Generally, there should be no more than a 20°F/11°C temperature difference between the rehydration aid and the must, but only 15°F/8°C is better.

If you follow the directions and pitch at appropriate temperatures, you should have happy yeast and a happy fermentation.

Yeast Nutrients

Because honey lacks yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), there are various yeast nutrients you can use to help your yeast during fermentation. These nutrients provide either organic nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen, or both.

As its name suggests, organic nitrogen comes from organic sources (e.g., fruits and malt). Yeast is generally conditioned to use nitrogen from organic sources, and a yeast nutrient that supplies organic nitrogen usually creates few off-flavors if the fermentation is done well. These types of nutrients can be added at almost any stage of fermentation.

Nitrogen from inorganic sources (generally ammonia salts) lets the yeast use a faster pathway to produce ethanol, and this faster pathway can produce harsh alcohols if you use too much. I generally try to keep this nutrient source under 40 percent of my nutrients. Adding inorganic nitrogen during yeast hydration is harmful and can kill some of your yeast. Added after 50–66 percent sugar break will result in urea like off-flavors.

»

DAP: Diammonium phosphate is an inorganic source of nutrients. It provides 210 parts per million (ppm) of YAN per gram per liter of must. Thus, 1 gram (0.3 oz) of DAP in a liter (1.06 qt) of must will give you 210 ppm of YAN. DAP is available at homebrew-supply shops and online and is generally very cheap. Just be careful not to use too much. Fermaid-o: This product from Scott Laboratories is a 100 percent organic nutrient. It also has some other good micro-nutrients that yeast needs. It provides 65 ppm of YAN per gram per liter of must; thus, 1 gram (0.3 oz) of Fermaid-o in 1 liter (1.06 qt) of must provides 65 ppm of YAN. Fermaid-k: This product, also from Scott Laboratories, is a blend of organic and inorganic nitrogen sources. It provides 65 ppm of each per gram per liter, so 130 ppm total per gram per liter. Adding 1 gram (0.3 oz) of Fermaid-k is adding the same amount of organic and inorganic nutrients as 1 gram of Fermaid-o and .31 gram of DAP. Generic Brand Nutrient: You might see some nutrients called “Yeast Nutrient” or similar. Most of these don’t label what they provide, so it is a bit hard to use them precisely. I’ve just treated them as Fermaid-k and used my nose for fermentation off-flavors, but that is not ideal.