Fermentation Yeast for Mead Making
Anybody can use baker’s yeast and get a mead of sorts with possibly a yeast haze in it and a bake-house mustiness into the bargain. It is well worth while getting a good yeast either dried or in liquid form. Dried all-purpose wine yeast does an excellent job here, but those with a good deal of experience in making a variety of top-class meads insist on a certain variety of yeast. Madeira yeast is fancied by some while others swear by Tokay yeast. Sherry and Maurey yeasts are also popular. So do not use baker’s yeast, unless you want an inferior product, which, of course, amounts to a waste of honey – and money.
Aids to Good Fermentation
As with all alcoholic products a good fermentation from the outset to the end is important for good results. Now, in itself, and because honey is mostly sugar and water, it is not the best medium for good fermentation. This is because unlike fruit juices it contains no acid or tannin – both of which are essentials to good fermentation. As will be seen in the recipes we add acid either as citric acid easily obtained quite cheaply from any chemist or the same stuff in the form of lemon juice. Tannin is added in the form of tea; tea being a useful and cheap source of tannin. These two constituents are also important to the flavour of the finished product. Without them the mead would appear lifeless; in other words it would lack character, bite – or even ‘guts’ if you like to put it that way. Also lacking in honey are essential elements found in most fruit juices. This deficiency is easily made up by adding nutrient salts in tablet form. These are known as yeast nutrients and are obtainable from dealers in home wine and home brewing equipment. When to add the tablet is given in the recipes. Temperature is also an important consideration.
Yeast, as we have seen in other parts of this book, must have warmth if it is to reproduce itself. And as already explained, it is this reproduction going on that uses up the sugar and produces alcohol. The ideal temperature is between 6So-70°f. It is not always possible to maintain this, but where it is possible, it certainly should be maintained. Failing this, a warm place where the temperature remains fairly constant will do. But on no account allow the mead-in-making to become too warm, otherwise fermentation might stop prematurely or ’stick’.