In true frugal fashion I wanted to make the absolute cheapest and delicious beverage I could. Therefore I thought I might dabble in some mead. My brother made some mead after all and it tasted delicious, even if it did smell like hot garbage. But I wondered, does beer yeast work in mead?
Beer yeast is gaining in popularity among mead making circles. It finishes faster than wine yeast but has difficulty overcoming the lack of nutrients present in mead. Adding yeast nutrient is often imperative, as is over pitching yeast.
My brother actually used wine yeast for his mead. But there are many varieties of ale yeast that actually work well in mead making. Some better than others.
How Long to Age Mead
The sweet spot for mead is about two years. Although it should technically be done after 6 months. But if you find it smells terrible like my brothers mead give it that extra time to mellow.
The bad smell tends to taper off and get better over time. This is a result of all the various ingredients settling over time. That’s not what I want though. I want it to be done and smell and taste delicious at 6 month’s. So maybe ale yeast can help with that.
The problem with most ale yeasts is they have low fermentation levels so they may be stressed and lead to off flavors. That’s why we need yeast that can stand the higher alcohol content.
In order to get delicious mead faster we will also need to keep the additional ingredients to a minimum and focus on the honey only. We can also mask any off flavors by increasing the sweetness. Which is what many mead establishments do, for young mead.
Why Ale Yeast is Faster than Wine Yeast
Its not that Ale Yeast, is particularly faster than wine yeast, but the flavor and drink-ability is better. Wine yeast takes longer to kick off the bad flavors and really start to shine, because of the higher alcohol levels it produces. Beer yeast also doesn’t seem to become as stressed as wine yeast and can actually taste better faster.
My city is actually going crazy when it comes to mead. We just had two open up recently. The most interesting thing I noticed about the mead that they were serving, was the funky nature of some of the flavors. They are really hectic and don’t really produce a standard product.
I could walk in months later and have the same mead and it taste entirely different. That is if that batch hadn’t been kicked already.
So you actually can go into business and play of the funky mead theme, before you actually start producing for the long haul. I may get into funky and sour mead but at this point I really want to produce a clean and crisp mead.
Another benefit, for business using beer yeast, is you may get lower ABV levels creating more drinkable mead. This could lead to higher sales, but also creates mead faster, since lower alcohol levels lead to faster readiness.
Ale Yeast and Mead
Honey is the main ingredient when producing mead. A lot of time its the only ingredient. This makes it difficult for yeast to work. Unlike beer, mead is essentially straight sugar. There is a lack of nutrients to keep the yeast healthy as it eats the sugar, further causing problems.
Honey is also anaerobic, which is the main reason why it cannot spoil either. Bacteria simply cannot survive in it. Yeast is another living microbe, so it will need to live in the water as it munches on the sugars from the honey.
How to Help Ale Yeast
Nearly every ale yeast strain you use will need to have nutrient added to it. This is because beer yeast has not been bred the way wine yeast has. Wine yeast has been bred to survive in similar conditions that exist when making mead.
This is the main reason you need to add nutrient to ale yeast when making mead. It may be different if you are adding fruit or spices to your mead but, for the purpose of my experiment I’m keeping it simple with a flavored organic blueberry honey.
Organic honey flavoring actually comes from bees being sent into a field of flowers with that particular type of fruit or flower. In the case of blueberry honey, the bees were sent into a field of blueberry flowers in bloom.
Since the blueberry flavor does not come from nutrients or raw blueberry ingredients the honey is still difficult for yeast to penetrate. Since this is the case you will need to make a yeast starter or over-pitch the yeast.
This can get really expensive really quick, so its probably best to just make a starter. This way you can see how healthy your yeast is before pitching it in with the water and honey.
Ale Yeast Styles
The biggest draw of ale yeasts are their ability to ferment faster and stronger than wine yeast. This makes obvious business sense since quicker turnover leads to more product to sell faster. The industry is still in its early stages, but experimentation will only better results over time.
Not all ale yeasts are created equal. If you have read any of my other articles about different styles of beer you may notice yeasts have different esters, flocculation, and length of time until completion.
Belgian Yeast
With Belgian ale yeast, it has a fruity ester that can tolerate higher alcohol levels. Although, because of how the fruity esters compile with they honey water, it leads to a flavor that is not as desirable as other ale yeasts and takes more time to mellow out.
German yeast
Hefeweizen ale yeast is another interesting competitor, but overall mead popularity is in its clean look. Utilizing a Hefeweizen yeast will lead to a murkier end product.
American Yeast
American ale yeast might be my best bet when it comes to quick fermentation and to let the blueberry notes shine through. The only drawback on this yeast that I have seen so far is its lighter body. Forced carbonation is a possible remedy to this, and might give the mead a bit more of a delicious bite.
Yeast Pros and Cons
I’ve created a list of pros and cons of certain types of ale yeast so you can decide what kind of ale yeast you want to try out when making your mead.
Feel free to use this as a guide to making your own mead using ale yeast. If we can get this down, then it will lead to much more profitable and enjoyable mead experiences in every city.
| Yeast Name | Pros | Cons |
| WLP500 Monastery Ale | High alcohol tolerance, room temperature fermentation. | Low flocculation, could lead to cloudy mead. |
| WLP001 California Ale | Quick, strong, and clean. High alcohol tolerance. | Too light of a body. |
| WLP002 English Ale | Even more clear and clean because of high flocculation. | Alcohol Tolerance not so great. Best used for lower honey input. |
| WLP005 British ale Yeast | Seems to be really popular to use, not sure why. | Bad alcohol tolerance. Best used for lower honey input. |
| WLP090 San Diego Super | White Labs suggested use for mead. High alcohol tolerance and good flocculation. | Mead is dry, could be good or bad. |
| WLP715 Champagne Yeast | Fermentation is fast, alcohol tolerance is high. | Creates a dry mead. neutral character. |
Information found from white labs catalog.
Much to my surprise, I didn’t really find anyone talking about the San Diego super yeast, being used in mead making. It’s actually endorsed by white labs as a strain to be used in mead.
I think I’m going to try this yeast out along with a few others to see how things turn out. It is supposed to produce dryness due to the high attenuation, but I’m curious if this is the same for mead. I do like my mead dry, but I will need to find another strain to see if I can have some less dry, but more flavorful mead.
Staggering Nutrient Additions
The yeast nutrient that I found from white labs that seems to be best utilized for mead is Servomyces. This can cut down on fermentation time and increase flocculation. Flocculation is important in keeping mead clear, most of the yeast will drop to the bottom of the carboy making it easy to rack out of the mead.
The nutrient will need to be added before you pitch the yeast for best results. Utilizing the San Diego super and this nutrient at the beginning of fermentation might actually be enough without needing to add any nutrient staggering.
Because the yeast might slow down due to lack of nutrients staggering might need to be done. In order to check, we will need to take a look at the gravity initially and what it is before pitching more nutrient.
Adding Additional Ingredients
If you are adding more ingredients to help flavor the mead post fermentation then you shouldn’t need to add nutrient to your mean past the initial introduction.
The fermentation will likely begin again and could produce off flavors. It should likely mellow out over time. At least that’s what happened to my brothers mead. He actually added cinnamon sticks to it post initial fermentation. Initial fermentation took about 4-6 weeks.
Temperature Required for Ale Yeasts
The temperatures that needs to be used for ale yeasts vary from anywhere to room temperature around 70 degrees, to just below room temperature. This makes it tricky to pick an ale yeast to use.
Since I’m choosing the San Diego Super its below room temperature so I will need to make sure I keep it a constant cooler temperature either by picking the time of year I start it. For example the beginning of winter to keep it cooler.
Otherwise if I start it in the summer I will need a chest cooler to keep the temperature consistently in the low 60’s. Alternatively I could just use the California ale yeast and be safer in temperature. That’s probably why its more popular to be used in mead than the San Diego Super among home-brewers.
Kveik Mead
Kviek is an interesting beer style yeast being used in homebrewing. Kviek yeast can withstand higher temperatures and often produces an array of flavors. It may be great to try this yeast if you don’t want to spend the extra money on a temperature regulation cooler.
Kviek Yeast is a tiny bit more expensive than the San Diego Super making it a bad pick for someone running a business which all the necessary temperature tools. But for the avid homebrewer Kviek may be a great pick if you don’t have access to temperature control.
Producing a Dry Mead
Because of the higher attenuation of the San Diego Super, a dry mead is likely to be produced. One way to combat this is to add more honey or other various sugars ones the yeast has finished.
The same thing will happen if a champagne yeast is used so it might actually be beneficial to use a yeast with less alcohol tolerance but high attenuation, to produce a juicier mead. Acidity and Mead
Liquid vs Dry Yeast
According to white labs liquid yeast has higher flocculation levels. Since many of the commonly used wine yeasts are dry flocculation may be worse leading to a cloudier mead.
Dry yeast is less expensive which could make better business sense, but reusing yeast is common and would lead to a better and cheaper product.