Distiller's Yeast for Mead or Anything else

[jak1010]

Just wondering if anyone ever used Distiller's Yeast for making mead. I have a pound of it, a few empty carboys and wondering how to best put it to use.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

 

[liquiditynerd]

Yes I have. Baker and Crosby? Most folks are going to nix the idea , too hot, no flavor profile, etc... I have used it to finish off high gravity wines. Very dry, kinda blah, and some fusel. If you have a year or two and let some fruit sit on it it actually turns out ok at the end. And the knocks start in 3,2,?....

 

[KevinM]

I'd probably say no as well. Distiller yeast is bred to be different than wine or champagne or beer yeast. And like other yeasts, they have different profiles and targeted outcomes. Unless of course, the profile that was mentioned was what you desired for some reason.

If you were in a legal place for distilling, there would probably be some interesting experiments. But this isn't the place for that and least said, soonest mended.

If you wanted to do experiments though.. I don't think I'd use quality ingredients with that yeast for a wine or mead.

 

[jak1010]

Thanks...Yes, just got a pound of Crosby and Baker and was going to experiment with it.

I can deal with the time and waiting. I just wanted to take something with high gravity and get it drier than the "average" yeast.

For my first experiment:
I made a batch of Joes Quick Grape, followed the recipe exactly but rather than using a 2lb container of honey, I acccidentaly used a 2.5lb bottle (which gave it a starting gravity of 1.150) and after 3 weeks of in the primary, it stopped at 1.050 which is too sweet for my taste. So I'm thinking of using the Distillers yeast to bring it down some. Wonder how/if it'll work.

 

[liquiditynerd]

That's exactly how fell into this. Red star champange can also be beneficial. When I did this though I was going extreme, I wanted to feed em until they died and sweeten from there. I think I started with an ale yeast, bumped up to Montrachet, and finished with DY. A little drier than I was looking for but with a fruit addition at the end it tempered out after a year.

I haven't done this in awhile so I don't remember the specs, good luck

 

[jak1010]

Good to know I'm not alone on this. Thanks for the feedback.


Other plans for the Distillers Yeast are using it for a small batch of Skeeter Pee to see how well it works.

I also plan on using the Distillers Yeast in a batch of KVASS I made last month. Started with a gravity of 1.055 and the bread yeast got it down to 1.000 so I'm going to add Hopped Malt Exctact, try to get it back up to 1.055 and then pitch the distillers yeast. Not sure where I'm going to end up but, who knows?

Anybody else have ideas? I have to open this 1lb bag and I'd rather use it than try to store it after opening.

 

[scarekrow]

I started 3 batches of wine in december. One was an 8 gallon version made with hibiscus, cinnamin, lemon and sweetened with the mexican sugar cones (added too much hibiscus for 5 gallons. Second was 5 gallon of Kiwi and the third was 5 gallon of cranberry. Cote des Blancs yeast in all. Kiwi started fast then stalled, Hibiscus was medium speed and steady and finished dry. Its in secondary now clearing. The cranberry was slow then stalled. Both the kiwi and cranberry stalled at about 1.050 for three weeks. I added half a package of turbo yeast to each. In the cranberry it took off within half hour and was fizzing for a week until I had to take it outside to cool to stop the fermentation, very cloudy for now. Need to rack to secondary to see if fermentation continues. Kiwi is still dead. I'll back sweeten the hibiscus and cranberry and should be good.

I also used the turbo yeast last year in a 5 gallon batch of hibiscus I was demonstrating to a guy we were working with. He always wanted to try make some wine so I brought over all the ingredients and since we had about two weeks till we finished the project. Dumped everything into a 5 gallon bucket with an airlock in the lid, in the morning. In the evening dropped bag of turbo, by next morning was bubbling. Threw it in the fridge 3 days later to stop fermentation. I left for a few days to another project and told them to wait a couple of days to taste, get the yeast to die down. When I came back nobody would say how it turned out but it was gone, between 6 guys.

It can be used but it's a bear to stop fermintation

 

[jak1010]

Good to know. When the cranberry took off, did you hydrate it first or just add it dry?

 

[macachoin]

I have added a tablespoon of the distillers yeast in with a weaker sweet mead yeast and it seemed to strengthen it to get a higher ABV without making it too strong. But I also tried once in a cider and it was only good for barbecue sauce.