Choosing the Right Yeast for Mead
When you reduce mead to its simplest form it’s, conceptually at least, quite a simple drink to make. Just mix honey with water, do a little maths to determine the likely alcohol content after fermentation, pitch yeast and nutrients and allow it to ferment until there’s no more sugar left. Easy.
Simple concepts tend to become more complicated in the real world though. My description above completely ignores the many practical considerations that have an enormous effect on the quality of the mead – even whether it will be drinkable or one to pour down the drain.
Cleanliness, sanitisation, honey variety, and ingredient selection are all very important parts of making a great mead. The one that I find both the most interesting and often most challenging though is yeast selection. How do you choose the ‘right’ yeast for your mead from the hundreds of different strains that are available? What characteristics do you look for in a yeast strain and how will they present in the finished mead? The following is how I begin to approach choosing a yeast strain for a new mead recipe.
1. Have an aim. What do I want the mead to be like? I think about the aromas, flavours and mouthfeel I want to experience and how they’ll interact. Do I want bright honey aromas with fruit in the background or am I after a fruit dominated mead with subtle honey in the finish? Do I want the mead to be full bodied or am I after something lighter? I might take inspiration from specific styles of completely different drink categories like stout (beer), shiraz (wine), or even port cask whiskey. Have something in mind to aim for.
2. Refine. Once I have my concept it’s time to refine it by imposing some limits. (You could see the imposition of limits as a negative but I actually think it helps to foster creativity and problem solving.) What ABV will the mead be? There’s a big difference in the body of a mead of 14% ABV and one of 5%. If I want decent body in a low alcohol mead that’s a serious limitation to overcome that will require thought and effort. What variety of honey will I use? Am I using fruit or other adjuncts and at what dosage rates? Always referring back to the aim when making these decisions.
3. Yeast selection. This could fit into refine but it’s a big decision that affects all of the others. At this point I do a lot of reading. I read technical specification sheets about different yeast strains paying attention to flavour profiles and styles of beverages they’re ordinarily used for. (There aren’t many yeast strains marketed specifically for fermenting mead but we can pull freely from wine, beer or cider selecting the yeast strain that suits best.) I look to see what other people’s experiences have been like using a particular strain. And I draw on my own experience of years of fermenting. If I’m still unsure at this stage I’ll choose two or three different strains and run test batches side by side to see how they perform and determine which one I like the best.
That’s it really. After fermenting a test batch I’ll often repeat the refining step based on the results, tweaking dosage rates of ingredients or any other parameter that I think will improve the mead. This can be an endless quest of constant refinement, albeit an enjoyable one.
