1 reply to this topic

[zymot]

As you can tell by now, I am a beer-brewing-centric. I am trying to compare and contrast making mead against what I know, brewing beer. When it comes to beer, the most common opinion says make a starter, pitch as much yeast as you can.With mead, the recipes typically call for 2 ea 5 gm packets of a dry wine/champagne yeast. At $.95 per packet, I can afford to pitch more if I wanted to. $1.90 to follow the recipe, $3.80 to pitch twice as much. See my point? For a less than couple bucks more, I can pitch twice as much. Compare that against the expense of Go-Ferm for rehydrating, and the staggered nutrients additions, it seems like a legitimate question.So why not throw more yeast at the process and avoid all the other stuff?I plan on following the hightest first mead process and the SNA program, so I am not trying to argue. I am trying to learn about the process.So what does Mead Making 101 say about yeast pitching rates?zymot

[Hightest]

Using more yeast will not alter (or compensate) for the fact that the yeast will still need supplemental nutrients because they are absent (or at woefully low levels) in honey to produce an effective mead fermentation. Starving them of the nutrients they require can only lead to slow and possibly a stuck fermentation, which may contribute to off-flavors.