Wine making yeast is probably one of the most critical but yet an often overlooked detail in home wine making. Without healthy and happy yeast, and an environment that the yeast can thrive in, you won’t have a proper and thorough fermentation. This is the cornerstone to making consistent, great tasting wine that you can be proud of.
Yeast is actually a living cell. In fact it is the only single celled fungus known to exist. Yeast is everywhere and has been helping wine makers ferment grape juice for thousands of years. Even before wine makers understood what yeast was. In this modern day there is a large, dedicated business around the science of yeast identification, breeding, packaging, and selection. Now, thanks to modern science, we understand that different strains of yeast have certain characteristics that help wine makers have better control over there wine fermentation and the their final product.
Wine Yeast Strains
Like I mentioned earlier, wild yeasts are everywhere around us. Most of these yeasts won’t aid in making consistent and tasty wine. The most common wine – orientated yeasts belong to a strain of yeast species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This is the most common strain of yeast for wine making and is what online suppliers of yeast and home winemaking shops offer.
Different yeast strains all exhibit different characteristics, thus every type of wine will have an optimal wine yeast to give you the best results for that particular type of wine.
Some common yeast strains and their relative wine varieties are:
• Pasteur Red, Fermirouge – Red Wine Yeast
• RC212 – Red Wine Yeast
• D21 – Red Wine Yeast
• Pasteur White, Fermiblanc – White Wine Yeast
• D47 – White Wine Yeast
• QA23 – White Wine Yeast
• EC1118, Uvaferm 43 – For both Reds and White Wines
Most of the time home wine kits will provide a dried yeast. Otherwise known as an active dry yeast. Generally a complete wine kit will provide you a strain of wine yeast that has been proven to provide you with a good fermentation and will bring out the best wine sensory characteristics known to the wine variety that you are brewing.
The two most important characteristics of wine yeasts are simply:
1. Fermentation Characteristics – This simply means how fast the wine converts sugar to alcohol, the alcohol level the yeast can tolerate, the nutrients the yeast needs, and what temperature the yeast works best in.
2. Sensory Characteristics – This basically means what flavors, smells, colors, and textures this particular wine yeast strain will impart into the wine you are fermenting.
Wine Yeast Nutrients
Wine yeast needs certain nutrients, nitrogen and vitamins to do the things it loves: eating sugar and reproducing. Most of the time your wine yeast will get the required nutrients from the grapes or juice it is fermenting.
I the extract wine kits I’ve made I’ve never experienced any ill effects from my wine concentrate not having enough of the proper nutrients for a healthy fermentation. I my opinion this is one of the benefits of using an extract kit for making wine (although some will prefer making wine from fruit and that cool). The manufactures of these wine extract kits ensure that there is an ample supply of the proper nutrients and vitamins to ensure a healthy and complete fermentation.
If you run into a situation where you feel you don’t have the proper nutrients because your fermentation is “stuck”, there are several products available to supplement your wine yeast with nutrients. These additives add extra nitrogen (something wine yeast needs) and / or other needed nutrients. These are inexpensive and come with thorough instructions to help you with your wine fermentation dilemma.
Wine Yeast Starter Instructions
Wine yeast can come in either a dry active yeast, or a liquid yeast style. The liquid yeast style doesn’t require any rehydration but typically wine yeasts will come in the active dry yeast style.
You can simply sprinkle this dry yeast on top or rehydrate your wine yeast to give your wine yeast the best starting chance at providing a perfect fermentation.
Some basic instructions to make a wine yeast starter are:
1. Sprinkle your active dry yeast on top of half a cup of warm distilled water. Warm meaning anywhere around 90 F to 95 F. Use a thermometer to verify your temperature.
2. Let the dry yeast rest on top of the water, without stirring for about 15 minutes.
3. After 15 minutes, stir the yeast to distribute the yeast through the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture onto your crushed grapes or into your juice (in your fermenter).
There you have it. Different yeast manufactures may give slight variations of this but you’ll find the instructions for starting a yeast starter are going to be very similar.
I hope that helps give you a better understanding of wine yeast and how to use your wine yeasts with more confidence. Feel free to contact me via my “Contact Me” link if you have any questions about wine yeast. I’ll do my best to answer or will work to find you an answer!