How well would beer yeast (in particular hefeweizen strains) work in wine?

[ohchiz]

im new to wine, just racked my first batch and it seemed better than expected so now im already plotting my next batch and probably getting way over my head with experimentation, but hefes/Belgian wheat beers are one of my favorite beer styles, i was interested in trying a banana wine next and wondering if anyone has ever heard of attempting something like this and how it would likely be to come out? hefes/Belgian wheats have kind of a clovey/banana/bubble gum tone to them from they yeast that i thought might be a good complement (i know i should probably try making some plain banana wine first though to try...). i don't know if beer yeasts would have lots of off flavors though in wine? or exactly what the alcohol tolerance would be. here is what i was thinking about using

http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/munich-wheat-beer-yeast

 

[jswordy]

I make wine primarily but have dabbled in beer recently.

Try it.

But I can't see the why of it at all. If you like banana-tasting hefes, make some. If you like clove-tasting hefes, then make those instead. When you want wine, make a wine.

You can make wine with any yeast you want. Even bread yeast or just wild yeasts will make wine. You lose the control you have using a specific character wine yeast. And quality will vary widely. Repeatability? Forget it.

You can use any yeast to make a beer or cider, too - even wild yeasts. Same deal, you lose control, quality assurance and repeatability you have using a specific character beer yeast.

So try it if you wish. I'm thinking the beer yeast will not produce the required 10% minimum ABV for the wine to be self-sufficient/spoilage resistant. I think it will die out and leave residual sweetness. Maybe it will, though.

I'm also thinking that the same flavor esters a yeast produces in a grain environment will not be true in a fruit environment. But maybe they will.

One way to find out. Try it.

 

[wineinmd]

I couldn't find much on the Danstar website regarding alcohol tolerance, but a quick google search yielded a site that listed it as "medium". I imagine it wouldn't get past the 10% ABV jswordy listed above. Even if it did, the yeast will likely have been quite stressed and likely contributed off flavors.

If you want to try, I'd suggest going small batch and taking great care to keep the yeast happy. Follow all the rehydration instructions, keep the fermentation temperatures under control, and I'd probably pitch an entire sacchet in a 1 gallon batch.

You never know until you try.

 

[JohnT]

The selection of yeast for a specific wine is made based on the specific conditions of the must. Among the traits considered are: the level of alcohol tolerance, the amount of SO2 that the yeast can survive tolerate, the level of vulnerability the yeast has against yeast breakdown (or H2S production).

But the most important trait is the flavor profiles that the yeast adds to the wine. These wine yeast strains have been cultivated over the last 150 to 200 years to perform exceptionally well in wine must environs.

Just about any yeast will produce alcohol from sugar. There are those that have used bread yeast to do the job. The question here is if you really WANT to use bread (or beer) yeast in your wine. Would you raise your dog on cat food?

I see a growing trend of folks that work hard to produce a must, only to skimp when it comes to the yeast. Folks, pay the $2 and get some proper yeast!

 

[wineinmd]

The homebrewing world has seen a lot of people challenging conventional wisdom lately, and have realized that a number of long-held beliefs are wrong. The use of BIAB in lieu of a 3 vessel system, the benefits gained from the use of secondaries, the need to reduce/eliminate trub in primary, the existence of hot side aeration, etc.

I have my doubts that using a beer yeast will produce great results, but I don't see the harm in trying. Will it stall out and lead to an overly sweet wine with stressed-yeast off flavors? Probably. There's also a chance that Hefe yeast is the "proper" yeast for the type of wine he is trying to make. I could find almost no resources that talked about the use of beer yeast in wine, save for a couple of thought experiments on forums and one second-hand retelling of someone who had tried a wine fermented with saison yeast. There's nothing I could find to show that it would work, but also nothing to show that it absolutely wouldn't work.

If he's feeling adventurous, I think it would be a fun experiment. My thoughts.

Small batch
ABV on the low side
Meticulous yeast preparation
Fermentation temperatures on the low end of the suggested range

If it stalls out but has a good taste, pitch a wine yeast to finish it off.

Be a rebel!

 

[BernardSmith]

I suspect that a beer yeast can produce reasonable results. I say "reasonable" for two reasons - on the positive side there are folk who use beer yeast to make mead (check out the recipe for BOMM created by LoveofRose) and they don't seem to have any problem with fermenting the mead dry. While on the negative side, I think we tend to look for fruity esters in wines whereas brewers tend to want to avoid those fruity notes except under very specific conditions so I would guess that most beer and ale yeasts are likely to be designed to be minimize those flavors (with the exceptions mentioned by the OP, Ohchiz whereas wine makers look for those notes.

Without wanting to hijack your post Ohchiz, I wonder about brewing beer using wine yeasts. Some beer yeasts presumably can attack longer sugar molecules than wine yeasts can - and yet I have seen claims about brewers pitching champagne yeasts (aggressive strains) to help bring down the gravity (and presumably the sweetness) of some beers (which is to say using wine yeasts in addition to their beer yeasts). I am chomping at the bit to try making a simple beer with wine yeast (say 47D or QA 23 or 71B -) to make what would otherwise be an IPA with a single variety of hop. I am guessing that that might make a beer with a fairly novel flavor profile...

 

[wineinmd]

I haven't listened to it, but here is a Brewing Network show that talks about the use of wine yeast in beer. It looks like that discussion starts around the 38:00 mark.