I am a fan... using bread yeast

[AkTom]

Like the title says, I love my bread yeast. I just bottled 2 gallons of cranberry mead. There is a craft meadery back east somewhere... that does craft mead. I took their idea and tried a session mead. I was partly successful. It ended up 9%. I was shooting for 7-8%, maybe even 6. Next time I'll adjust my original sg down a bit. Not to be boring but here's what happened. If you don't read all the way, good taste.
11/19/16 Craft Cran Mead
OG 1.078 2-1 gallon carboys
3# honey from a friend
64 oz minus 1 cup Cran juice cocktail
1 Tbl bread yeast (1 cup 100* water, 1 Tbl sugar) wait 15 minutes, pitch
12/17/16 rack/degass with allinonewinepump ~ 1.010
12/21/16 rack again
12/23/16 ~1.010. bottled.
Very nice. At 9% a little higher than I wanted but is good to go. No hot flavor at all. Go bread yeast. Go!!!

 

[Mismost]

There is a BOMM out there...Bray's One Month Mead...he uses bread yeast if I recall correctly. I think one of his reasons was lower ABV. haven't tried a mead yet...but I did put a hive out on our place.

 

[AkTom]

With the price of honey, so far I've just done 1 gallon batches. I try to always have at least 2 or 3 going. Typically they are drinkable in 6-9 months. Some
Surprise me and are ready earlier. Some I don't try for at least a year.
1 gallon batches are fun and easy.

 

[BernardSmith]

There is a BOMM out there...Bray's One Month Mead...he uses bread yeast if I recall correctly. I think one of his reasons was lower ABV. haven't tried a mead yet...but I did put a hive out on our place.

Bray Denard, the creator of BOMM, uses an ale yeast Wyeast 1388. It's a liquid yeast and comes in a smack pack... The idea being that this yeast cleans up after itself very quickly. His starting gravity is , I think, 1.099 - so it's about 13% ABV

 

[Mismost]

Bray Denard, the creator of BOMM, uses an ale yeast Wyeast 1388. It's a liquid yeast and comes in a smack pack... The idea being that this yeast cleans up after itself very quickly. His starting gravity is , I think, 1.099 - so it's about 13% ABV

Correct. I was wrong.

It's Joe's Ancient Orange Mead that uses bread yeast....here is a link

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

All this got me thinking...why is wine yeast so much cheaper than beer yeast?

 

[BernardSmith]

Well, there is usually twice as much yeast in a pack of beer yeast and I wonder if the labs cultivating yeasts for ales and lager need to be more careful that there are fewer bacteria mixed in with the yeast - grains are far more susceptible to bacterial action than fruit... and perhaps price is largely determined by what the market can bear. You can use wild yeasts to ferment grapes or mangoes or apples and still produce delightful wines and ciders but wild yeasts in beer making produces sour beers and sour beers are not what most beer drinkers look for when they crack open a "brew"...