Raspberry Wine Yeast

[Tovis]

I think I'll venture out of the beginner's forum and pop this post into this forum. So far I have at least 3 gallon carboys going of Banana, Kiwifruit, Blueberry, Peach, and Cherry and Blueberry for port.

The local supermarket had a skid of Raspberries for 50 cents a package which equated to about $1.35 per lb. So I grabbed a lot of them, 18 lbs to be precise.

In all of my wines but two I've used Lavin EC-1118, and really like it. The guy at the wine store said I should venture out and try some others. This yeast seems to work fast, quick and I love the flavor of the wine.

What are your opinions of yeasts for raspberry wine? Should I try something different or stick with the same yeast I use?

 

[Deezil]

1118 is a bit of a "cookie cutter" yeast; it doesnt have much impact on the wine, it just gets the job done and gets out of the way.. Some of the other more common yeasts, will impact the wine some..

71B will lower the acidity by consuming some Malic Acid during fermentation, so that'll change the balance between acids - sugars - alcohol in the final product; something to anticipate and can be useful with highly malic-acidic fruits.. It does a few other things, enhancing aromatics, etc; but the acidic reduction is what most people remember it for

D-47 is the "mouthfeel yeast" in my mind; it doesnt touch the aromatics as much, but kept happy it will bring some body to the wine in question; I'm getting ready to use it with some apples and pears, because I anticipate the wine will be a little too "juice-like", lacking body.

1116 is a workhorse; it'll restart stuck fermentations. It's like a 1118 yeast, that you put a leash on.. It brings a little to the table, but I havent used it enough to really speak firmly on what that is..

I think the 5th common yeast is RC 212; which is a red wine yeast, that I havent used much.. I did use it on a batch of Raspberry Melomel, and even though I fed it properly, I wasnt impressed personally.

But with a different yeast, outside the common 5, you could probably make Raspberry in a 'Red' style and have a decent outcome.. There's a lot of yeasts out there, but before venturing too far, you'll want to understand yeast nutrients so you dont run into fermentation problems; they gotta eat!

 

[Tovis]

Which have you liked best? I want to preserve the raspberry taste and not sugar bomb it in the end like most commercial wines.

 

[Deezil]

1116 made a nice raspberry wine

I've wanted to try D-47, but I havent yet