Yeast for Blueberry Wine?

[pbrblue]

For years I've been using Montrachet yeast fo my blueberry wine and (in most cases) have beed disgusted with having to re-start it. I believe it's partly my fault forattempting to keep thealcohol level of the must as high as I could. Usually about 13 1/2%. I may be better off with a Red Star yeast that will tolerate a higher alcohol level but I wasn't sure which one to use. It suddenly dawned on me that there are many experts out there that could help. HELP!

 

[Wade E]

Pasteur Red will help bring out more fruit flavors and is good to approx. 16%

 

[dfwwino]

It depends on what goal you are trying to achieve, a dry or semi-sweet result? The higher the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, the dryer the wine. Pasteur Red would work. See the yeast chart below, which lists the yeast alcohol tolerances and the appropriate uses of the particular yeasts:


http://winemakermag.com/guide/yeast


I typically make my blueberry and other fruit wines with an alcohol range of 11-12 %. Unless your goal is to make a blueberry port, you might want to lower your SG next time to that range. My experience is that fruit wines are much more balanced with a lower alcohol level. I recently used a Cote des Blancs and obtained a wine with a lot of blueberry flavor.

 

[pbrblue]

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a shot for the next batch, probably in Jan.

 

[smurfe]

I am seriously considering liquid yeasts for my wine making. The two big yeast companies are producing more and more strains of liquid wine yeast. These are the places the wineries go to get their yeast for production. I have used both companies products many times for beer and have absolutely no complaints. In fact you will have a purer strain of yeast with the liquids. While dry is fine, it isn't always the best choice. I am not knocking dry yeast but for those that use various strains that don't meet their expectations, there are alternatives out there.


Now you might ask, if these are so great, why doesn't everyone use them. The biggest thing is viability and longevity. Dried yeast has a shelf life of a year or better if stored properly. Liquid yeasts don't have that luxury so you have to plan your brew around your materials purchase. Now you can keep the yeast in a fridge for a while but normally around 2-3 months is all that is recommended. They do put a 6 month best by date I believe though. If you have a local shop that stocks them give them a shot.


http://www.whitelabs.com/wine/wine_descriptions_amateurs.html


http://www.wyeastlab.com/hw_products.cfm

 

[Wade E]

I was just looking at those the other day Smurf and think I will try to get some this summer when I get some fresh fruits like my crab apple and Black Currant.