Suggestions for a Yeast for Mead

[FlowerPlanter]

Looking for a yeast to make mead, is there any yeast the more people prefer to use over others?

Anyone use Red Star Premier Cuvée? How was it?

[paul4168]

Looking for a yeast to make mead, is there any yeast the more people prefer to use over others?

Anyone use Red Star Premier Cuvée? How was it?

Lalvin EC-1118

[GDubs]

lavin 71b-112 is the best yeast.

[Aerindel]

Personally I think Lalvin D-47 is the best for any mead that you want to be able to drink in less than a couple months. It burns fast and clean and is usually mostly done fermenting by the second week.

It also leaves it somewhat sweet which I like, which is not to mean that it doesn't get hot, I often get around 18% alcohol with my batches.

[FlowerPlanter]

Thank you all.
I will try all 3

[ShelleyStuart]

My go-to for mead will now and forever be the cotes de blanc. I've tried the D-47, but the best meads I've done have been from the cotes. I tend towards sweet meads (16ish lbs of honey for a 5-gallon batch), and I let them cellar for 6 months before opening them.

[BeeCurious]

I used EC-1118 for a cyser that bubbled for several months in my cool/cold attic last winter. I avoid fast fermentation.

[Vance G]

I just did a faster ferment with 71b-1122 because the brewspace was warmer. A tad over seventy. Amazing how a few degrees warmer can speed it up! I think the majority of the fermentation is done in four days! It will be drinkable and good in a couple months. D-47 would have done the same thing, but if I started my mead a month from now, my basement would have cooled off 5 degrees and it would produce nasty garbage in cool temps. the original post is an impossible question! I am making a cyser with alfalfa honey and a little bit of raisens and dates. That is a radically different mead than the traditional, a panty remover I have sitting plotting evil in a carboy that is a product of ec-1118. It will taste nasty for a couple years and then the honey will come back and it will be a fine mead ready to be bottled. Get Kenn Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker. It will give you a basic education and a point of departure for more technically complex brewing. It is like anything else, doing something is not the same thing as doing it well. That takes a little study.

[WVMJ]

EC-1118 is our go to for higher SG, Lavlin KIV-1116 is also very good. Why are your meads taking so long to age out? We have been adding nutrients and things like Fermocel P that help the yeast out a little and the fermentations go very smooth around 70F. Mostly we have been making fruit meads with black raspberries, blackberries or elderberries. When we get enough honey (1st year beekeeper, 16 year winemaker) our first goal is to make a black raspberry mead and then a straight mead old fashioned style comb and all squished together. WVMJ

[Luterra]

I use Lalvin D-47 for most of my meads with good results. EC-1118 will tolerate up to 18% alcohol so either start with a really high SG and go for a powerful mead or plan to backsweeten. I haven't tried 71B but that one has malolactic fermentation activity so will reduce acidity somewhat (good for some fruit meads). I've used Montrachet for a spice mead several times based on recipe suggestions, and it works well albeit with a slightly slower start than D-47.