Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Home winemaking has been popular so long across so many
countries that there are literally hundreds of varieties of yeast
available. Because covering them all would be a prodigious
task, I want to cover some common yeasts that will be most
generally useful for practically anything you'd like to try to
turn into wine. Later, you can branch out and try the other
excellent varieties of yeast that are available.
Red Star Pasteur Champagne
This is an excellent all-around yeast for making dry wines. It
produces glycerol as well as alcohol, and this gives wines a
nice mouth-feel. I particularly like using this yeast in wines
containing apple, pear, and flower ingredients because it
produces fresh aromas that match these ingredients. It works
well at lower temperatures, even as low as 55 degrees, and
tolerates up to 16% alcohol.
Red Star Montrachet Yeast
If you don't have much control of the ambient temperature of
your must, this yeast is a good choice. It can work at
temperatures ranging from 55 to 95 (though it does less well
at the extremes than it does in the middle of that range), and
produces less acetaldehyde than most yeasts. The aromas are
nice, and with an alcohol tolerance of 15%, this yeast is
well-adapted to making sweet port-style wines. I like using it
to make blueberry and cherry wines.
Lalvin D-47
If you'd like to make a dry white wine starting from apples or
pears, this is an excellent choice. Its temperature range is
