Brewing With Wine Yeast

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Message Stellaaaa beers 297 º 13:31 Wed 11/28/2012 I was wondering if anyone has any advice on brewing beer with wine yeast? I’m just curious as to how well this would work. Does anyone who’s tried it before have any advice or consideration on things to do differently with this different yeast. I’m just curious as to what the end result would taste like, so I thought I might give it a try just for fun.
Message ekstedt beers 8338 º places 428 º 14:09 Wed 11/28/2012 Originally posted by Stellaaaa I was wondering if anyone has any advice on brewing beer with wine yeast? I’m just curious as to how well this would work. Does anyone who’s tried it before have any advice or consideration on things to do differently with this different yeast. I’m just curious as to what the end result would taste like, so I thought I might give it a try just for fun. Made a split batch Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale about a year ago. One half was fermented with US-05, the other half with some anonymous dry wine yeast. The wine yeast version had a light belgian touch to it with some phenolics and esters. Kind of makes sense since it is speculated that some belgian yeast strains have their origins from french wine yeasts. Give it a try!
Message pepperford beers 115 º places 1 º 17:57 Thu 11/29/2012 Brewing network has a episode on this. Lots of info
Message bitbucket beers 2166 º places 63 º 21:32 Thu 11/29/2012 I brewed an old ale with flor sherry yeast. It came out pretty good.

Message FooFaa beers 1 º places 29 º 21:35 Thu 11/29/2012 Proceed with caution. Wine yeasts, generally, have a hard time fermenting maltose and maltotriose, or altogether cannot.
Message bitbucket beers 2166 º places 63 º 20:34 Sun 12/2/2012 Originally posted by FooFaa Proceed with caution. Wine yeasts, generally, have a hard time fermenting maltose and maltotriose, or altogether cannot. It seems odd that some strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae would be unable to consume fermentable sugars. In my limited experience it seems to work fine. Wine yeast has also worked well for the meads I’ve brewed.
Message drowland P beers 11069 º places 430 º 20:56 Sun 12/2/2012 Brewed a ton of ciders with champagne and wine yeasts with great results
Message ekstedt beers 8338 º places 428 º 04:27 Mon 12/3/2012 Originally posted by bitbucket Originally posted by FooFaa Proceed with caution. Wine yeasts, generally, have a hard time fermenting maltose and maltotriose, or altogether cannot. It seems odd that some strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae would be unable to consume fermentable sugars. In my limited experience it seems to work fine. Wine yeast has also worked well for the meads I’ve brewed. What do you mean by "fermentable sugars"? The ability to ferment various sugars/carbohydrates varies among different types of yeasts and bacteria. Brettanomyces for instance have the ability to ferment just about anything. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense that Sacharomyces strains adapted to wine could have a hard time fermenting maltose/maltotriose which are not present in grapes. That you have made successfull fermentaion of mead with wine yeast is not surprising considering the sugars present in honey. In my split batch mentioned above I noticed better attenuation for the ale yeast compared to the wine yeast. From 1055 they fermeted down to 1010 and 1017 respectively.

Message bitbucket beers 2166 º places 63 º 20:34 Mon 12/3/2012 Originally posted by ekstedt Originally posted by bitbucket Originally posted by FooFaa Proceed with caution. Wine yeasts, generally, have a hard time fermenting maltose and maltotriose, or altogether cannot. It seems odd that some strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae would be unable to consume fermentable sugars. In my limited experience it seems to work fine. Wine yeast has also worked well for the meads I’ve brewed. What do you mean by "fermentable sugars"? The ability to ferment various sugars/carbohydrates varies among different types of yeasts and bacteria. Brettanomyces for instance have the ability to ferment just about anything. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense that Sacharomyces strains adapted to wine could have a hard time fermenting maltose/maltotriose which are not present in grapes. That you have made successfull fermentaion of mead with wine yeast is not surprising considering the sugars present in honey. In my split batch mentioned above I noticed better attenuation for the ale yeast compared to the wine yeast. From 1055 they fermeted down to 1010 and 1017 respectively. 1. There are different levels of attenuation even among different ale yeasts. This is different than "altogether cannot." 2. Ale yeast and wine yeast are both strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae, so I expect they have more in common with each other than with Brettanomyces. 3. I’ve been successful at brewing beer with wine yeast without attenuation problems, as I’ve noted earlier in this thread. 4. One observation is worth a thousand expert opinions.
Message mtoast beers 336 º places 13 º 20:40 Mon 12/3/2012 Couple years ago I did a saison with Lalvin K1-V1116, I don’t think I did everything to coerce full attenuation out of it, but it made a damn fine enough beer that I should revisit.
Message ekstedt beers 8338 º places 428 º 05:01 Tue 12/4/2012 Originally posted by bitbucket Originally posted by ekstedt Originally posted by bitbucket Originally posted by FooFaa Proceed with caution. Wine yeasts, generally, have a hard time fermenting maltose and maltotriose, or altogether cannot. It seems odd that some strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae would be unable to consume fermentable sugars. In my limited experience it seems to work fine. Wine yeast has also worked well for the meads I’ve brewed. What do you mean by "fermentable sugars"? The ability to ferment various sugars/carbohydrates varies among different types of yeasts and bacteria. Brettanomyces for instance have the ability to ferment just about anything. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense that Sacharomyces strains adapted to wine could have a hard time fermenting maltose/maltotriose which are not present in grapes. That you have made successfull fermentaion of mead with wine yeast is not surprising considering the sugars present in honey. In my split batch mentioned above I noticed better attenuation for the ale yeast compared to the wine yeast. From 1055 they fermeted down to 1010 and 1017 respectively. 1. There are different levels of attenuation even among different ale yeasts. This is different than "altogether cannot." 2. Ale yeast and wine yeast are both strains of saccharomyces cerevisiae, so I expect they have more in common with each other than with Brettanomyces. 3. I’ve been successful at brewing beer with wine yeast without attenuation problems, as I’ve noted earlier in this thread. 4. One observation is worth a thousand expert opinions. All of this is trivially true (except for (4) which kind of depends on), but misses my point that it would hardly be that surprising if a Sach. C strain adapted to a maltose/maltotriose-free environment has a hard time metabolizing said sugars.

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