How To Prepare Yeast
Reducing the stress yeast experience is key to making the best mead possible. Surprisingly, avoiding yeast stress begins before it’s even been added to the must.
The proper way to prepare yeast depends on the form your yeast is in. There are slight differences in how liquid and dry yeast should be prepared.
Prepare to Pitch!
Pitching is a term used in mead-making to describe the act of adding yeast to a must. Once the yeast has been pitched, it is considered mead and no longer a must.
The proper way to pitch yeast depends on the form your yeast is in. There are slight differences in how dry and liquid yeast should be prepared.
Dry Yeast Preparation
Dry yeast is in a weakened state due to dehydration. The first step is to get them healthy through rehydration and yeast nutrients. Before preparing dry yeast, you must first determine the amount of yeast, Go-Ferm, and water you need to use.
We have a convenient Mead Batch Builder that will instruct you on how much of each ingredient you should use.
- Sanitize everything.
- Heat water in a microwave to 38-39°C. Do not heat the water above 39°C, it will kill your yeast.
- Add Go-Ferm to the water and mix using a fork until fully dissolved.
- Check the temperature of the mixture with a probe thermometer to ensure the temperature is no higher than 39°C.
- Sprinkle yeast on top of the mixture.
- Allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Mix the yeast into the solution with a fork.
- Allow to sit for a further 10-15 minutes.
- Pitch once the yeast and must are within 5°C of each other. You can add small amounts of must to the yeast mixture to reduce the amount of time it takes for the temperatures to be similar.
Liquid Yeast Preparation
Generally, one liquid yeast packet will be enough to ferment 20 litres of mead. You can still use an entire packet for five litres of mead. It’s really hard to add too much yeast on a homebrew scale.
- Sanitise everything.
- Remove the yeast from the refrigerator and allow it to reach room temperature.
- If you are not using Wyeast brand yeast, skip to the last step.
- If using Wyeast brand yeast, activate the yeast by breaking the internal “smack” packet.
- Wait for the yeast packet to swell. In general, this should take 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, it can take longer. If it doesn’t swell at all, the yeast may be dead due to poor storage or transport.
- Pitch once the must and yeast are within 5°C of each other.