Champagne Yeast

[alwilson]

Happy Friday All,

I've just been given a few (7) sachets of champagne yeast. Can these be used for Ale? Maybe added to bottles for that tight bubbly mouthfeel you get with champagne? My girlfriend would be more inclined to drink an ale with that kind of carbonation - "im tasting stars"

If so, would I ferment with an ale yeast first then add this during bottling?

Or am I not even close to anything right now


Cheers
Alex

[EramusBlack]

good for making Ginger beer

[alwilson]

I'm just drinking a Ginger Beer tea from Whittard - really nice, its an instant drink, just add hot water.

Made from black tea and I guess dehydrated ginger beer. Non-Alcoholic. But really nice. Recommend it.

[Wolfy]

In general ale yeast has an alcohol tolerance around 6-10%, where champagne yeast is typically 14-18%, so if you were to add champagne yeast when bottling, you may risk over carbonating (and the associated problems with that), of course it does depend on your wort, FG and a few other things, but usually you should bottle with a similar strain to your primary yeast.

[alwilson]

thanks wolfy - is that to say I should start fermenting with champagne yeast, rather than just bottling it with it?

I was going to bottle these in champagne bottles with corks and cages - so pressure wise im assuming they should be okay?


Alex

[HighHops]

Happy Friday Al

I have used champagne yeast to bottle belgian beers before now. They work well with strong alcohol content when other yeasts won't. After a few months conditioning the bubbles were incredibly tight and the taste exploded in your mouth.

You can use a normal ale yeast and finish with champagne, but I think they also come out dryer than just using ale yeast, so it's a matter of taste. If you just use champagne yeast for the full ferment then you won't get the fruity esthers that you might expect in a beer.

[Mountain]

Yes, I did this with a very high ABV Belgianish style fruitbeer. The beer yeast took it up to around 8% and then I used champagne yeast and fed the beer with a combination of sugar & spraymalt each couple of days for a while.

It turned out exceptionally well.

I kind of looked at it as a stealth beer. Very easily drinkable but with a high falling over ability. It was especially popular with the ladies:)