Winemaking Yeast Selection: Not as Simple as in the Kitchen

Our must was rather cold yesterday so we decided to hold off adding yeast until today. A winemaker has a vast selection of yeasts to chose from. In the kitchen, Kathy usually has a choice of using Red Star yeast or Fleischmann’s yeast for her baking. That’s not much of a choice. Winemakers on the other hand have hundreds if not thousands of yeasts to choose amongst. In our case, we asked Dave Zuchero, winemaker at Tin Lizzie Wineworks, the yeasts that he had available for red wine fermentation. The list of red wine yeasts was rather small and included: BDX, D21, D80, D254, Syrah and 43. Even though small, the list required research. Most of the available yeasts are of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae species; however, they are different strains. Each strain has its own characteristics. Research helps to eliminate some of the yeasts and helps narrow the list.

We eliminated Syrah and 43 because they were not common yeasts for Cabernet Sauvignon. We had used the D80 before for a Cabernet Sauvignon, so it was in the running. We also liked the D21. Since we are going to start the malolactic fermentation tomorrow, we selected the D21 over the D80. The D21 has a low nitrogen need while the D80 has a high nitrogen need. When the malolactic fermentation occurs at the same time as the primary fermentation, we heeded the advice to use a yeast with low nitrogen requirements.

We also like the way D21 plays well with Booster Rouge. The two together should enhance the licorice components of the wine. This is something we like so selecting the D21 made sense.

Our first task was to take 110º water and add Go-Firm to the water and mix. Go-Firm, by Lallemand, provides a nutrient for the yeast. After 15 minutes we mixed in the yeast. About 30 minutes later, we took some must from the fermentation bin and added it to the container with the Go-Firm and the D21 yeast. We were trying to lower the temperature of the yeast mixture to bring it closer to the temperature in the fermentation bin. The bin temperature measured 59º F. The temperature of the yeast mixture measured 73º F. After a half hour we added some more must. When we had the temperature of the yeast mixture within ten degrees of the must we added the yeast mixture to the fermentation bin and stirred the must.

While we were waiting for the temperature in the yeast mixture to cool, we mixed the bacteria for the malolactic fermentation. This ended our second day of winemaking at Tin Lizzie Wineworks.

Cheers,
Terry