All About Yeasts
The essential thing to realise about brewing is the most important and central factor it the yeast. The whole practise of brewing comes down to the matter of providing ideal conditions for the yeast, a living organism, to thrive and multiply.
To do that the yeast must have warmth, it must have oxygen, and it must have a certain amount of nitrogenous matter, vitamins and some acid. The ideal recipe will provide all of those; if one of them is lacking the fermentation may stick, or temporarily stop.
There are numerable varieties of yeast, all with different characteristics. Some are better for beer brewing whilst others are better for the production of wine.
| Ale yeast | |
 | A true top fermenting yeast with vigorous fermentation characteristics. Promotes rich full-flavoured English style ales with clean, smooth textures. Produces firm heavy sediment, ideal for bottle conditioning. |
| Cider yeast | |
 | This is a special bayanus strain, especially selected for its ability to produce exceptionally crisp and refreshing ciders. |
| Lager yeast | |
 | This strains a true bottom fermenting lager yeast that produces desirable flavour characteristics with quality lager beer. |
A good wine yeast has a high alcohol tolerance i.e. It will allow the wine to ferment further and be that much stronger before it succumbs. It will form a firmer sediment, making racking much simpler, and will be less prone to imparting off flavours to the wine.
| All Purpose Red | |
 | Produces red wines which are well rounded and full of fruit flavours so will be suitable for any style of red wine. |
| All Purpose White | |
 | Produces white or blush wines which are exceptionally crisp and clean. |
| Bordeaux Red |
|
 | Improves body and confers beautiful soft fruit flavours to red wines - perfect for Bordeaux style reds. |
| Bordeaux White | |
 | Confers exceptional depth and complexity to white wines and will be perfect for Bordeaux (dry) style whites. |
| Burgundy Red | |
 | Confers exceptional depth and complexity to red wines is perfect for burgundy style reds. |
| Champagne | |
 | Exceptionally clean and fresh, although selected for champagne, it is also suitable for sparkling wine. |
| Germanic White | |
 | Confers strong Germanic style flavour to white wines |
| Dessert/High Alcohol | |
 | It has particularly high tolerance to alcohol. |
| Re-Start | |
 | Selected especially for re-starting stuck fermentations. High success rate can be expected where the wine is below 8% abv and within ph range 3.0 - 3.5. |
