Wine & Mead Yeast

Wine and mead yeast plays an important role in fermentation, flavour development and the final character of your homemade wine or mead. Choosing the right strain can influence alcohol tolerance, body, aroma and fermentation performance.

Our Wine & Mead Yeast range includes selected strains from Lalvin and Mangrove Jack’s for traditional wine, fruit wine, sparkling wine, mead and higher-alcohol fermentations.

Choosing Wine and Mead Yeast

Different yeast strains offer different fermentation characteristics. Therefore, choosing a strain that suits your ingredients and desired result can help produce a cleaner and more reliable fermentation.

Lalvin EC-1118 is a robust and neutral strain suitable for red, white and sparkling wines, fruit wines and cider. Its broad fermentation range and alcohol tolerance up to 18% ABV also make it a versatile general-purpose choice.

Mangrove Jack’s CL23 provides a very neutral fermentation profile and works particularly well with white, blush and sparkling wines. It produces relatively little glycerol, which helps create crisp, dry wines with a firm structure.

Mangrove Jack’s SN9 is another robust strain with alcohol tolerance up to 18% ABV. However, its higher glycerol production can contribute additional body and mouthfeel. As a result, it suits fortified and high-alcohol wines as well as fruit wines and mead.

For dedicated mead making, Mangrove Jack’s M05 Mead Yeast produces fresh floral esters that complement the natural character of honey. It offers very high attenuation, high flocculation and strong alcohol tolerance.

Yeast Nutrition for Healthy Fermentation

Healthy yeast needs suitable nutrition as well as fermentable sugars. This becomes particularly important when fermenting ingredients such as honey, which can provide limited natural yeast nutrients.

Our Vintner’s Harvest Wine Nutrient 100g provides additional nutrients to support healthy wine and mead fermentation.

You can also browse our Wine Additives, Nutrients & Acids range for products used to prepare, adjust and stabilise homemade wine and mead.

For more winemaking ingredients and equipment, return to our Wine & Mead Making range.