Beer yeast for session Mead

Other Fermentables
1

Hi everybody! I am thinking of making a mead for a friend and would like it ready in early January 2026. I am thinking of doing a session metheglin and using a beer yeast to help it finish in about 2.5 months. Spices would be more wintery/ baking such as clove, mace and cinnamon.

I am aiming for a 3 gallon batch and feel that perhaps a beer yeast would be the best option to achieve a full fermentation and provide flavor that I am hoping for. My biggest question is what beer yeast would you recommend? Saison, or IPA, Scottish ale…? (I know Kveik would ferment fast, although I would rather not go that route for this mead. That is a different brewing project I want to do :wink:)
Do you know of any good recipes I can use for inspiration?

Thanks for any ideas or tips you can throw my way!

2

I like to use English yeasts in cider and mead. I’ve tried saison yeast but I don’t care for it as much in a mead.

3

Hi Grow a Garden!

Because you plan for early January, start fermentation now/soon, and maybe bottle or keg by mid‑December to give a little conditioning time. If you want retail‐ready, maybe allow 4‑6 weeks post‐fermentation to mellow.

4

I just pitched 71B this evening with an OG of 1.070. Tasting my must I did not get the spice flavor I was hoping for, so it may be more of session strength alcohol and session strength spice flavors. :smiley:

We will see how this turns out!

5

I make a lot of hydromels i.e. session meads. 71B is a great choice, it is known for enhancing mouthfeel which is helpful in preventing a thin mouthfeel.

I recommend transferring into a secondary after fermentation then giving that a week around room temperature then store cold for a month. Then I would use a fining agent before packaging to get it completely clear. I prefer chitosan and kiesesol which takes a few days but other finings are “fine”.

Also, it’s not nearly too late to add more spices.

6

For those curious and or helpful types out there here are my updates. After pitching my yeast I added yeast nutrients over the next couple of days and also degassed it regularly. I racked twice now: about 2 weeks after pitching yeast, and again about another 2 weeks later. The gravity was down to 1.033 in mid-December. I has been sitting quietly in my cool basement for almost a month and a half. It is still bubbling away. Yesterday it was 1 bubble/ 39 seconds; this evening its 1 bubble/ 60 seconds (if anybody has an explanation on that difference I’m curious to know why!)

7

As I want this ready at the end of the month and do not want to risk bottle bombs I am looking for advice/ tips/ suggestions etc. for stopping fermentation. I just measured the gravity and I’m at 1.001

What do folks think, will another 3 weeks in a cool basement be enough to stop fermentation? I found this discussion about stopping fermentation and am not sure if it is helpful for my situation or not. Stopping fermentation

8

You can TRY to stop fermentation. Here’s how:

  1. Rack it off the lees (again!).

  2. Add sorbate AND sulfite in amounts recommended on the bottle or online.

  3. Keep it cold.

  4. Keep an eye on the specific gravity. It might still fall a couple more points over the next few weeks, but with the help of sorbate AND sulfite (both are necessary), should slow to a crawl and then stop, hopefully in the high 0.990s or 1.000. When gravity remains stable from week to week, THEN it should be safe to bottle. (I mean, no need to check gravity every day, but about once per week is a good idea.)

Good luck.