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The short answer
For most meads, use Lalvin 71B or Lalvin D47. Use EC-1118 when you want strong, dry or sparkling. 71B is the best all-rounder for fruit meads and semi-sweet meads you want to drink young. D47 makes the fullest-bodied traditional mead, but only if you keep it cool. EC-1118 ferments almost anything dry, up to 18% ABV, and is the yeast to reach for when a fermentation gets stuck. Whichever you pick, feed it: honey has almost none of the nitrogen yeast needs, and nutrients make more difference to the result than the strain.
Mead yeast compared: 10 strains
Every spec below comes from the manufacturer's own product page or technical data sheet, linked at the bottom of the page. Alcohol tolerance is the most the yeast can reach in good conditions; in a stressed, underfed mead it may stop well short.
| Yeast | Alcohol tolerance | Temperature | Character | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lalvin 71B | 14% | 59 to 86°F | Fruity, floral (rose); breaks down some malic acid, softening tart fruit | Fruit meads, semi-sweet meads, drinking young |
| Lalvin ICV-D47 | 15% | 59 to 86°F | Tropical fruit, white flowers, full body | Traditional meads, fermented cool |
| Lalvin EC-1118 | 18% | 50 to 86°F | Neutral, clean, vigorous | Dry and strong meads, sparkling, restarting stuck batches |
| Lalvin K1-V1116 | 18% | 50 to 95°F | High floral esters, robust | Fruit meads, high-gravity meads, warm rooms |
| Lalvin QA23 | 16% | 57 to 82°F | Crisp, lifts citrus and floral aromas | Dry traditional meads with aromatic honey |
| Red Star Premier Blanc | Over 16% | Down to 57°F | Clean, fresh; formerly Pasteur Champagne | Dry and strong meads, restarting stuck batches |
| Red Star Premier Cuvée | 18% | 45 to 95°F | Fast, clean, the most neutral in Red Star's range | Dry and sparkling meads |
| Mangrove Jack's M05 Mead | High | 59 to 86°F | Floral esters when cool; 95 to 100% attenuation | Dry meads; sold specifically for mead |
| Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead | 11% | 65 to 75°F | Rich, fruity; liquid yeast; leaves 2 to 3% residual sugar | Sweet and fruit meads without backsweetening |
| Kveik (LalBrew Voss) | 12% | 77 to 104°F | Neutral with orange and citrus notes; very fast | Hydromels and session meads, hot climates |
Mangrove Jack's describes M05's alcohol tolerance only as "high" on its own page; retailers list it at 18%. Premier Blanc's data sheet gives "more than 16%" and good resistance to cool fermentation at 57°F (14°C) without a stated upper limit.
Which yeast for which mead
| You are making | First choice | Also good |
|---|---|---|
| Your first mead | 71B | EC-1118 |
| Dry traditional | D47 (kept cool) | QA23, EC-1118 |
| Semi-sweet traditional | 71B | D47, or ferment dry and backsweeten |
| Fruit mead (melomel, cyser) | 71B | K1-V1116 |
| Strong or sack mead | EC-1118 | K1-V1116, Premier Cuvée |
| Hydromel / session mead | Kveik | 71B, M05 |
| Sparkling mead | EC-1118 | Premier Cuvée |
| Sweet mead, no stabilizing | Wyeast 4184 | 71B with extra honey |
| Rescuing a stuck batch | EC-1118 | Premier Blanc |
Notes on each strain
Lalvin 71B
One of the most widely used mead yeasts, and a safe default. Older packets and many recipes call it Lalvin 71B-1122; it is the same strain. It tolerates 14% ABV and 59 to 86°F, and Scott Laboratories rates its nitrogen needs as low. It produces fruity and floral (rose) aromas and breaks down part of the malic acid in fruit, which softens tart additions such as apples, cherries and plums. The result is a mead that is pleasant young, which is why so many fruit mead recipes, including our strawberry mead, use it.
Lalvin ICV-D47
Rated to 15% ABV, D47 gives tropical fruit and white flower notes and a rounder, fuller body than 71B, which makes it a favorite for traditional meads. Lallemand gives a range of 59 to 86°F, but mead makers widely report harsh, hot fusel alcohols when D47 ferments warm. Keep the must itself in the low 60s °F through the first week.
Lalvin EC-1118
The champagne yeast. It is neutral, fast and tough: up to 18% ABV from 50 to 86°F. That makes it the right choice for strong meads, for sparkling meads (it is used for secondary fermentation in the bottle) and for restarting a stuck fermentation. The trade-off is aroma: it adds little of its own, and many mead makers find its vigorous fermentation strips some of the honey's delicate notes. If you want a dry mead that tastes of the honey rather than the yeast, it works well.
Lalvin K1-V1116
K1-V1116 (now sold as V1116 K1) matches EC-1118's 18% tolerance but brings high levels of floral esters. It has the widest temperature range of the Lalvin strains, 50 to 95°F, and low nitrogen needs, which makes it forgiving in a warm house. A good choice for fruit meads and high-gravity batches.
Lalvin QA23
Selected in Portugal for white wines, QA23 tolerates 16% and ferments from 57 to 82°F with low nutrient needs. It releases bound aromas from fruit and flowers, which suits a dry mead made with a perfumed honey such as orange blossom. Less common in mead recipes, but worth trying if your traditional meads taste flat.
Red Star Premier Blanc and Premier Cuvée
Red Star's two champagne strains, made by Fermentis, a division of Lesaffre. Premier Blanc, formerly sold as Pasteur Champagne, is rated above 16% and noted for restarting stuck fermentations. Premier Cuvée tolerates 18% from 45 to 95°F and is, in Fermentis's own words, the fastest, cleanest and most neutral fermenter in its range. Both are widely stocked and cheap, and interchangeable with EC-1118 for most mead purposes.
Mangrove Jack's M05 Mead
One of the few dry yeasts sold specifically for mead. Mangrove Jack's gives 59 to 86°F, 95 to 100% attenuation and floral esters when fermented cool; expect it to finish dry. One 10 g sachet covers up to 4.5 gallons. The maker notes that honey musts need added nutrient with this yeast, as with any other.
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead
A liquid yeast with an 11% ceiling that leaves 2 to 3% residual sugar in most meads, so it makes a sweet mead without backsweetening. It prefers 65 to 75°F. Liquid yeast costs more and starts slower than dry, and its low tolerance means a high-honey batch can stall very sweet, so take a gravity reading before assuming it has finished.
Kveik
Kveik are Norwegian farmhouse ale yeasts that ferment cleanly at temperatures that would ruin a wine yeast. LalBrew Voss, the most widely sold, runs from 77 to 104°F, is neutral with light orange and citrus notes and in beer often finishes in two to three days. Its 12% tolerance makes it best for hydromels such as our session mead, or for a summer batch with no temperature control.
Mead nutrients: why honey needs help
Grape juice comes loaded with the nitrogen, vitamins and minerals yeast needs to build healthy cells. Honey does not. Yeast needs YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) in the range of about 150 to 200 ppm or more for a healthy fermentation, and honey supplies only about 30 ppm. A starved yeast ferments slowly, gives off sulfur, makes harsh fusel alcohols and may quit halfway. Old mead recipes took months or years partly for this reason.
Modern mead makers fix it in three ways: a rehydration nutrient (Go-Ferm) to start the yeast strong, a fermentation nutrient (usually Fermaid O) to supply nitrogen, and a schedule that spreads that nitrogen across the first days rather than dumping it all in at once.
Go-Ferm and rehydration
Go-Ferm (or the newer Go-Ferm Protect Evolution) is a rehydration nutrient from Lallemand. It supplies vitamins, minerals and sterols that the yeast absorbs as it wakes up, making its cell walls stronger for a high-sugar, low-nitrogen must. It is not a source of YAN for the fermentation.
- Weigh out 1.25 g of Go-Ferm per gram of yeast: 6.25 g for a 5 g packet.
- Stir it into 20 times its weight of clean water at 110°F (43°C): about 125 ml, or half a cup, for 6.25 g. It will not fully dissolve.
- Let it cool to 104°F (40°C), sprinkle the yeast on top and leave it for 20 minutes.
- Stir, then add a spoonful of must every few minutes to bring it within about 18°F (10°C) of the must before pitching.
Fermaid O vs Fermaid K vs DAP
| Nutrient | What it is | Nitrogen | Mead use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fermaid O | Yeast autolysate: amino acids, peptides, vitamins, minerals. No DAP. | 100% organic. Lallemand's data sheet: 0.4 g/L supplies 16 ppm YAN, which it rates as equivalent to 48 ppm of DAP nitrogen. | The modern default. Gentle, steady, hard to overdo; the basis of TOSNA. |
| Fermaid K | Blend of DAP with yeast-derived amino acids, vitamins and minerals | Mixed inorganic and organic | Works well in staggered schedules; avoid at pitch and in rehydration. |
| DAP (diammonium phosphate) | A pure inorganic ammonium salt | 100% inorganic, the most nitrogen per gram | Cheap, but a big dose early can cause a hot, fast ferment, and yeast cannot use it late in fermentation. |
| Generic "yeast nutrient" | Usually DAP, sometimes blended with other ingredients | Mostly inorganic | Better than nothing. Follow the packet dose and stagger it. |
Why the organic version? Lallemand's own trials found that yeast use the amino acids in Fermaid O about three times more efficiently than the nitrogen in DAP, and that it releases nitrogen steadily instead of causing a spike of activity and heat. In a badly deficient must, the same amount of YAN supplied as Fermaid O finished the fermentation, while DAP did not.
TOSNA: staggered nutrient additions
TOSNA stands for Tailored Organic Staggered Nutrient Additions. It was developed by mead maker Sergio Moutela and is published on his site, Mead Made Right; the current version is known as TOSNA 2.0. It is the most widely used nutrient protocol among home mead makers. The ideas:
- Organic: Fermaid O only, with Go-Ferm at rehydration.
- Tailored: the total dose scales with batch size, sugar and the yeast's nitrogen needs.
- Staggered: the total is split into four equal doses at 24, 48 and 72 hours after pitching, and at the one-third sugar break or day 7, whichever comes first. The one-third sugar break is when a third of the gravity points are gone: 1.067 for a mead that started at 1.100.
The Mead Made Right formula is:
Total Fermaid O (g) = Brix × 10 × nitrogen factor ÷ 50 × gallons
where the nitrogen factor is 0.75 for a low-requirement yeast, 0.90 for medium and 1.25 for high.
What counts as a low, medium or high requirement? Manufacturers rate 71B, D47, QA23 and K1-V1116 as low, but those ratings are written for grape juice, which starts with far more nitrogen than honey. When in doubt, use medium. It is the safer side to err on: a little extra organic nitrogen is harmless, and a shortage causes most mead faults.
Worked example: 1 gallon at 1.100
A standard one-gallon mead with about 2.9 lb of honey and a starting gravity of 1.100, fermented with 71B and treated as a medium nitrogen requirement:
- Convert gravity to Brix. 1.100 is about 23.8 °Brix.
- Apply the formula. 23.8 × 10 × 0.90 ÷ 50 × 1 = 4.3 g Fermaid O in total.
- Split it four ways: about 1.1 g per dose, roughly a third of a teaspoon.
- Rehydrate the yeast with 6.25 g Go-Ferm in 125 ml of 110°F water, as above.
| When | Fermaid O | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch (day 0) | 0 g | Go-Ferm in the rehydration water only |
| 24 hours | 1.1 g | Swirl first, then add slowly |
| 48 hours | 1.1 g | Swirl daily through week one |
| 72 hours | 1.1 g | Check gravity |
| 1/3 break (1.067) or day 7 | 1.1 g | Last dose; no nutrient after this |
With the low factor (0.75) the total is 3.6 g; with high (1.25) it is 6.0 g. A calculator that applies the 160 ppm figure directly, targeting the same YAN, gives about 5.1 g. Anything from 4 to 5 g is a sound dose for this batch. Our mead calculator does the whole calculation, ABV included, for any size and gravity. For 5 gallons, multiply the nutrient by five; one packet of yeast is still enough.
Troubleshooting: stuck, rotten eggs, rocket fuel
Stuck fermentation
Take a hydrometer reading first: a quiet airlock does not mean the yeast has stopped. If the gravity has not moved in a week and is well above 1.000:
- Too cold? Move it to 65 to 70°F and swirl to rouse the yeast.
- Too much sugar for the yeast? If the mead is near the strain's alcohol limit (check with the mead calculator), it is finished, not stuck. Accept a sweeter mead or restart it.
- Too acidic? Honey musts have little buffering and the pH can crash during fermentation. If a pH strip reads below about 3.0, add a little potassium bicarbonate.
- To restart: rehydrate a packet of EC-1118 or Premier Blanc with Go-Ferm, then add the stuck mead to it gradually, doubling the volume every hour or so, before pitching into the batch. Yeast thrown straight into alcohol and low sugar often fails.
Rotten-egg smell (H2S)
Hydrogen sulfide is a stress signal, usually a nitrogen shortage in the first days. Swirl or stir gently to drive the gas off, and if you are still before the one-third sugar break, add a dose of nutrient. It normally clears within days. Do not add nitrogen late in fermentation: yeast can't use it by then, and it only feeds spoilage organisms. If the smell survives into a finished mead, briefly stirring with a clean piece of copper (or racking through copper tubing) removes it. The cure is prevention: follow the staggered schedule.
Fusel alcohols ("rocket fuel")
A hot, solvent-like burn that goes beyond normal alcohol warmth comes from fusel alcohols, made when yeast ferments too warm or is stressed. Fermentation generates heat, so a mead in a 72°F room can run several degrees warmer inside the jug during week one. Prevention:
- Ferment in the low to mid 60s °F. Stand the fermenter in a tub of water, which evens out temperature swings, and add a frozen water bottle on warm days.
- Feed properly: underfed yeast also make more fusels.
- Be especially careful with D47, and with strong meads.
Some harshness in young mead is normal and fades with months of aging. True fusel heat fades very slowly, if at all.
Ready to brew? Start with our step-by-step mead recipe, work out the honey with the honey per gallon calculator, or pick a style from our mead recipe collection.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best yeast for mead?
Lalvin 71B for fruit meads and semi-sweet meads you want to drink young; Lalvin D47 for traditional meads, fermented cool; Lalvin EC-1118 when you want a strong, dry or sparkling mead. Each costs a few dollars or less, and one 5 g packet covers a batch of up to 5 gallons.
Is 71B or EC-1118 better for mead?
It depends on the result you want. 71B tops out around 14% ABV and adds fruity, floral aromas, so a strong batch finishes sweet. EC-1118 goes to 18% and is neutral, so it ferments almost anything dry and lets the honey speak. For a standard 3 lb per gallon batch, both usually finish dry.
How much yeast nutrient do I need for 1 gallon of mead?
For a standard 1 gallon mead at a starting gravity around 1.100, about 4 to 5 g of Fermaid O in total, split into four doses at 24, 48 and 72 hours after pitching and at the one-third sugar break. Plus about 6 g of Go-Ferm in the rehydration water if you use it.
What is Fermaid O?
Fermaid O is a yeast nutrient made by Lallemand from yeast autolysate: dead, broken-down yeast cells rich in amino acids, peptides, vitamins and minerals. All of its nitrogen is organic; it contains no DAP. It is the nutrient used in the TOSNA protocol most mead makers follow.
Do I need Go-Ferm for mead?
It is not strictly necessary, but it helps. Go-Ferm is a rehydration nutrient that gives yeast vitamins, minerals and sterols as they wake up, which makes them better able to cope with a high-sugar, nitrogen-poor honey must. Use 1.25 g per gram of yeast.
Can I use bread yeast or champagne yeast for mead?
Champagne yeast, yes: EC-1118 and Red Star Premier Blanc are champagne strains and among the most popular mead yeasts. Bread yeast works too, and a famous beginner recipe uses it, but it stops around 10% to 12% ABV, leaves the mead sweet and is less predictable.
Why does my mead smell like rotten eggs?
That is hydrogen sulfide, and it almost always means the yeast is short of nitrogen. Swirl the fermenter to release gas and, if you are still in the first third of fermentation, add a dose of nutrient. It usually fades within days. If it persists after fermentation, a brief contact with copper removes it.
What temperature should mead ferment at?
For most wine yeasts, 60 to 68°F measured at the fermenter. Fermentation generates its own heat, so the must can run several degrees warmer than the room in the first week. Warmer fermentations are faster but risk harsh fusel alcohols, especially with D47.
Sources
- Scott Laboratories: Lalvin 71B
- Lallemand Brewing: Lalvin ICV-D47
- Lallemand Brewing: Lalvin EC-1118
- Scott Laboratories: Lalvin V1116 K1 (ICV/INRAE)
- Lallemand Wine: Lalvin QA23
- Fermentis (Lesaffre): Red Star Premier Blanc technical data sheet (PDF)
- Fermentis (Lesaffre): Red Star Premier Cuvée technical data sheet (PDF)
- Mangrove Jack's: M05 Mead Yeast
- Wyeast Laboratories: 4184 Sweet Mead
- Lallemand Brewing: LalBrew Voss Kveik
- Scott Laboratories: Fermaid O technical data sheet (PDF)
- Scott Laboratories: Go-Ferm
- Lallemand Wine: Go-Ferm technical data sheet (PDF)
- Mead Made Right (Sergio Moutela): Nutrient Additions / TOSNA
- MeadMakr podcast: TOSNA 2.0 with Sergio Moutela