WHY SHOULD I USE YEAST?

As far back as history can tell us, man has been making wine. Archeol-

ogists have found evidence of wine being purposely made as far back as

12,000 years ago. Wine was very present in early Egypt, almost being an

industry of its own as early as 2,000 B.C. Yet, yeast was not discovered

until the 1850's when French scientist Louis Pasteur suggested that wine

fermentation was the result of a living organism.

So why do we need to use yeast now, when for so many years man has

successfully made wine while being completely oblivious to its existence?

There are two parts to this answer.
 

- Part I, Putting The Odds In Your Favor.

To say that man has successfully made wine over the years is not

completely true. Bad batches of wine where made quite often as well.

Wines that developed mold; wines that remained cloudy and visually

unappealing; wines that eventually turned to vinegar - they were all part of

the mix of what was made along side the good batches of wine that kept

man's interest in the drink for so long.

Yeast is naturally everywhere. We can't see it, but it's in our homes, on

the trees and plants; it floats in the air. We breath it everyday. And it is

this natural yeast that also lands on fruit and provides for a natural

fermentation when we crush the fruit and expose its sugars and nutrients

to the yeast.

The problem is that natural yeast is a "package deal". What I mean to say

is that yeast is not the only thing that is everywhere. Vinegar bacteria,

mold spores and many other types of little "nasties" are on the fruit as

well, waiting to spoil the fun - pun intended.

Yeast does have the upper-hand in the sense that it is, on average, more

capable of taking over the fruit more so than these other competing

organisms. It is also capable of actually destroying any remnant numbers

of these other organisms once it has taken hold of the fruit. But, quite often

yeast will let us down and allow these other cultures to take over the fruit

and cause it to become something other than wine.

And, this is how the unknowing story went for so many years. In the more

current times, since Louis Pasteur's discoveries, we have developed a

better understanding of what takes place during a fermentation. We

understand that natural yeast is a "package deal". We now know how to

isolate a strain of yeast, preserve it and package it.

With pure strains of packaged yeast available, the winemaker can now

simply put the juice through a sterilization process, killing all the wild

molds and bacteria (wild yeast included) and then simply add a fresh

strain of packaged yeast back to it, allowing the winemaker to start with a

clean slate and a big advantage.

The sterilization process if very simple. You add a product called

Campden Tablets to the juice - one tablet per gallon. Let the juice stand

uncovered for 24 hours and then the juice is ready for yeast to be added.

Campden Tablets are really sulfite that is stabilized in a powder form.

When the tablets are crushed up and dissolved into a fruit juice, they

release sulfur gases into the wine which does the sterilizing. Over a short

period of time the gases slowly dissipate into the air, usually within 24

hours, making it safe to add your fresh package of wine yeast.
 

- Part II, Taking Advantage Of Technology.

The second reason we should add yeast to wine, is that the strains that

are available to us as winemaker's are much more suited for making wine

than what you will find floating in the wild. Like any other living organism,

yeast can be bred to respond more favorably to a given situation. There

are yeasts that have been bred specifically to make beer; yeasts bred

specifically to rise bread and so on.

In the case of wine yeasts, these yeasts are not only bred to heartily

produce the maximum amount of alcohol they can from the fruit, but also

to produce alcohol with good flavor qualities. And to take this a step

further, different wine yeasts have been bred for different types of wines.

For example, there are wine yeasts, such as our "Red Pasteur" yeast

from Red Star, that are very well suited for heavier red wines. And, there

are wine yeasts such as our "Lavlin ICV D-47", that are very well suited

for light, fruity white wines, and so on.

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E. C. Kraus

Home Wine & Beer Making Supplies

Address: 733 S. Northern Blvd. - P. O. Box 7850 - Independence, MO  64053

Phone:(816) 254-7448  Fax:(816) 254-7051  Toll Free: (800) 353-1906

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