71B for fruit
The same malic-eating strain listed under whites, and the single most useful yeast for country wine, because almost every fruit that is not a grape is too acidic.
Alcohol tolerance
14%
10% - 14%
Temperature
15-30 C
15C - 30C
Highest must it will finish
24 Brix
about 1.103, giving 13.4 to 14.6% if it went all the way
Nitrogen demand
Low
Copes with a must short of nitrogen, which is what makes it safe for honey and fruit.
Sold as
Lalvin 71B-1122
An affiliate search link, scoped to this strain rather than to a guessed listing.
Where it belongs
- Blackberry
- Rhubarb
- Plum
Pitching it
Rehydrate at the temperature the packet says, acclimatise it to the must temperature in stages, and pitch. This strain copes with far more than most, which is why it ends up in every difficult ferment.
Other fruit, mead and cider strains
Cote des Blancs
14%Slow and fruit-forward, and it stops relatively early, which is a virtue when you want an off-dry cider or a fruit wine that keeps some sweetness without being stabilised.
D47 for mead
15%The default mead yeast, for the body its lees contribute. Keep it below 20C: run it warm and it makes fusel alcohol that takes a year to fade.
English Cider Yeast
12%Ferments cider dry while keeping the apple aroma that a wine strain strips out, and leaves a fuller body than Champagne yeast does.
Wild ferment
12%No pitch at all: the yeast on the fruit does the work. Slower, less predictable and more complex, and the reason traditional cider tastes like nothing a packet produces.