Red Star Red Star Premier Blanc Champagne Yeast (Pack of 10)

I received this about a week ago, September 3rd I believe. Today is September 10th. I paid the extra $1 (normal shipping was free) to have it arrive in half the time, so far it appears to have been worth it. I have taken a curiosity in wine-making and figured it can't hurt to try as it's very inexpensive. With these packets and local ingredients, it costs me about $6 a gallon, which is about 3.8 Litres. Going with a name brand would cost me about $30 to $60 for the same amount of alcohol. I'm making grape wine and apple cider. I've had it fermenting for about 3 days now and they're both still bubbling. I'm using a balloon with holes to let the gases escape. I have smaller holes than intended for the grape wine, as such I can smell more of the apple cider than the wine. The cider smells really, really good. I took normal apple juice from a store (only had vitamin c and concentrate, I believe) and added the sugar & yeast. So far it's working pretty well. I have yet to get a hydrometer so I can know my alcohol percentage. I hear though that, depending on what you're making, adding 1 cup of sugar to a gallon will give about 6 to 9% alcohol. I used almost 1 and 1/2 cups, so mine may be around 9 to 12% I'm guessing. Right now, my cider smells like champagne. Normally I hear about homebrewed alcohol being disgusting. I thought $6 a gallon might not be too bad, but so far it's smelling better than I expected. I will update when it stops fermenting and I get to do a taste test. Edit 9/10/2013 It's been about 12 hours (more or less) since I wrote my review above. My brew has been going on for about 3 or 4 days now and I decided to just do a taste test anyhow. They taste WAY better than I thought. I thought it wasn't going to taste good, but I was surprised. Even though I am not much of a wine or champagne drinker (my cider tastes more like apple champagne I think), the taste seems just as good as the stuff you see on a shelf in the supermarket. I probably have about another 3 to 5 days I'm guessing before it's ready. Instructions I've found states it can take one to two weeks, it's almost one week. Edit 11/02/2013 I have made a 3rd attempt at making some wine after my first two batches failed by my mistake. I left the jug brewing in my closet and almost forgot about it. I believe it's been sitting (fermenting) for about 5 weeks. This time I used up to half of a packet and 2 cups of sugar, it's still bubbling. I tried a little bit, thinking it would taste horrible. That was not the case, as it tastes pretty great.

I've used it for apple cider many times and it always performs well. Give a nice crisp, dry finish. But be careful, if you wait too long, it gets very dry.

I have ordered this yeast twice and it works great. With my first batch I did not take any special precautions to store the yeast - just left the packets at room temperature and they remained viable over the year or so that it took me to use them all. As far as I could detect, the last packet of yeast was as good as the first. I use them to ferment various fruits and vegetables into alcohol which I then convert to vinegar. My latest project is a black garlic vinegar which I started with this yeast about 5 days ago and it is still fizzing like a freshly opened bottle of Coke. I can’t comment on the flavor other than to note that the champagne yeast has not produced any unpleasant or off-putting flavors in my vinegars. I am sure there is a distinct flavor, but since I have not used any other yeasts for my vinegar I can’t differentiate or identify the flavor impact. I do not use enough of this yeast to purchase more cost effective bulk quantities and so I assume I am probably not getting a bargain price, but the long term storability of the individual packets makes them worth the price to me.

This yeast is great for what I primarily use it for, which is meads and ciders. It adds something to the brew that I can't replace with any other variation of yeast, a certain crispness that lends itself well to fruity flavors. However, if you are trying to make red wine, I would recommend you find another yeast that will compliment the brew that you're going for.

I use this to make the kind of wine that will keep a fellow warm while sleeping under a bridge. ("Proper service" requires a brown paper bag) It will fire off and ferment even juice loaded with preservatives if you use enough ; e.g. I use 1/2 packet to turn a gallon jug of Hawaiian Punch into a poor-man's Merlot. It will eat up every bit of sugar and turn it into alcohol, so thieve a bit of your wine every now and them as it is fermenting to make sure there is still enough sugar in it to keep going. This yeast does NOT die off - if kept well fed with sugar - until the juice is well over 20% alcohol! CAUTION: Do NOT cough or sneeze at same time you are laughing when drinking something fully fermented with this yeast, or you will require clean undies. UPDATE October 2015: Works MUCH better with Kool-Aid than Hawaiian Punch, not near as many preservatives in the mix-with-sugar Kool-Aid packets. Stay away from any of the BLUE colored Kool-Aid mixes, eg: "The Great Bleudini" flavor. Just trust me on that. GREAT, STRONG YEASTIE BEASTIES. Home-made MD 20/20, don't even THINK of driving a car after a glass of it. "Wheee!!!"

This is the best yeast I’ve used so far but the only concern this time by the seller is they sent me packets which are nearing expiry in less than 2 months. Red Star yeast have a shelf life of 2 years.

Llegóa nates d elo esperado. No he tenido la oportunidad de usarlo aún.

Superb yeast for grape wine. First cut open the pack and leave for five minutes so that sleeping yeast can breath oxygen. Then sprinkle the yeast on lukewarm sterile water in a plastic bowl where glucose D powder is added. After 5 minutes slowly mix using plastic spoon. Waite for 20 minutes. If you don't see the fermentation activity add pinch of diammonium phosphate , zinc , magnesium or multi vitamin tablet. After 10 minutes add to the grape must or juice.

Very good yeast for making Grape wine and all types of fruit wine, I made Grape wine, ginger beer, banana wine from this yeast. I have an excellent results for 5 litres.

received on time, pack of 10 with an expiry date 01 2023