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Does anyone know if it works to use beer yeast to make wine.

I've got a batch of chardonnay grape crushed and sitting in my fridge right now, but I bought beer yeast by mistake.

  • Can I use the beer yeast to make white wine?

Please, could I have an answer today? Those grapes ain't gonna last!

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  • watch the alcohol tolerance of your yeast. Wine yeasts tend to have higher alcohol tolerance than beer yeasts - e.g. if your yeast will only go to 7-8% but you have ABV potential of 13% in the must you will end up with a very sweet wine.
    – aucuparia
    Oct 22, 2018 at 13:04

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Quick Answer: you can 100% use beer yeast for wine making.

Long Answer: you can and it will make wine, but your flavour profile may not be what you are expecting. It will be alcoholic and it will have been made from grapes but it may not taste like wine. A huge proportion of the flavour of wine comes from the volatile compounds produced during yeast metabolism. This is a major contributor to the Terroir of a wine. You will just end up with a slightly different flavour profile.

I have made wine in the past with baker's yeast. It was not as good as that I have made with wine yeast but it was perfectly drinkable, and after a time matured rather nicely.

You can always pitch in the beer yeast and tomorrow pitch in some extra wine yeast, if you do this in the first 24 hours of fermentation you should still get some of the vinous volatiles, as the majority of flavour compounds produced by yeast are produced in the first 72H, during the exponential growth phase.

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  • Thanks Mr_road. Great to have such knowledgeable answers ans so quickly.
    – A D
    Oct 21, 2018 at 19:12

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