[thcipriani]

I've never used anything but dry wine yeast for mead. I was curious if anyone had any strong opinions concerning this strain. Also,  I'm not sure whether this needs a starter or not considering mead should be fairly easy to ferment.

[skunkmead]

When I was using it about 6 years ago I never bothered with a starter, but I might now if I was to use it again.  I now mostly use bear and wine yeast for meads...

[nicneufeld]

I tried using a bear yeast once, but it had a ferocious bite!

Collecting it too was QUITE a tricky affair!

[yeastmaster]

I used it once and ended up with a stuck fermentation/overly sweet mead.  My OG was around 1.1+ and I think it stopped fermenting around 1.030-1.035.  To be fair to the yeast it was fermenting at cellar temps and I didn't give it any nutrients to work with.  It may have performed better if I had worked harder on keeping it happy

[tumarkin]

I've never used anything but dry wine yeast for mead. I was curious if anyone had any strong opinions concerning this strain. Also,  I'm not sure whether this needs a starter or not considering mead should be fairly easy to ferment.

I have used it with ok, but not stellar, results. Certainly not one of my favorite yeasts.

You say that mead should be fairly easy to ferment.... not necessarily so. Honey is low in nutrients to keep the yeast happy. A traditional mead can be problematic, whereas a melomel is less so since the fruits typically provide more nutrients. There are a number of approaches to this problem. A variety of yeast nutrients that can be added, including a small amount of light malt extract.

[ryang]

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

Shows that WLP720 is same as Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit.  Is that correct??