Best temp to pitch cotes des blancs yeast?!
Answers: the back of the pack says 100-105 and i pitched it at 102, two days later and not much bubbling at all from a recipe that has yielded me 14% ABV in the past (when i used champagne yeast). i repitched with a pack of munsons i had in the fridge and the bubbling picked up a little. should i not pitch the cotes at 100-105? fahrenheit temp please.
100-105 is to hot to pitch. Try it at room temperature. 70-90 A little warm is ok...but 100 to 105 is too much IMHO.
Muntons is beer yeast yet you are pitching wine yeast too. Sounds like you really need to use a wine yeast to get the max out of your must.
Several types of yeast are good for restarting fermentation, check w/ you local homebrew store.
If you don't mind a yeast that eats up all the sugars and leaves no sweetness I would add a pack of ec-1118 it is a champagne yeast and you will not need to worry about the O2 levels. It will take over where the Munton's leaves off. It should kick in no problems.
I always try to pitch my wine yeasts around 70'ish. Cote de blancs, Montrachet and Champagne have all worked fine for me at those temps.
edit: Cote de Blancs is also a very slow fermentation. You won't notice a huge krausen like you get with some beer yeasts. If you hadn't pitched the Munton's I would have suggested just taking an SG reading in a week to see if there was any activity at all. I think you would have been OK either way though...
I usually pitch my yeast between 70 and 85 degrees f. I've seen many recipes that say to rehydrate yeast at 100-105 degrees but I never have.
I doubt that you scorched the yeast maybe stunned it.
Also something to consider, was the wort/must oxygenated enough before pitching. Yeast require oxygen to start a good healthy fermentation. Oxygenating should be done only after cooling, and before pitching.