you did what you were supposed to do.
I suspect you just got caught in that upper part of the alcohol tolerance limit for that yeast. I avoid that OG range as I do not personally like high alcohol + dry mead. I don’t think I’m alone in that.
I assume some people must be actively stopping the fermentation or they are marketing kits to people who are really inexperienced and don’t understand nutrients.
I’m looking at the recipe of the week for last week. I don’t see how someone could use D-47 and an OG of 1.090 and end up with a FG of 1.030 without chilling to stop fermentation, racking off the yeast, and then sorbating/sulfiting to keep it from restarting. Yet it says “ferment completely” and doesn’t say anything about back-sweetening. I guess I can only assume that 1.090 was the OG before she added a bushel of pluots that accounted for a big % of actual gravity?
(sorry about going off on that tangent. Hey, you can always back-sweeten.)
Just checking… did you use the wyeast sweet mead yeast? If so it looks like you keep the yeast so healthy during ferment that they were able to perform better. NB instructions/formulation likely don’t assume such care.
Also, what temp did you ferment at?
So how does it taste - besides the dryness? Any hot alcohol/off tastes, etc?
I don’t have much mead experience, but I’ve heard (from Ken Shramm) that you can expect yeast to ferment about 100 gravity points of a mead. Given that, you’d need to start at a higher OG to have a mead finish sweet - or otherwise stop fermentation.
This is true. If you start with a high enough gravity the yeast will reach their limit. I have not done this much, but the last mead I made was 10# for a 2.5 gallon batch, and it finished fairly sweet. Stagered nutrients and degassed with a mix-stir.
I had the same thing happen with my first mead. I used 71B, which supposedly has a 14% ABV limit. I started at an OG of 1.120 and ended up at 1.002, which is well over 15%. Michael Fairbrother of Moonlight Meadery gets up to 18% with the same yeast. I think a lot of it has to do with how well you take care of your fermentation.
For now, I’d plan on backsweetening and note everything you do so you can adjust accordingly for next time.
You have to stabalize the mead using potassium sorbate and/or potassium metabisulphite, then add the sugar source (honey, fruit, etc). Don’t over do it. 6 lbs would propably be too much. Add in smaller steps, taste the mead, add more until you are happy with the taste.
ok, I have another question about this mead. I bought and read the book mentioned above and it wa a good read, but I don’t remember reading the following scenario.
FG before : under 1.000
Last week, I added a potassium sorbate to stop fermenting, mixed it in, added 3lbs of honey, mixed it in, added isinglass a few days later, and mixed.
FG now - 1.024
Question :
Last night I noticed the airlock letting out gas about every 2 minutes. This seems to go against what I thought would happen. Is this right? What might be happening?
What temp are you storing it at? in order to keep the yeast from fermenting the new additions you have to keep it pretty cold. the chemicals you added to knock the yeast out just stuns them. if you give it favorable conditions it can still start again.
How does it taste? Are you happy with it as is? If I lacked cold storage I would probably bottle a bit and chill it, then when I finished those bottles repeat the process. It’s going to do what it’s going to do in the carboy. You can rack it to get it off some yeast, but at 16% there’s probably not much healthy yeast to start fermenting in there anyway at this point. If the bottom looks fairly clear, there won’t even be enough yeast for autolysis to be detectable.
When I backsweeten I use the just wait method. I wait a year or more until the mead has dropped super clear and all the yeast have died before I backsweeten.
But then again I am a beekeeper, and own a shitload of carboys and cornelius kegs.
The mead tastes pretty good as it is after I added 3lbs of honey bringing it down to under 12%abv. I chilled the gravity reading liquid. I do like the idea of waiting before backsweetening. It is too late now, but that does make a ton of sense. I think I will just bottle a bunch and keep it in the fridge. At this point, I think waiting a year is just going to annoy me.
I like the idea of mead, but I might need to be able to keep it colder than I have possible at this time. Maybe do 1gallon batches so I can keep in the fridge when needed.
What was your batch size? I don’t think that adding 3lb of honey (right around 1 quart) to a 16% ABV is going to bring it down to 12% ABV. It’s still going to be pretty close to 16% (~15.2%), might even creap up a little as some of that honey ferments out (if it does)
The current batch size is a little over 4 gallons. I had a bad degassing accident and lost about a gallon into my carpet. Started with 15lbs honey and 5 gallons. So, I would say I have a 4 gallon batch with 12lbs of honey. The numbers make sense to me(a novice brewer). Adding ~25% of the starting honey, the FG went up over 25 points(~25% of the OG). It is actually very drinkable now. Before it tasted like a stiff mixed drink of vodka and honey.
I also have a mead that finished under 1.00. It has been sitting in Secondary in my basement at 66 degrees for a year. I also need to back sweeten as this mead is at 15%. When I add more honey will the yeast come back to life?
Sorry to highjack this thread but I have a similar issue.
It still won’t reduce your ABV very much. certainly not 4 points. you may be adding 25% more gravity points but you are only adding about 6% volume that’s what affects ABV so you come down to 15%. the alcahol does not go away.
