Fermentation

colin_rudolph · 01-18-2008, 07:24 PM

Hey all, I've got a question about my mead fermentation. My Mead has been in the Carboy for about 4 weeks now, my original gravity was 1.090 and now it has dropped to 1.010
my airlock is about 32 seconds between bubbles.
Here's my recipie if it will help you any

15 pounds honey
4tsp Acid Blend
4tsp Yeast Nutrient
15 grams Champange Yeast (EC-118 I think)
It's a 5 Gal. batch.
Recipie says O.G. should be 1.100 - 1.090 and F.G. ought to be 1.020 - 1.010

My questions are:
I. When should I rack the mead into a secondary carboy? How long should I leave it to sit on the lees?
II. Should I bottle it now, or wait until the bubbles have totally stopped?
III. If I bottle it before the bubbles have totally stopped, what will happen? and what F.G. is this thing going to get to?
It has a good taste now, don't want it to get any drier, what do I do?

sirsloop · 01-18-2008, 07:36 PM

Wait! Champagne yeast ferments dry! If you are still bubbling you cannot bottle without risking bottle bombs. if you are still bubbling at 30sec intervals, its still going so I would not rack it off the lees. After its finished then you can decide if you want to kill off the yeast and back sweeten.

colin_rudolph · 01-18-2008, 07:45 PM

Alright, I figured that I would probably get bottle bombs. I don't want this to be ultra dry. I've talked to a friend of mine and he said I could either add clearing agent and wait one week, when it cleared I could bottle it, another friend of mine told me to get some Sodium Metabisulphate and add that, stir it three times a day and that would kill my yeasts so that this didn't get any drier.
Any advice?
How do I backsweeten?

sirsloop · 01-18-2008, 08:05 PM

The best way is to let the mead finish dry. After its done and is clear, rack it off the lees into a secondary container. Add Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Bisulfite. After that, add your sugars. Take a gravity reading now so you can get an idea on about how much sugar you want to add back in.

Basically, Potassium Sorbate prevents yeast from multiplying and Sodium Bisulfite kills a percentage of the yeast that stayed in suspension. The remaining yeast are too few in numbers to successfully start up any meaningful fermentation, and the beverage remains sweet. It is difficult to completely stop natural fermentation during log, which is why I recommend you wait until it finishes and clears. You can use Bentonite to help the mead clear up faster.

CBBaron · 01-18-2008, 08:08 PM

You have several choices for a sweet or non dry mead. Either exceed the tolerance of the yeast with honey additions, stop the ferment at the desired residual gravity or allow it to complete then stabilize and back sweeten.
With champagne yeast you don't want to exceed its tolerance because it has a very high tolerance so you will have a 18+% ABV mead which will take forever to age and be ready to drink.
Stopping an active fermentation is tricky and prone to error, not usually recommend but some people have done it.
Stabilizing and back sweetening is usually the desired solution. How you do this is add sulfite and k-meta (campden tablets) to the mead once it is stable and clear. Then add back honey to the desired sweetness. Allow it to clear and stabilize again and then bottle.
Bottling your mead now is a sure way to get bombs. Making mead requires exceptional patience because it takes much longer to be ready.
Craig

<edit>sirsloop described the process better than I did while I was writing my reply.

malkore · 01-18-2008, 09:00 PM

champagne yeast should take you below 1.000... 0.990 or so it should be dry.

colin_rudolph · 01-18-2008, 10:07 PM

alright, so I'll wait until it finishes, which ought to be around 1.000 - 0.990 and then figure out what I want to do with it? Thanks a lot. How many more weeks should this take to finish up? How long should I leave it on the lees.
Thanks!

~Colin

malkore · 01-19-2008, 01:41 AM

did you ever give it yeast energizer, or just nutrient? nutrient usually doesn't have nitrogen, which is what yeast need in a mead (unless there's a lot of fruit)

you may need to dissolve a teaspoon of energizer in a little boiled and cooled water, pour it in and very very gently stir...no splashing. that may renew some activity to finish this up. give it another 2 weeks after that and see. mead gets sluggish at the end, especially if it didn't start with a lot of nitrogen.

colin_rudolph · 01-19-2008, 02:11 PM

Malkore - no I think the stuff I put in at the start was yeast energizer, whatever it was it was supposed to speed the yeast up so that it wouldn't take forever.
I think I'm going to check the S.G. today, if it's still at 1.010 I'm going to add a clearing agent (isokleer), give it a week, if it's done I'll bottle, if it's not done in a week I'm going to rack into another carboy and let it sit there until it's done. I don't want to keep it on the lees any longer, another week and it'll have been five weeks, so it'll be time to rack it off.
So yeah Isokleer, wait a week, either bottle or rack, if I rack I'll just let it run until it's done. If it finishes dry I'll backsweeten, I've heard you can do that with wine conditioner?

colin_rudolph · 01-19-2008, 02:12 PM

if it's not done by next weekend, and I rack it into another carboy, would it hurt to give it a teaspoon of yeast energizer? Just to speed it up along the way?