tweake

Recipes 

no. time wise its the same.

you can bottle age it, which even i do to free up carboys. but you run the risk of one bottle being a little different to the next.

the best way is to do the best quality ferment that you can. that can decrease aging time by a large amount.

levinem

Recipes 

Alright thanks. I've got two 5 gallon glass carboys should I ferment in one then rack to the second for like 2, 3 weeks?

tweake

Recipes 

i don't use carboys for primary ferment, i use open top bucket.
but carboy is ok, just a pain to use.

if your using a carboy to ferment in then you can simply let it sit on the lees for quite some time as it under an airlock. when the yeast has fully dropped then you can rack into the other carboy.
time it takes depends on how it ferments and if you degass etc.
it may take 2 weeks for the main ferment, a few more weeks to do the last little bit and degass. may take a few more weeks for the yeast to fully drop.

one problem with using carboys to ferment in is you always loose a bit when you rack, so you can have problems with topping up the carboy. with buckets i ferment more than 5 gals and keep the extra in another bottle. that way i can top up the carboy after racking.
downside to using buckets is you have to rack before it finishes the ferment, so you have co2 in the carboy.

Psychonought

Recipes 

@tweake
What sort of OG readings correspond to mead types? (i.e. what OG would a dry mead have? a sweet mead? etc...)

tweake

Recipes 

OG depends a fair bit on what yeast your going to use.
~1.110 ferment down to 0.998 gives you ~14%. then you can stabilize and backsweeten (add extra honey) till around 1.010 or to whatever your taste buds like.

if you do not want to backsweeten then you need to use OG 1.120 with 14% yeast should end around 1.010. obviously you will need to change OG to suit a sweeter mead or different alcohol yeast.

FG roughly put
Dry: 0.990 – 1.006
Medium: 1.006 – 1.015
Sweet: 1.012 – 1.020
Dessert: 1.020+"

Bhunter87

Recipes 

Wyeast does... And that's what I pitch. Works like a top. Thanks

Psychonought

Recipes 

What I am getting here is that 14% yeast reduces OG 0.11 to FG (with some scaling involved). Are there any other properties of the yeast beside alcohol tolerance that will affect this?
I am using WYeast Sweet Mead, so I'm guessing there are.

Also I am adding flavors to different batches of the mead (fruit juices, cocoa, spices) mid-fermentation. Is the ratio of honey/alcohol//water the only thing that affects FG or do I need to account for the flavorings?

Psychonought

Recipes 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that starting with an OG 1.120 to a FG of 1.010 would be the same amount of honey and alcohol than starting with OG 1.110 and backsweetening the FG to 1.010

What's the difference?