My first mead

I have just sampled my first mead and I'm all kinds of excited about it.

I started with a very basic recipe.

1 Gal bottled sping water
3 lb of honey
1 packet of 71B 1122 yeast
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient.

That's it. Sanitize, mix, let go. So far it's been 4 weeks and my SG is at 1.012 (or there abouts) I'll admit I do not know what my OG was since I did not have a hydrometer until recently.

My intention is to rack to a secondary, add some peach juice concentrate (looking for a peach mead) check my SG, then let it go until it clears up, Backsweeten, add a bit of peach if needed, bottle, and let age for 3-12mo.

Now from a taste test, it feels like it has about double the ABV my cider does and that is measured at 6.5%. I'd guess this is anywhere from 12-15% now.

So far so good. I'm excited and once I get this bottled, I'm off to try some other recipe. Maybe a cyster or something with strawberries (the wife loves strawberries).

Any way to determine ABV without an FG? Maybe I should hit up my old chemistry teacher.

If you had 3 lbs of honey in a final volume of 1 gallon, your SG was ~1.12.
With your FG at 1.012, you hit 14% ABV. Congrats, your 71B put on their super suits!

At what ABV should the 71B die off? And can I use alcohol content to kill the fermentation instead od campden tabs?

Thanks

Giant81 said:

At what ABV should the 71B die off? And can I use alcohol content to kill the fermentation instead of campden tabs?

Thanks

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14% ABV.............

The technique known as "step feeding" works well for that i.e. you don't start as high as some like too/suggest. After all, it's meads we're making here, not beers so there's no need to put all the fermentable sugars in, up front.

Now 14% is about 103 or 104 points of gravity dropped, so you could easily start at about 1.100 and let it go, a small step of 0.010 would likely still leave a few points of residual sugars. So if you know about where you like your meads to be, you can then just add enough to raise the gravity to where you like the sweetness level.

In any case, campden tablets don't kill the yeast. They only stun it, and as the sulphites will dissipate, if you were thinking of that method, you'd likely have to fully stabilise i.e. with sulphites and sorbate. Equally, even that doesn't kill the yeast, the sulphite as above and the sorbate just stops them from reproducing.

Mostly, if people are trying to stop a ferment with stabilising chems, they will cold crash first. Say, something like a week at less than 4C, then rack off any sediment that's dropped out onto the stabilising chems.

Your batch seems to have worked out quite well, even though I'd have said it's a bit under fed. Whether you'd achieve a better taste by using more nutrients/energiser/etc, I can't say (I usually follow the pack instructions too, and I reckon that meads are often underfed for that very reason).

71B is a fine yeast, but it does carry a caveat. It's not known as being good for "sur lie"/batonage type ageing i.e. on the yeast. The guesstimate for the time frame of getting it off the yeast is about 2 months after the ferment has finished (nothing scientific, just there don't seem to be any reports/posts about off flavours being generated from autolysis in that time).

Most mead makers will pay enough attention to their meads for this not to be an issue, it's the gross lees that is the main issue, but then it depends on how long you are leaving it between rackings. Some like to leave it until it's pretty much cleared, some like to rack once the layer of sediment is more than about a quarter inch/6mm deep or so.

I'm thinking that your batch, if it's still bubbling some, is most likely just "off gassing", but hydrometer tests will confirm (or deny) that.....

Another question, (I'm reading up on step feeding now), but is it possible to just add a large amount of sugar (peach juice concentrate etc...) and rack to a secondary with the intent of the yeast only being able to convert a fraction of the added sugar to alcohol before dying due to the alcohol content?

Thus leaving me with a sweet, flat mead, and no need to add any sulphites or sorbate?

Giant81 said:

Another question, (I'm reading up on step feeding now), but is it possible to just add a large amount of sugar (peach juice concentrate etc...) and rack to a secondary with the intent of the yeast only being able to convert a fraction of the added sugar to alcohol before dying due to the alcohol content?

Thus leaving me with a sweet, flat mead, and no need to add any sulphites or sorbate?

Click to expand...

It's possible, but risky. Under certain conditions, and with the right nutrients, yeasts can far exceed their typical alcohol tolerance. Just when I thought my orange mead was done, it started back up again seemingly out of nowhere and now it's pushing 19% ABV.

Bearmaul said:

It's possible, but risky. Under certain conditions, and with the right nutrients, yeasts can far exceed their typical alcohol tolerance. Just when I thought my orange mead was done, it started back up again seemingly out of nowhere and now it's pushing 19% ABV.

Click to expand...

Yes you're sort of correct but not quite.....

The published tolerances are usually taken from testing with grape musts. We have little to no info in regard of whether the test batches were pushed as hard as possible with nutrients etc to know the absolute max a given yeast is capable of etc.....

Most people who have used as accurate measurements as is possible with home brew typ equipment have found in some cases they might have exceeded the published numbers by 1 or 2 percent, so allowing for poor technique, cheaper grade home brewing kit etc, it does seem that the published numbers are a good enough guide for what we need. We generally don't spend the money for certified industrial standard hydrometers or the many thousands (irrespective of currency) for mass spectrometry (those two methods are generally usex to satisfy both trading standards authorities and taxation departments).

Hence home brew kit it accurate enough......

The OP could indeed just achieve a level of alcohol with honey then step feed with peach concentrate to kill off the yeast and get a desired level of sweetness and fruitiness.......

Once the yeast have exhausted themselves and dies off through alcoholic toxicity, you don't need to stabilise - sulphites should still be used though, as they do more than just stun the active yeast.....