How long has it been at 1.006? Generally I consider a fermentation with residual sweetness like that, done only when the gravity is steady over several weeks. Some yeasts can continue to chug slowly on seemingly regardless of the ABV, if conditions are right.
Also, although the yeast may have reached their ethanol tolerance in your batch and they may have stopped fermenting as of now, any change to the environment (including simply racking over to an aging carboy) can start them up again. It is best to rack off of the 71B lees into another carboy, and then let the mead bulk-age and continue to clear for a while longer, before declaring things definitely done. Even then, if you want to bottle this one with residual sweetness, you should consider chemically stabilizing it with metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. Bottling any sweet to semi-sweet mead, even one that appears to have been done fermenting months earlier, without stabilization can risk bottle bombs if the yeast wake back up.
|
Linear Mode
.gif-1367621329.gif)
