Benjibbad

Recipes 

I made a cyser mead a this past summer. 2 gallons apple juice and 6 lbs of fresh honey. OG was 1.124 and I pitched Wyeast sweet mead yeast with some energizer and nutrient, about 2 months later SG was 1.056. it stood that way for about a month before I racked and I figured I had a stuck ferm. At the recomendation of my LHBS I added some S-05 to finish the ferment. That was Sept. In the begining of OCT my SG was 1.028. I let it sit until today when I racked again and took a reading and it had completely fermented out!!! Now my SG is 1.002 what the heck?? I don't see any visible signs of infection the taste is not sweet at all, it very vinous and hot. Anyone know what could have happened or is this normal? Should I just let it are for another year or so and see what happens??

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jezter6

Recipes 

I don't get it.

You re-pitched yeast to dry it out, and it dried out...

What were you expecting???

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Benjibbad

Recipes 

at an og of 1.124 I was expecting 1.015-1.018 S-05 tolerance is only ~12 % at 1.028 It was at 12.9% so I am wondering why it kept going or if something else happened.

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Primary 1: Cedrella Vanilla Porter
Primary 2: Empty
Primary 3: Empty
Primary 4: Coastal Red
Primary 5: Empty
Secondary 1: Empty
Secondary 2: empty
Secondary 3: empty
Keg1: Cherry Lambic
Keg2: A-10 IIPA
Keg3: Crazy Cuban Monk (Cedrella infused Tripel)
Keg4: Kolsch weisen hybrid

digdan

Recipes 

I have had dryer than normal fermentation when using more than one yeast. Just back sweeten and mark it up as experience

TipsyDragon

Recipes 

sounds like the second yeast really liked the first yeast's left overs. its not imposable you got some wild yeast in there. those will dry a mead out. whats the alcohol tolerance on the second yeast? it may of had a high enough tolerance to eat up all the sugar that was left from the first yeast. my recommendation is to add potassium sorbet and back sweeten to the desired gravity then bottle and let it sit for as long as you possibly can.

david_42

Recipes 

Yeast adapt and your ABVisn't all that far above the range for S-05. Plus, a mead at 1.002 is not totally fermented. There's probably 1-1.5% sugar left. A dry mead can hit 0.994 or less.

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malkore

Recipes 

Well, your OG reading might be a little on the high side. Honey usually gives 1.030 to 1.034 points of gravity per pound, per gallon of must.
That gives me a number right about 1.100 for the honey. Hard to say if the apple juice contributed another 24 points, but its possible.

In my experience a cyser with that much honey is going to take a good 6-12 months to age and mellow. Right now it should taste like Zippo fluid with a hint of apple, very hot on the throat, and it'll strip varnish off woodwork.

it is on the dryer side but its not bone dry. if you sulfite and sorbate it, you could add a little sugar to backsweeten it.

then again with 12 months aging it might taste great at 1.002.

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Malkore
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homebrewer_99

Recipes 

I agree with most of the comments here...

As for yeast attenuations those calculations are really based on what the yeast will ferment out to under normal conditions such as 10 lbs of grain/6 lbs DME.

I used a Weizen yeast which usually attenuates at 75% (on a cider) and the FG ended up at 1.000.

The hot fusel alcohol probably resulted in the change of temperature (warmer) caused by the activity of the second yeast.

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