We added yeast nutrient, chilled, added yeast, oxygenated and started primary. It fermented, fast! We pulled it two weeks later andphase all the sugar had fermented off and there was barely any recognizable chocolate flavor
Ok, so to echo the others, first step get a hydrometer, an OG is the best place to start....
What yeast did you use? this is real important at this step.
I'm guessing if you're saying all of the sugar fermented out, it tasted hot, dry, no sweetness, bitter but not chocolatey?
Chances are at that point it wasn't stuck, it was done and finished dry.
so we added 5 lbs of honey and 1 more lb of cocoa plus some bakers chocolate, as well as some additional yeast (champagne). It fermented for a few days but seems to slow way down. .
Could Have reached the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, above you infered all the sugar was gone so the ferment was probably done, all sugar became alcohol, then added more sugar and yeast, it burned through what it could, made some more alcohol then stressed and got pickled when it reached its tolerance level.
We were assuming it was just putting along. We decided to leave it for a month, naively believing we would have a good product if we waited. When we pulled it, it was sweet, really sweet, like it hadn't fermented at all. .
Again perhaps it was the alcohol level at this point you maxed out the abv% the yeasties could handle, it got drunk, stop eating and died off.
Over the next couple months we tried a myriad of different boosters. A little honey with pitched yeast and extra yeast nutrient; a little more flavoring and yeast with some calcium chloride to try and balance pH; pitching yeast and yeast energizer into some pasteurized malt extract to see if the yeast would latch on to the sucrose then continue on to the fructose..
Alright so you've been making sugary syrup instead of mead, (just for reference honey isnt just fructose, it has as much glucose and in smaller amounts maltose and sucrose predominantly then a bunch of other sugars at fractional quantities) don't give up yet.
First, go spend $8 on a hydrometer instead of more fermentables.
Second. one thing I didnt see mentioned was aeration.....daily or better, multiple times a day for the first 1/3 of fermentation (3days to a week if still holding out on the hydrometer) shake/stir/swirl the bejesus out of it during those times.
However, It still sounds as if you were done fermenting after your primary, in which case you could have stabilized and back sweetened if you wanted some sweetness then let it age for the alcohol flavor to mellow and the chocolate flavor of the nibs to come out as iot takes aging for that to happen (sometimes a long time)
as you were adding sugar, yeast, sugar, nutrients, sugar....there reached a point that there was more alcohol and way more sugar than the yeast could handle. It hit your must and shriveled up (possibly dormant not dead). (please look into a hydrometer)
Nothing worked even a little bit. Unfortunately I'm ready to give up at this point. It has a little alcohol from primary but it's so sweet right now it's almost not drinkable. It's a damn shame though because it has so much sugar in it and has so much potential to be great but for the life of me I cannot figure this one out.
Help me Oh Wise Forum! You're my only Hope.
Ok so here is my suggestion, im sure there will be others and maybe some that are even better but I think this may work.
1. GO BUY A HYDROMETER
2. go get a hydrometer
3. get yourself a hydrometer
4. Take a hydrometer reading, just a guess but with that much sugar you could be way off the high limit of the hydrometer.
5. move your must into a vessel like a large sanitized pot (split in half or more if needed to accomidate the volume)
6. clean and sanitize your fermenter
7. start adding water to your must in small increments, you can heat it (the water NOT the must) to 80-90 degrees F (slightly over room temp) to get it mixed in with the sugars, but do it slowly, checking the hydrometer readings until it is down to a managable (at this point I'd say shoot for 1.100) reading in the pot (or each pot if you used multiple).
8. When it is all at or very close to that reading take a sanitized spoon or wire wisk and have at it, whip the He!! out of it, aerate/oxygenate/take months of frustrations out on it...At this point you are basically starting with a fresh batch of must that already has some yeast, nutrient and alcohol in it and it's going to either now or at another step go through a whole new primary fermentation, eliminating the worry of oxidation right now.
9. Return it to your shiny clean sanitized fermentation vessel, airlock it and let it sit for 24 hours.
10. Report back here how it looks, smells and what the exact hydrometer reading curently is.
11. Shake it up again after that 24 hours, then again every 12 hours
12. after 3-4 days of this, take a sample and a hydrometer reading....
13. Report back here if anything has changed about look, color, smell, taste and most importantly the hydrometer reading.
If theory is right the diluting will bring the sugar and any alcohol level down into a range that any residual yeast can handle. Being as you've added so much yeast and nutrient already, thinning it down some and introducing some oxygen, and getting out any remaining disolved CO2 will hopefully bring all that back to life, without adding more of either.
IF NOT...don't despair, now you will have a managable must that other steps can be taken, start with simple though and lets see what happens.
(p.s. lets get it fermented then can discuss adding some more flavor to it if you want, right now DONT add anything but water)
