Newby, help pleeease!

Js made a 5 gallon batch of straight mead with 17 lbs honey. I took a start reading of 1050 which seems to low for the amount of honey. I thought the more honey the higher the alcohol potential. Have I got it all wrong. I was hoping for a sweet taste with a reasonbly high alcohol content. Any replies appreciated. By the way this is my first brew of any kind

It's possible that your honey did not dissolve fully with your water and the sample you took did not have the correct amount of honey.

With the amount of honey you used, you should have an SG of 1.122 according to this calculator.

You're going to need to give us more information on the procedure you followed. Did you top off your batch with water to equal 5 gallons total? What process did you follow in order to dissolve your honey? Did you use any other ingredients? If you're expecting a high alcohol content, are you using a yeast that will yield an ABV that you're looking for?

Give it a damn good stirring as I'd have expected a higher gravity and if some of the honey hasn't mixed in properly it will have settled out in the bottom and given you a false reading.

Have you pitched the yeast ? What about nutrients ? Etc etc.

Now the principal of more honey, higher gravity is correct, but there's a few caveats. The higher the gravity the more likely chance of problems. Shocked or stressed yeast can cause fermentation problems and possibly off flavours.

So its often a case of starting a bit lower but the adding a bit more honey incrementally to increase the gravity. There's no set standard but its helpful if you use good yeasts - its why I like to use Lalvin yeasts as the publish better data/info about their yeasts than any other producer.

Preston, as in Lancashire ?

Thanks for the replys guys. Yeah Im from Preston Lancashire. The yeast I was told can tolerate a higher abv. I used a combination of buckwheat and wildflower all of which was nice and runny when poured in. I gave it more than a good stirring. Well the airlock is bubbling away so i guess its just a case of wait and see now. Sure it will turn out great.

RAMBO3602 said:

The yeast I was told can tolerate a higher abv.

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Well, what's it called?

RAMBO3602 said:

Thanks for the replys guys. Yeah Im from Preston Lancashire. The yeast I was told can tolerate a higher abv. I used a combination of buckwheat and wildflower all of which was nice and runny when poured in. I gave it more than a good stirring. Well the airlock is bubbling away so i guess its just a case of wait and see now. Sure it will turn out great.

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Preston, Lancs. Ok well that's handy then.

What yeast was it that you used ?

Even the highest alcohol tolerant yeasts like an easy life, even if they can work very hard.

You still don't mention any nutrients (or due to the linguistic issues hereabout, they like to say about nutrients and energiser). Energiser is usually a tan coloured powder, and while FermaidK is a favourite in the mead world, you will find Tronozymol locally, either in a nearby home brew shop or mail order. Nutrient is usually pure DAP/di-ammonium phosphate - again the easiest source of that is Youngs Yeast Nutrient, which only has DAP and one other ingredient (which I think is an anti-caking thing) so pretty close. It looks a bit like white crystals, similar to granulated sugar.

You don't have to use them, and if you only used one, Tronozymol would be the better of the two.

If the nutrients stuff is left out, it will ferment but will likely be a very slow, long ferment, with no guarantee of decent results.

Where did the honey come from as I can't find buckwheat easily here ?