three months have past since i boiled the honey and water. cooled down the combination added nutrient and yeast. been sitting in the carboy with valve. not sure what to do next. do i strain then bootle. or do i leave longer in carboy? please help
1st time brewing mead. need help!
- Thread starter wampodan
- Start date
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Did it ferment? Did you take hydrometer reading at all? that instrument is invaluable to you at this point, and only costs a few bucks anyway. Possibly seeing lees in bottom of carboy but that isn't a good indication that it's ready to rack.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
Rack it to get it off the sediment in the first instance. Preferably into something to reduce the head space to a minimum...
Illuveatar
Well-Known Member
Have you taken any gravity readings ? I would guess it's finished fermenting but you'd want to be sure before bottling.
You've got a lot of options at this point but more info about your recipe would help us guide you.
How much honey did you use, how big a batch is that ?
What strain of yeast did you use ?
Depending on what you're looking for you could bottle it dry, backsweeten it and bottle, step feed the yeast by adding more honey to get higher alcohol, rack it off the sediment and age it longer if it isn't perfectly clear, or you could try adding some fruit or spices or oaking it for a while.
If you decide to bottle it you should stabilize it with metabisulfite and potassium sorbate otherwise renewed fermentation in the bottle could lead to dangerous pressures under the cork.
You've got a lot of options at this point but more info about your recipe would help us guide you.
How much honey did you use, how big a batch is that ?
What strain of yeast did you use ?
Depending on what you're looking for you could bottle it dry, backsweeten it and bottle, step feed the yeast by adding more honey to get higher alcohol, rack it off the sediment and age it longer if it isn't perfectly clear, or you could try adding some fruit or spices or oaking it for a while.
If you decide to bottle it you should stabilize it with metabisulfite and potassium sorbate otherwise renewed fermentation in the bottle could lead to dangerous pressures under the cork.
Rack means to siphon the clear wine or beer off the top, into a clean carboy, leaving most of the sediment behind. If you plan on aging for several more months (pretty common with mead), then it's probably a good idea.
How much does 1 gallon of honey weigh?
How much does 1 gallon of honey weigh?
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
1 gallon of honey weighs approx 12lb
vespa2t
Well-Known Member
You will seriously have much more luck if you read up on brewing/fermenting to learn what to do and what's going on with your fermentation.
Illuveatar
Well-Known Member
You'll want to float the hydrometer in the mead and read the specific gravity on the scale. Either use the plastic cylinder that the hydrometer came in or some other tall slender vessel. The more sugar in suspension the higher the hydrometer will float in the water, the the S.G. is the number that rests at the water line. An S.G. of 1.000 has little to no sugar in it, it's equal to the density of straight water. An S.G. of 1.150 has quite a bit of sugar in suspension and a high alcohol potential. Alcohol has a lower density than water so when you've got a high ABV brew and no sugar in suspension its S.G. will sometimes be below 1.000.
If you haven't got another 5 gallon carboy you could rack the mead into a large stock pot, clean the sediment out of the carboy and then siphon it back into the clean carboy.
If you haven't got another 5 gallon carboy you could rack the mead into a large stock pot, clean the sediment out of the carboy and then siphon it back into the clean carboy.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
An excellent explaination Illuveatar.
I was also thinking that once the OP has racked the mead, it will need topping up with something to remove the head space.
@ wampodan
The topping up can be done with water, a similar brew (mead), a honey and water mix (syrup), vodka, etc Or you can use compressed CO2 or nitrogen to blanket the batch, Or you can displace the mead with sanitised marbles or glass chips. All these methods/techniques have merit, but it's best if you do a search both here or at other sites/forums (search string of "topping up" without the quotes should work) and decide your preferred method (or maybe just what you have available).
Of course, you could just obtain either a different sized carboy to take account of the airspace and racking loses......
The choice is yours
fatbloke said:
after i rack, the substance or lees in the bottom is discarded correct? then the carboy is filled with what is left and the left over spot at the top should be filled with a honey and water syrup to cut down on the air at the top of the carboy.
That is the way to go. The lees can often be reused for other brews though if you want to start your next. SkeeterPee.con has the infamous skeeter Pee lemon wine that suggests to use the lees from a previous brew because that yeast will start more easily in a tough must.
