Thick layer of honey on the bottom

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OdinOneEye

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I'm brewing up a light batch of mead, nothing fancy, just something to start out summer break.
- 4 lb honey
-1 gal water
-2 packs Lavlin K-1 yeast

Got this thing started back on Saturday, and it's bubbling away nice and happily. Question: what do I do about the thick layer of honey that falls out of suspension on the bottom of my carboy? Or will that eventually ferment out... or what?
I'd like it so as much as possible turns out here.
 
For people that don't do a complete boil (myself included), honey clumping at the bottom is very common. It will eventually ferment out. But if you want to speed things up, go ahead and sanitize a spoon and stir it back into solution.
 
I know at least one mead maker that pours part of the honey into the bottom of the fermenter intentionally. He says by lowering the OG of the main layer, the ferment starts faster and is more vigorous. The bottom layer mixes in and gets fermented without any problem.

Haven't tried it myself, but I have fermented juice for a melomel, then added the honey and gotten good results.
 
Four lbs to a gallon is pretty heavy for a "light" mead, I did a mead with 3 lbs, an OG of 1.09, and potential ABV of 12%. I don't anticipate this to be drinkable for another six months at least. Are you going to stop the ferment and keep it sweet?

mike
 
Mike-
I prefer a drier mead than sweet. I've had some melomels that were almost like pancake syrup... but then I probably finished them too soon. I'll probably let this go until it's fermented as much as it can.

For the rest of youalls, thanks for the heads up! I'll let you know how this batch tastes when it... eventually... is potable.
 
I would leave it in the bottom. As the yeast needs the honey it will gravitate towards the honey concentration. Since it is in primary ferm however, you can stir it once a day but I don't. I do not boil the honey so I get a bit of the fall out also.

This will be a very sweet mead. The alch content will kill the yeast before it uses all the sugars even with extra yeast. I usually watch the bottom of the carboy and use a strong flashlight to watch the honey layer at the bottom. You will see this honey layer start to roll as the yeast consumes it. If you don't notice the roll look for the lees forming on the top on the honey and then they will just sink through as the honey thins.

I would start with about 2.5lbs per gallon of honey for a dry mead and then move up to 3lbs if you want a bit higher alch content. When you start racking ten taste and add a bit to sweeten. I started with 2.5lbs per gallon on my 5 gallon batch. I added 1lb more on the first racking and just added another on the second racking. This will be the last addition as I rack about once a month or so then I will check before bottling.

:ban:
 
Well it is a little on the high side OG should be 1.147 or 20ish ABV which granted is on the top end of K-1 yeast but if given proper nutriants this yeast has potential to take it dry.. tho it is going to take some time to smooth out.. K-1 is a killer yeast and can be step fed to like 22-23 ABV (if you like rocket fuel)
Next time I recommend same yeast and maybe 3.5 lbs of honey for 17ish %abv and some nutriant... also 1 pack is plenty for 1 gal.. I used 1 pack for a 5 gal batch of 13ish percent and it went all gang busters on the honey..
Other than that.. sounds like it might be good... let us know how it turns out

Spamdog
 
Just for info, the recent 5 gallon batch I made, I deliberately didn't boil (honey from local supermarket, so already purified/sterilised etc etc). I used about 16lb's of honey, and although I gave it a good shaking, the mineral water that I topped it off with was too cool and there was about 2 or 3 inches of honey sitting in the bottom of the "jar" (a 20 litre plastic watercooler bottle), it only took about 2 weeks for the yeast to "munch it up" and it seems to have fermented out fine.

regards

fatbloke
 
When you guys bottle, do you add a priming sugar for some carbination or is this bottled "as is"?
 

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