Using Lavin D47 in a 5 gallon batch of orange blossom mead, my OG was 1.280. I used 15 lbs of honey and 5 tsp of yeast nutrient. It's been one month and I transferred to the secondary and my gravity is at 1.046.
I expected it to be somewhat drier. However, it's still a bit on the sweet side.
Can I expect the D47 to bring it down further, even though it's been transferred to the secondary? If not, any suggestions on how to make it drier: perhaps add in more D47? Or just leave it be and let time settle it: if so, how much time?
Thanks!
I'm presuming a typo, because if the OG really was 1.280 it wouldn't have even started fermenting - the yeast would have failed through osmotic shock from the incredibly high sugar content.
That aside, D47 has a published tolerance of 14% ABV, which equates to about 104 gravity points drop. Now it's been seen by some that with honey musts, if they're well nourished and managed they can exceed the published numbers by 1% or so, which even then at 15% ABV only equates to a 111 point drop.
Taking that as an example, then adding the current gravity you mention you'd have 1.157 which is still pretty high, but not as high as the numbers you posted above.
So allowing for typo's etc, I'm guessing that you'll probably have just about all you're likely to get with D47 (did you make sure it fermented below 70F so that you don't get too much, if any, fusel production ?).
Also, it's likely that it's gonna have too much alcohol in it to try a higher tolerance yeast that might have a tolerance of 18% ABV - but you could try if you got some of the absolute "piece de resistance" yeast for restarts i.e. Uvaferm 43 - though even then nothing is guaranteed.
So if it's still a bit sweet for your taste, you could just either blend it with a dry mead or just fortify it with some vodka or everclear.......
That's the direction I'd be thinking of.....
p.s. by your current figures, you've quoted a 234 point drop, which equates too ? - a 200 point drop equates to just over 27% ABV so there's no way in hell that D47 would produce double the published level of alcohol.....