Just made a bochet

I don't have any vanilla bean or choc nibs. Any probs with me adding a bean and nib to the primary once the fermentation has started? I also plan to rack on to some sour cherries... Should be interesting

3.5lb orange blossom honey boiled for about an hour. Just went until I liked to color. Very very dark red. Love it.

Yeast: lalvin ec-1118
Yeast nutrient
OG: 1.151

It's HUGE! I'm afraid my yeast will kick out way before it gets close to drying out but I'm not sure.

Gonna pop a little chocolate and vanilla in the primary and like i said, rack on to cherries.

Question for experienced mead makers, is it best to add vanilla to primary?? Or just have the choc and vanilla in secondary along with the cherries?!

Here's a pic. It looks almost black but against the light it's a dark rust color.

According to my "Handy Dandy" ABV calculator, yeast should crap out around 1.015, at 18% ABV. That'll be one hot bochet. You could water it down I bit I guess if that's too sweet for you, but I've never done it myself, so I don't know specifics.

I may add a little water after fermentation slows a little. I couldn't top all the way off in case it foams way up

If your fermentation wasn't up and going already, I'd say cold crash it right now, put water to bring it to 1.135, warm up, to good temperature, then repitch. It'd bring you to a nice FG of 1.000. Too bad it's too late now though.

No the thing is, I did 3.5lb because I over estimated honey boil off rate... Turns out it doesn't really boil off at all...

I don't have room in my 1gal carboy to add water. I could pour it into a 3gal carboy for the primary and add water. I just pitched 30 min ago so fermentation hasn't really started yet...

Ah. I thought when you said you'd wait for it to settle down a little you meant it was "really" going. You're going off OpenContainer's recipe, right? P.S. I just kind of figured since it's been a popular thread a few days ago.

I'm going by my own recipe. I learn better about how things work if I just go with my feel. Just following directions is okay, but learning on my own helps me understand WHY I messed up if I do

lol, okay. Anyways, your recipes seem really similar.

Okay.

Anyways, anything wrong with adding water during fermentation, after the initial foam up?

Well, might slow down fermentation a bit initially, and if it is enough water to offset the nutrients significantly it could create some more yeast problems. I'd suggest re-pitch with the same yeast and add nutrients along with that. I've never done it before, though, I'm sure if you searched up "Watering down mead site:homebrewtalk.com" it would come up with some useful stuff. I'm pretty sure the site has it's own search engine but I find Google more useful.

Are you worried about the fermentation getting stuck because of too much potential alcohol? Is that why you want to add water now? Or are you worried about the ABV getting too high because your honey ended up with a larger volume than you thought?

Personally, I'd hold off on topping off now. You are planning on racking onto cherries which is going to take up some volume and when you rack off the cherries you're going to need to top off for bulk aging anyways.

I'd say less of an ABV problem than a over sweetness problem.

Yeah I'm pretty worried about it being way overly sweet. I'd like it to finish with a little sweetness, but not to the point it will give you a mad headache If you drink more than a glass.

What were you saying about topping off after racking off the cherries? I've never secondaried on top of fruit so I'm entering into a whole new world for me.

Should I drop the vanilla bean and choc nibs into the primary?? Or just add to secondary?

Anyone got a response for the unanswered questions?

I'd say add both at 2ndary. Primary will drive away a lot of the aromatics of the chocolate and vanilla. Also vanilla tends to fade quick so I would hold off.

Bhunter87 said:

Okay.

Anyways, anything wrong with adding water during fermentation, after the initial foam up?

Click to expand...

I'd just let it go and add water or a honey/water mixture when you rack it to secondary. Head space in the primary is not going to hurt you.

Yeah I know headspace is okay, I am just concerned about the yeast pooping out before fermenting close to dry

Little update

It's cooking along strong. I added a little nutrient and it is REALLY tearing through the honey. I really wouldn't be surprised if it didn't go ahead and ferment out!!

Here's a pic.