So back in March I received 1gal of pure Vermont Grade B maple syrup and 6gal of maple sap that had been run through a reverse osmosis system. Every spring I make 10gal of maple wheat beer. This year I had extra of both so I decided to experiment.
I started off with 6gal of the maple sap, which after the reverse osmosis had a OG of 1.135. I used some in the beer and decided to make a maple mead with the leftovers. It was watered down slightly and I ended up with 7gal of sap at 1.120. All of it was heated to a boil then turned off and cooled.
I took 5gal and put it in a 6.5gal carboy with a "mead packet" from a local homebrew store ,which is actually well known for producing good mead, and D47 yeast. The "mead packet" includes yeast nutrient, tannins and some other stuff.
The remaining 2gal were seperated into 1gal carboys and had a pack of EC1118 split between the two of them and some yeast nutrient added.
After a month both were fermenting and bubbling well then slowed. I took a gravity reading of them and the first 1gal read 1.000, the second read 1.009, and 5gal batch read 1.040. So I decided to transfer them all into secondary carboys. The first two 1gal batches transferred with no problems. The 5gal batch has issues, and here they go.
Im not sure why the gravity didnt as much as the other, maybe yeast, the 5gal batch has the consistancy of snot. There is no better way for me to describe it. Its stringy and barely moves through my auto-siphon, I first noticed a little of it on the hydrometer when I read the gravity. So I tried to transfer it anyway but its really not working out.
WTF? Why is this? It really is like slime. Im going to transfer the whole thing anyway but I know its just not right. My brother did this last spring and had a similar result. It only happened on on the larger batches. Any help would be appreciated.
I started off with 6gal of the maple sap, which after the reverse osmosis had a OG of 1.135. I used some in the beer and decided to make a maple mead with the leftovers. It was watered down slightly and I ended up with 7gal of sap at 1.120. All of it was heated to a boil then turned off and cooled.
I took 5gal and put it in a 6.5gal carboy with a "mead packet" from a local homebrew store ,which is actually well known for producing good mead, and D47 yeast. The "mead packet" includes yeast nutrient, tannins and some other stuff.
The remaining 2gal were seperated into 1gal carboys and had a pack of EC1118 split between the two of them and some yeast nutrient added.
After a month both were fermenting and bubbling well then slowed. I took a gravity reading of them and the first 1gal read 1.000, the second read 1.009, and 5gal batch read 1.040. So I decided to transfer them all into secondary carboys. The first two 1gal batches transferred with no problems. The 5gal batch has issues, and here they go.
Im not sure why the gravity didnt as much as the other, maybe yeast, the 5gal batch has the consistancy of snot. There is no better way for me to describe it. Its stringy and barely moves through my auto-siphon, I first noticed a little of it on the hydrometer when I read the gravity. So I tried to transfer it anyway but its really not working out.
WTF? Why is this? It really is like slime. Im going to transfer the whole thing anyway but I know its just not right. My brother did this last spring and had a similar result. It only happened on on the larger batches. Any help would be appreciated.