Just racked to secondary

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DD2000GT

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Made a traditional mead last Memorial Day, planning on giving as Christmas gifts this year. Used 15 lbs of local honey from a bee keeper around town, and Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast. After almost 3 weeks the gravity is 1.002 from a OG of 1.121 - I can't say enough about this yeast as i live in Texas and it fermented at 82 degrees for the most part. The hydrometer sample was a tad hot as expected, but the flavor and aroma was pure honey!

I topped the secondary off with boiled/cooled water backsweetened with the same honey up to about 1" of the top of the carboy. My plan was to keep it in the secondary until almost Christmas, then bottle. Also - since the gravity is currently at 1.002, is there any harm to adding Camden tablets now?

Anyone see any issues with this plan?
 
DD2000GT said:
Made a traditional mead last Memorial Day, planning on giving as Christmas gifts this year. Used 15 lbs of local honey from a bee keeper around town, and Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast. After almost 3 weeks the gravity is 1.002 from a OG of 1.121 - I can't say enough about this yeast as i live in Texas and it fermented at 82 degrees for the most part. The hydrometer sample was a tad hot as expected, but the flavor and aroma was pure honey!

I topped the secondary off with boiled/cooled water back sweetened with the same honey up to about 1" of the top of the carboy. My plan was to keep it in the secondary until almost Christmas, then bottle. Also - since the gravity is currently at 1.002, is there any harm to adding Camden tablets now?

Anyone see any issues with this plan?
Click to expand...
Not really. The drop of 119 points suggests a little over 16% ABV, so if you don't stabilise it, then the K1V might just ferment it down to dry, as it's tolerant to 18%

You might be lucky enough not to have any alcohol hot flavour with your time scale, but don't be surprised if it still is "hot". I'd have suggested that you use a different yeast i.e. 71B, because it's often smoother straight out of the fermenter, but the K1V is nicer with some age (at least 12 months IMO).

I'd just suggest that you stabilise it now and then let it age and clear.... then with any luck it'll be good come crimbo.
 
You may want to give it some sorbate in addition to the Campden tablets just to be sure the yeast stay dormant. However, they probably won't go farther. High temp fermentations reduce yeast viability, and at the end of a high temp ferment, most of the yeast will be dead. That's different from cool ferments where the yeast can be viable for many months (or even years) after fermentation is over.

Also, don't be shocked it it smells and tastes like Band-Aids just before Christmas. High temp traditional meads seem to do this quite often, so it might be disappointing if you are planning to give it out as Christmas presents. That will fade out after a year in many cases, and then it should be good.
 

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