Quick Question on First Mead

Hello all,

I brewed my first mead yesterday after reading the FAQ portion on this site. My recipe was real simple, 17lbs of honey that I bought at the local farmers market, 4g of water 1 pack of wyeast sweet mead yeast and 2.5tsp of energizer. I heated 2g of spring water to 115 and mixed in the honey, then I added the mixture to the 2g of water in the glass carboy and mixed it. After it cooled to 80* I pitched the yeast that was not fully inflated yet. I took a hydrometer reading and it was high, over 1.170-1.180 almost too high to read on my meter.

24hrs later there is no activity at all, I shook up the carboy and refilled the airlock that had lost half its water. the current temp is 70*.

Questions, is the gravity too high for the yeast? Should I buy and pitch some more? If there's no activity should I continue to shake and add nutrients? Thanks for the help.

Such starting gravities are generally considered too high. However it is possible that it will start fermenting, albeit very slowly. I had 1.2+ OG in an experimental batch, it took over a week to start noticeably fermenting and has since gone down about 70-80 points during almost 3 months of fermentation.

Aeration will help, but you really should consider adding a third or so of water to bring the gravity down and re-pitch, unless you want a project that is going to take a couple of years to finish.

Do you think I should re-pitch with the same yeast? Should I boil the water, or anything like that before I add to it? I guess I'll try and get it to 1.1 or so. Thanks for the reply. I'll tied up for a few days, should the must be O.K, or should I still have some one add nutrients before I re-pitch the yeast?

I would recommend checking some of the sticky FAQs out at the top of the mead page. There is a really good article regarding staggered nutrient additions (SNA) which will help with your mead. Mead is very sticky when it comes to fermenting. Because there are not a ton of nutrients in honey useful to yeast, nutrients need to be added to the must. It is best to make an initial addition, plus 2-3 more nutrient additions within the first week of fermentation. This will help the yeast keep moving in the fermentation process.

Regarding the repitching of yeast, any yeast will do. It does not matter if you mix two yeasts together, but you may want to just wait a day or so before repitching. Your mead is quite high on the gravity, but your yeast should still be able to plough through all of that sugar without needing to be repitched.

I wonder how did you actually get such high gravity to start with? According to your recipe, you should've been somewhere around 1.11 or so if my maths are correct.

I'm not sure, I was shocked at how high the gravity was reading. The hydrometer was just floating with part of the bulb at the end above the must. Could it be the honey I used?

As far as the nutrients, I'm just curious if it's OK to add nutrients if the must is not really fermenting and utilizing what I've already added. Or, should I let is sit while I'm gone, with no more nutrients, and then re-check the gravity. Thanks for the responses so far.

17lb of honey takes up something like 1.4 gallons of volume. For a 5 gallon carboy, you would then likely have 3.6 gallons of water as it's unlikely that you had discarded any honey. Even with this calculation you should have a maximum OG of 1.13.

Those calculations use 1.44 as the SG of honey, while pure sugar would be about 1.55. Even with pure sugar you would likely still be below 1.14 so I think it is pretty sure you've made some sort of measurement error, either with the ingredients or when measuring the gravity.

If you have added initial nutritions according to the SNA recommendations, I would say you're pretty much ok. Maybe a bit of extra to compensate for the high gravity.

I haven't used Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast but my understanding from reports in this forum is that it gets stuck rather easily and thus wouldn't be real good for high starting gravities. You'll likely need to do a restart if this gets going.

Personally, I'd first try adding water until it sits at a maximum of 1.14. If that necessitates removing some must, I'd store that somewhere to be used later, for example to top up after first racking, when you've lost some volume. Then I'd re-pitch with a champagne yeast.

Yeah, something is not right with your numbers. 17 pounds of honey plus 4 gallons of water gives around 5.5 gallons with a gravity of around 1.111. Using 17 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon volume gives about 1.122, and even using pure sugar wouldn't get you to 1.170, so some of the math here is off. 17 pounds is about 1.5 gallons of honey; is that what you used?

If you are getting a correct reading from the hydrometer, you really should dilute the must down to a gravity that is more forgiving - say around 1.130.

Next thing to do is see if there is any bubbling on the surface when you stir the must - that would indicate the yeast are becoming active in spite of the high gravity. If not, I'd strongly consider pitching a different yeast. The Wyeast sweet mead strain has frustrated more new mead makers than I can count because it is finicky, it stick often, and require a lot of pampering. I think the only reason it sells is because it is labeled "sweet mead yeast." Consider using Lalvin 71B, ICV-D47, or Red Star's Cote des Blancs. If you start with a gravity of 1.130 and use one of these yeast, you'll get a reliable fermentation with good flavor and you'll finish nice and sweet.

Endeavor to persevere!

Medsen

Well, here's a quick update on this mead. I had to go out of town for 3 or for days but I had the wife keep an eye on it. The mead started bubbling on Wed. 5 May and by the time I got home Thursday 6 May it was going at a nice pace. Last night I gave it some nutrients, a 1/4tsp at a time without any explosions, and it ate them up. i then took a gravity reading and it was at 1.100 at 72*. I checked it three times. The sample tasted good though.

I'm not sure why my initial reading was so high, but I'm positive it was that high. Maybe I used more then 17lbs. I had a gallon and a half and almost used it all.

*UPDATE*

Took a gravity reading on 12 July with a reading of 1.030 at 74* and took another one today with the same reading. I'm going to give it another few days to make sure it doesn't drop, but it shouldn't.

Now, I calculated on what I read the OG at and what you guys calculated it should be at and got 12.8 and 18 percent . Does that sound right?

Also, I'm going to rack to a secondary. How long should I leave it in the secondary and should I do it a third time in a few months? My wife is handling that, so I'm trying to coach her over the computer. Any suggestions for her? Lastly, topping it off, right now it's about 3 inches below the neck. Should I add water, or should I put glass marbles in it to raise the volume? Thanks for the help

Quick question, do you think that a FG of 1.030 is going to be too sweet or thick? I'm not there to taste it and my wife says it was fine warm, but I had her put the sample in the fridge to cool and she said the texture thickened up.

If it is not low enough (the final gravity) could I just add another yeast to it? If so what do you recommend? Also, would you then again add nutrients to that yeast?

Reading the previous posts, I would say it's a very safe bet that the OG was between 1.11 and 1.13. The initial drop in gravity between 5th May and 8th May is too big to be possible with a starting gravity of 1.17+. Also if you used Wyeast Sweet Mead you wouldn't be at 18%. Maybe the honey hadn't dissolved properly when you took the SG?

Regarding your FG, you would probably be able to restart with a champagne yeast and make it dryer, if that's what you want. Anyway not too long ago I bottled a strongish traditional mead that finished at 1.040 after one restart. Several people found it perfectly drinkable and good, as long as you treat it as a dessert wine opposed to a normal semi-dry wine.

Thanks for the reply. How many more points do you think the gravity will drop if I add some Champagne yeast? Will it give the mead an off flavor after it's been fermenting for so long?

sudndeth said:

Thanks for the reply. How many more points do you think the gravity will drop if I add some Champagne yeast? Will it give the mead an off flavor after it's been fermenting for so long?

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Can't really estimate the end result. It might take it all the way dry even, it might only drop 20 points or so. Get a good starter going and acclimatize it properly for the best results. Rack it off the old lees before restarting and don't worry about off flavors at this point.

have a mead started with cherries that you cant get a reading on as it is way down at the bulb! guess it had better be repitched- it must have been the honey!