SegmentedMonkey
Well-Known Member
Well, I just pitched for my second mead attempt last week. The first was done over a year ago, to rave reviews. It was a cyser mead with local ingredients. Raw apple blossom honey (12lb) from the local bee farm and unpasteurized, unflitered apple cider (4gal) from the local farm market. (Guess what they grow in my area). This mixture made 30L (~8gal) of must which just barely fit in my fermenter.
I started a new one with more or less the same ingredients, mostly to get a new batch of same, but with the experience of having done it already. I was thinking about making it a little sweeter this time, so I added an extra pound of dextrose (corn sugar) to the mix. I picked corn sugar over extra honey for two reasons. First, it was slightly cheaper, but also, the last time I pitched, the yeast seemed to take forever to get going, and the local brewmaster told me it might be because honey is hard to break down until yeast really get going. (Unsure of the veracity of that).
In any event, with 12lb of honey and 1lb of dextrose, my starting SG was only 1.070. From reading other's stories, it seems like this might be low. It's in the "table wine" range on my meter, but I was hoping to make a "dessert wine" type, sweeter drink.
Would it be acceptable for me to wait until I would normally rack the first time (in a month or therabouts) and then add another 2 or 3 pounds of dissolved, cooled honey? Would this muck up the process in any way?
I started a new one with more or less the same ingredients, mostly to get a new batch of same, but with the experience of having done it already. I was thinking about making it a little sweeter this time, so I added an extra pound of dextrose (corn sugar) to the mix. I picked corn sugar over extra honey for two reasons. First, it was slightly cheaper, but also, the last time I pitched, the yeast seemed to take forever to get going, and the local brewmaster told me it might be because honey is hard to break down until yeast really get going. (Unsure of the veracity of that).
In any event, with 12lb of honey and 1lb of dextrose, my starting SG was only 1.070. From reading other's stories, it seems like this might be low. It's in the "table wine" range on my meter, but I was hoping to make a "dessert wine" type, sweeter drink.
Would it be acceptable for me to wait until I would normally rack the first time (in a month or therabouts) and then add another 2 or 3 pounds of dissolved, cooled honey? Would this muck up the process in any way?