ive heard its just about the hardiest yeast around but i plan on making a batch today that will be sweet after the yeast dies from alcohol. im thinking 3 pounds of honey, (generic raw honey) 2 pounds of dark brown suger and half a gallon apple juice. my aim is to add very little water and have this reach around 20% but still be sweet, but i dont want candied dead yeast though. so how much is too much suger for lalvin 1118 to eat through?
how much is to much suger for lalvin 1118?
- Thread starter bodhi86
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Well, it's hard to go off amounts. If you have a hydrometer make the OG out to 1.133. That'll give you at least 18% ABV (which is 1118's tolerance) and dry. (if you want it at 20% you could chance it and try to push 1118 at an OG of 1.150, but I wouldn't chance it). After you get it dry, then I would sorbate and then backsweeten, to taste, which is always the best method. PS Why the brown sugar???? It'll just make it gross lol. If you have to add sugar, just use dextrose, which won't add any additional flavour.
I like the maple taste, I ended up going with 71b, I hope it doesn't die, nervous as hell cuz I made it about an hour ago and no signs of ferment yet, 1118 usually starts inabout 20 mins, but its real aggressive so ima sit on it for maybe 2 days and repitch, 3 pounds honey, 1 pound brown suger and 1/2 gallon apple juice. Hopefully not too rich for my yeasty beasties.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
Your method is flawed, inasfaras, too higher levels of fermentable sugars can cause osmotic shock to the yeast, stressing it or even leaving the yeast so it won't start the ferment at all.
You've also got the wrong end of the stick, as it's not aggressive, it's just capable of fermenting to a higher alcohol tolerance than some other yeasts - aggressive would be a better descriptive to K1V-1116, which has the killer factor, hence if you put EC-1118 into a brew that started and then pitched K1V, the likely result is probable to be closer to the profile of the K1V as lab tests have shown it would likely become the dominant yeast.
Additionally, there's no set amount of time a batch can take to start up with any given yeast, as it's dependent on too many factors. Heat/temp, nutrient available, cell count, pH level, etc etc (there's others, but that's off the top of my head).
I have no idea why you'd want to add brown sugar, or sugars of any type like that. Just the AJ and honey would have done the trick. Or if you like the taste of unsweetened maple sap, you could have just added a little maple syrup to make it an acerglyn.
crazyseany
Well-Known Member
Newbie here! So it doesn't always work where if you want it to end sweet to just start with a higher sg then the yeast can handle? (I know it's totally different) but with JOAM you are killing the yeast by getting the alcohol volumes higher then the yeast can handle so it dies off....
Maybe this is what op was thinking? And instead of using 6 pounds of honey per gallon...use the brown sugar to get the sg high enough....?
Maybe this is what op was thinking? And instead of using 6 pounds of honey per gallon...use the brown sugar to get the sg high enough....?
GinKings
Well-Known Member
+1 ....too many sugars.
Two lbs honey, one lb sugar, and a half gallon apple juice probably has a gravity somewhere around 1.220. That is ridiculously high and there's a good chance that the yeast won't even be able to ferment it. Even if you get it to ferment, you can't expect more than about 15% out of 71B, which would give you an FG around 1.110. The FG would still be way too high even with EC-1118 or K1V. My suggestion would be to add at least another half gallon of apple juice.
huesmann
Well-Known Member
You can always step feed. Start at an OG that the yeast can handle (no shock), then gradually add more sugar for them to eat until they reach their alcohol tolerance.
thankyou for th advice,i have a three gallon carboy, i could transfer to, but idneed more ingredients, i also have a friend brng over 1118 because its the yeast i wanted i the first plce, i lke the alcohol content i can produce, hence all the extra sugers, hence the original question, ill see what i can do about tranfering to a bigger carboy, thnks again. (sorry for typing errors, keboard is going out)
You've already got the answer here, but I wanted to reiterate that even if the potential alcohol tolerance is 18% or so, that's reached by incremental feeding as a rule, as only happy yeast can be pushed to the higher levels of ABV tolerance, even for EC-1118 yeast, without off-flavors. Otherwise, you'd just get sweet, hot, rocket fuel that stalls out too early.
Sweet ( to a point) and rocket fuel I can deal with, but hot is not what I want, I do plan on aging this about 14 months, opening it November 2013, it's my birthday mead. Will the aging process help out the newbie mistakes I've made and mellow it?
If it can going and finish, then aging will help. Yeast nutrient will help.
i put nutrient in the must, and im putting in more today because the foaming has gone down and i have about an inch of headspace. thought about using honey to top off but after 3 days vigerous fermenting it still doesnt register on the numbers of my hydrometer, but it only goes to 80 sp. gravity, 10%, or 20 bottling scale, its a little guy. gunnu top with pasturized apple juice and nutrient.
