Am I trying to go Too Big?

[Mikey1976]

I started making Cider about 5 years ago. It has always tasted very good and is well liked by all my friends and family. I was always looking for different ways to get the alcohol higher without the use of sugar, so I experimented with different things such as syrups and agave and honeys. I liked them all, but found the honey the best.

Last year I mixed 5 gallons of fresh apple cider with 15 pounds of Clover honey and it turned out very nice. I added mulling spices in the secondary to give it a spiced essence. But I figured that the ratio of cider to honey no longer kept it a cider, but more on the lines of a mead.

This year I am trying a mead. After looking at many recipes and ideas, I decided to try my own. I am starting with a small batch to keep the cost down if it doesn't work. It consists of:

1 gallon Apple juice
5# Honey
1 pkt Champagne Yeast

I started this on February 14th and for the first week, it bubbled away nicely. The second week was much slower, and now it is not doing anything. After tasting a small sample, it does have some alcohol to it, but it is still very sweet. I need some help with this. Should I have used a higher ABV% yeast? If so, can I still add it now, and what do you recommend? If not, should I bottle it and let it age for a while? Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[coax]

Is that 5 pounds of honey in one gallon? Yeah, that's way too much sugar concentration. Think the highest I've ever gone is 3.5 pounds/gallon and that was kinda sluggish, plus it's into cider. Do you have a specific gravity reading?

I'd dilute it down to 1.5-2 gallons, pitch more yeast if it doesn't start up again after a couple days.

Edit: I should add that if you want to go really big like that, you're better off doing it in stages. Start off with a gravity around 1.10-1.11 then after a week or so add more honey.

 

[truckjohn]

Follow the directions in the stickies about staged nutrient additions... It may be too late now - but you could test by adding a teeny bit of nutrient.... Just be aware that you could get a mead geyser from the powder hitting it.

Thanks

 

[biochemedic]

Last year I mixed 5 gallons of fresh apple cider with 15 pounds of Clover honey and it turned out very nice. I added mulling spices in the secondary to give it a spiced essence. But I figured that the ratio of cider to honey no longer kept it a cider, but more on the lines of a mead.

This year I am trying a mead....

I think you've already made mead! Your batch last year sounds suspiciously like my annual cyser (5 gal cider and 1 gal [12 lbs] honey). I don't usually add the mulling spices to my cyser, but I do with my straight cider...

I agree w/ coax that you are probably way high...the calculated OG for 5 lbs honey in 1 gal volume is 1.210! Even if your yeast wasn't shocked to hell by the gravity, and performed a perfect fermentation to tolerance (usually ~ 18% for champagne yeast), your FG would only be down to ~1.080...certainly in the "sweet mead" category, to be sure! :cross:

To answer the original question, having actual gravity measurements (original and current) would be helpful, but in absence of that, diluting with some boiled/cooled water might be helpful...you could still need to repitch if fermentation doesn't start back up again.

 

[fatbloke]

I started making Cider about 5 years ago. It has always tasted very good and is well liked by all my friends and family. I was always looking for different ways to get the alcohol higher without the use of sugar, so I experimented with different things such as syrups and agave and honeys. I liked them all, but found the honey the best.

Last year I mixed 5 gallons of fresh apple cider with 15 pounds of Clover honey and it turned out very nice. I added mulling spices in the secondary to give it a spiced essence. But I figured that the ratio of cider to honey no longer kept it a cider, but more on the lines of a mead.

This year I am trying a mead. After looking at many recipes and ideas, I decided to try my own. I am starting with a small batch to keep the cost down if it doesn't work. It consists of:

1 gallon Apple juice
5# Honey
1 pkt Champagne Yeast

I started this on February 14th and for the first week, it bubbled away nicely. The second week was much slower, and now it is not doing anything. After tasting a small sample, it does have some alcohol to it, but it is still very sweet. I need some help with this. Should I have used a higher ABV% yeast? If so, can I still add it now, and what do you recommend? If not, should I bottle it and let it age for a while? Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

There's no such thing as going too big. You only have to look at some of the commercial meaderies (BNecktar and the like) to realise that they're making 1000's of gallons at a time. The only real difference is quantities and management. For 1 to 5 gallon batches, you'd not need "wort coolers", whereas for 1000 gallons you would.....

In respect of the bits you referred to in your post, you need to look more closely at gravity readings, otherwise you're gonna end up with fermentation issues. You need to know the gravity of the apple juice, then add the honey at a rate of 1lb per gallon. Then take a new gravity reading. You don't want to start the ferment at too higher gravity, otherwise you get some of the problems already mentioned by others i.e. stuck fermentations, osmotic shock to yeast, etc etc....

good luck with your efforts

regards

fatbloke

 

[coax]

I think he meant big in the sense of high gravity, not batch size.

 

[fatbloke]

I think he meant big in the sense of high gravity, not batch size.

Yeah, just re-read the posts....

Suspect you hit the nail on the head first time. 5lb of honey into a gallon of apple juice is gonna put the gravity through the roof.........

regards

fatbloke

 

[mmadmikes1]

Dilute and repitch, dont forget the nutrients. This is going to need it.