Did I rack too early?

[Wyldsp00n]

Hey y'all! I am doing my first mead brew, and I think I racked without letting it finish fermenting. I was following a recipe that said fermenting took around three weeks. I was not aware of measuring the gravity to follow the fermentation. I didn't take the original gravity of the must. I racked it after three weeks, and I have since bought a refractometer and measured the SG of the mead which showed a SG of 1.047.

From what I have read is that this is a very sweet mead with low alcohol content. I definitely want a dryer mead. Will the gravity drop any in the carboy (with an s shaped airlock) on its own? If not, can I add yeast and nutrients to the mead to start fermentation back up and get it to a lower specific gravity?

Any insight is greatly appreciated! Thank you all!!!

 

[lumpher]

1.047 would definitely be sweet. 3 weeks ferm time is also very short for mead. If you've moved it to a secondary, you should be good to just add some nutrient and energizer to get it going again (depending on original gravity and how much/what yeast you used).

 

[Wyldsp00n]

1.047 would definitely be sweet. 3 weeks ferm time is also very short for mead. If you've moved it to a secondary, you should be good to just add some nutrient and energizer to get it going again (depending on original gravity and how much/what yeast you used).

I used one Mangrove Jack’s Craft Series Mead Yeast M05 10g packet. So if not a whole lot of that made it into the carboy, am I still good just adding nutrient and energizer? I can definitely add that!

 

[lumpher]

Yeast spends the first several hours multiplying, then starts the fermentation process for real. After racking, there is still a lot of yeast in there. The energizer will get the yeast going again. The nutrient will give the yeast something quick and easy to eat to multiply more if needed before it resumes. You might not even need them, but I would add them as cheap insurance. No more yeast should be needed, but next time, you might think about 2-3 months ferm time for mead.

 

[Wyldsp00n]

Yeast spends the first several hours multiplying, then starts the fermentation process for real. After racking, there is still a lot of yeast in there. The energizer will get the yeast going again. The nutrient will give the yeast something quick and easy to eat to multiply more if needed before it resumes. You might not even need them, but I would add them as cheap insurance. No more yeast should be needed, but next time, you might think about 2-3 months ferm time for mead.

Okay, great! I'll add that tonight when I get home from work! I'll keep that in mind for next batch, and I'm definitely going to keep track of the SG with a refractometer! Thank you so much for all of your help!

 

[dvi]

Generally speaking, recipes shouldn't tell you a set time frame to rack; the yeast will ferment on its own schedule and will let you know when it is finished (i.e. when the hydrometer FG readings are consistent between multiple readings). With good nutrition, most standard strength meads should be near or finished fermenting after 3 weeks, but its always good to check and be sure. Also, as a heads up, refractometers aren't really reliable once alcohol is present. There are ways around it in the form of complicated maths to approximate an accurate FG, but the easiest route (if somewhat more labor intensive) is to use a hydrometer.

 

[Wyldsp00n]

Generally speaking, recipes shouldn't tell you a set time frame to rack; the yeast will ferment on its own schedule and will let you know when it is finished (i.e. when the hydrometer FG readings are consistent between multiple readings). With good nutrition, most standard strength meads should be near or finished fermenting after 3 weeks, but its always good to check and be sure. Also, as a heads up, refractometers aren't really reliable once alcohol is present. There are ways around it in the form of complicated maths to approximate an accurate FG, but the easiest route (if somewhat more labor intensive) is to use a hydrometer.

That's all really great to know! The refractometer I have measures in both Brix and Specific Gravity. Will that work better than trying to convert brix to SG if I can read the SG right on it? Is it inaccurate enough to return it and invest in a hydrometer?

 

[Raptor99]

Ignore the SG scale on your refractometer. You still need to correct the Brix to the actual SG once there is alcohol present. No complicated math is involved, just use a calculator like this: Homebrew Refractometer Calculator.

Edit: Corrected to say "Ignore the SG scale" rather than "Ignore the Brix scale." Sorry for the typo.

 

[Wyldsp00n]

Great! I’ll make sure to ignore the brix! Thank you for the link!

 

[Raptor99]

Great! I’ll make sure to ignore the brix! Thank you for the link!

Actually you should ignore the SG on your refractometer. That was a typo on my part. I corrected it above.

You can use the original and current Brix readings in the calculator to find the actual current SG.

 

[Wyldsp00n]

Actually you should ignore the SG on your refractometer. That was a typo on my part. I corrected it above.

You can use the original and current Brix readings in the calculator to find the actual current SG.

Ohhhh, okay! I see! Thank you!

 

[jerrylotto]

Or use a hydrometer to read final gravity without any correction.