First Meads

[Bowow0708]

I a real newbie here and only 1 extract brew under my belt but i have had a interest in meads for a long time and it is also a good thing that honey is cheapish here in the philippines(around 3.5$ a kg). im making my two meads since im saving up to buy more stuff from the US and i got a ton of patience.

Here are my recipes (both made on Dec 17 2011

Sweet mead
Batch size: 5 gal
Honey 9 kg
Water 13 L
DAP 4 Tsp staggered feedings over 1 week
yeast: Lalvin D-47 2 packets rehydrated
OG: 1.138

Dwójniak mead
Batch size: 1 gal
Honey 2 kg
Water 2 L
DAP 1.5 Tsp staggered feedings over 2 weeks
yeast: Lalvin K1V
OG: 1.175

although it has only been 2 weeks my Dwójniak mead has slowed down to practically nothing and when i took a SG reading it read only 1.170. is there anything wrong here? or am i just paranoid and just need to wait this thing out? but the sweet mead is doing fine some foam on the surface and i degas every couple of days on both meads. The sweet mead foams vigorously everytime but the Dwójniak just kicks up a bit.

 

[fatbloke]

here's some "light reading" for you......

The batch with D47, needs to be kept below 70F during it's ferment, as above that will produce fusels, which won't age out/mellow.

Honey being low on nutrients, needs more than just DAP (sometimes referred to as "energiser"), it needs the sort of micro nutrients provided by the likes of FermaidK (or O), fermax or similar. If those are hard to get hold of quickly, you might try some bread yeast that's been boiled in a little water, then allowed to cool before adding, and a crushed vitamin B1 tablet (from the nearest pharmacy).

The above link will also explain about aeration of musts in the earlier stages as well as "staggered nutrient additions" (SNA), both of which might help some.

 

[Penguinetti]

I a real newbie here and only 1 extract brew under my belt but i have had a interest in meads for a long time and it is also a good thing that honey is cheapish here in the philippines(around 3.5$ a kg). im making my two meads since im saving up to buy more stuff from the US and i got a ton of patience.

Here are my recipes (both made on Dec 17 2011
Dwójniak mead
Batch size: 1 gal
Honey 2 kg
Water 2 L
DAP 1.5 Tsp staggered feedings over 2 weeks
yeast: Lalvin K1V
OG: 1.175

Hye, another newbie here, and i am in no way speaking from experience, but from what I've read, the Dwójniak mead takes close to 4 years or more to reach its full potential. Again, not my experience, just what I've read. Please, anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[cgenebrewer]

1.175 is a high SG. so it might have kicked your yeasts butt. Perhaps it is too acidic.

I second adding yeast hulls, and perhaps a pH reading to see if its dropped below 3.1.

Sounds like a stuck fermentation to me, might need to take some steps to get it going again.

 

[Bowow0708]

needs more than just DAP (sometimes referred to as "energiser")

where i read DAP is nutrient and fermaid K is energizer, my reference is from Hightest on nutrients( i already read most of the gotmead stuff), and had a bit of a slip today while degassing my sweet mead it foamed over and I quickly placed back the airlock (I do this since there is so much gas escaping, my airlock bubbles out shooting out the water inside, its the one piece bubbler kind) maybe 4oz lost, but it smelled incredible! it had no aroma that the original honey had but it smelled like apples and citrus and something i couldn't identify! but then i tasted some off my hand it was still quite sweet but i got only a bare taste. and no i did not resanitize, i know that seems stupid but i am scrupulously clean with my cleaning. and i just added some boiled bakers yeast i had in the fridge it was less than a tablespoon of yeast and boiled in some water i didn't measure and poured most of it im my 5 gal and the rest into my Dwójniak and poured out some must to get as much of the boiled yeast into it.

-Happy New Year from the philippines!!

 

[Bowow0708]

update
my sweet mead is bubbling happily, gonna rack to secondary on feb 29 about more than 2 months in primary.

Dwójniak mead, pretty slow but its bubbling maybe will let ferment after a year or so

 

[Flumpy]

Those are going to be some extraordinarily sweet meads! I don't think my hydrometer measures up to 1.175

 

[Bowow0708]

Just a tiny update:

My Dwójniak mead i added 1/2 a tsp of DAP over 3 days and it is pretty active but still slow to beer standards.

My Sweet mead is still at its slow and steady rate but i also added 1 tsp over 3 days to help the yeast along and its just chugging along like the tortoise this will sit in my carboy until i get my next order could be a year or or three(still saving up to get more stuff!)

Notes:

Next time i make another Dwójniak i will use the continuous diffusion method or the no dissolve method to make the yeast happier, then use a super strain to finish it off at hopefully 25-30% abv. and maybe a 6 gal batch, then after primary as stated above, take half and freeze and have something maybe 50% abv? and bottled in 375ml wine bottles corked and saved. then this is something to pass down to my great grandkids, bury in the ground, or something.

 

[Bowow0708]

A noob question. its been 5 weeks now and should i rack the sweet mead to secondary now? i checked the bottom and there was some compact lees there the airlock shows about a bubble every 30 seconds.

 

[Bowow0708]

update*
my sweet mead have been racked on January 17,it now smells very fruity from almost a month in the secondary, haven't taken a SG reading but I will re-rack and check SG on April 17

my Dwójniak is still in primary fermenter and it now smells like hard plastic or old balloons out of the airlock. I'm not sure of the reading but i would just drop the hydrometer into the fermenter since its pretty full. the smell I dont think is autolysis i have read that its unusual but not unheard of in young meads of a hard plastic smell but it will age out in maybe 2-3 years but I'm not worried since I'm really gonna age the heck out of this mead.