JarlHammer
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2021
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 23
Good evening everyone!
As the title suggests, I am brand new to trying to make my own mead, and I believe that I may have shot myself in the foot from the very beginning. I tried following a very basic, beginner's recipe for a 1 gallon batch, which included using Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast, which I know is frowned upon by serious mead makers, but it is what it is now. It seems like the fermentation has already slowed down quite a bit from where it started. I believe that I added too much sugar to the must, as I was trying to go with a sweeter mead. I have posted all of the relevant information below, including the recipe that I used, but I will state now that I have not taken a secondary hydrometer reading yet, as I only started this must five days ago.
Start Date: 03/30/2021
Ingredients
Water
3lbs. Orange Blossom Honey
Fresh Orange Peel, roughly 1/2 of a standard sized orange
2oz Fresh Orange Fruit
16oz sugar
1tsp Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
OG - 1.160 - Details Below!
Ambient Home Temperature - 68F
My OG reading for the must before adding the sugar was 1.050, and I wanted to achieve both a higher ABV, and a sweeter finished product. I was trying to hit an OG of around 1.110 to start, and used this chart to determine the difference in the reading to determine how much sugar to add to get the must to my desired OG: Using a hydrometer to work out how much sugar to add to your wine. (Or not.)
However, I think that I may not have shaken the must long enough before adding the sugar and had a false initial reading, because after I added the sugar, shook it up for another five minutes, and took a reading, my OG was 1.160! I still pitched the yeast, and fermentation was aggressive for the first few days. I have been swirling the must vigorously two times a day to help with degassing, but as of today, I have very slow airlock activity, though I'm still getting tiny bubbles floating to the top.
Is my fermentation stuck? Is there anything I can do to save this if so? I don't have a local brew shop, so any additional products I need will have to be purchased online and would likely take a minimum of two days shipping. At the end of the day, I'm still going to let it sit until I don't see any activity, rack it, and hope for the best, but if there's something I can do in the meantime for a better product, please let me know.
As the title suggests, I am brand new to trying to make my own mead, and I believe that I may have shot myself in the foot from the very beginning. I tried following a very basic, beginner's recipe for a 1 gallon batch, which included using Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast, which I know is frowned upon by serious mead makers, but it is what it is now. It seems like the fermentation has already slowed down quite a bit from where it started. I believe that I added too much sugar to the must, as I was trying to go with a sweeter mead. I have posted all of the relevant information below, including the recipe that I used, but I will state now that I have not taken a secondary hydrometer reading yet, as I only started this must five days ago.
Start Date: 03/30/2021
Ingredients
Water
3lbs. Orange Blossom Honey
Fresh Orange Peel, roughly 1/2 of a standard sized orange
2oz Fresh Orange Fruit
16oz sugar
1tsp Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
OG - 1.160 - Details Below!
Ambient Home Temperature - 68F
My OG reading for the must before adding the sugar was 1.050, and I wanted to achieve both a higher ABV, and a sweeter finished product. I was trying to hit an OG of around 1.110 to start, and used this chart to determine the difference in the reading to determine how much sugar to add to get the must to my desired OG: Using a hydrometer to work out how much sugar to add to your wine. (Or not.)
However, I think that I may not have shaken the must long enough before adding the sugar and had a false initial reading, because after I added the sugar, shook it up for another five minutes, and took a reading, my OG was 1.160! I still pitched the yeast, and fermentation was aggressive for the first few days. I have been swirling the must vigorously two times a day to help with degassing, but as of today, I have very slow airlock activity, though I'm still getting tiny bubbles floating to the top.
Is my fermentation stuck? Is there anything I can do to save this if so? I don't have a local brew shop, so any additional products I need will have to be purchased online and would likely take a minimum of two days shipping. At the end of the day, I'm still going to let it sit until I don't see any activity, rack it, and hope for the best, but if there's something I can do in the meantime for a better product, please let me know.