How fast?

[GTMonster]

Evening all (UK time).
Last weekend, I pitched an orange and ginger metheglin. Recipe from Big Book of Mead Recipes by Robert Ratliffe.

1.5kg honey made to 4.5l water (boiled with ginger)
6 cut up oranges and skins
225g cubed ginger.
OG circa 1100.

The Lalvin D67 yeast was activated with 2.5g GoFerm. Fermaid O was added in small 0.47g doses as instructed in daily quants till day 4 and again on day 7 as instructed. This was done while using a mixer to add air.

Normally, using conventional methods, the mead takes several weeks to make the correct FG. So I'd not considered taking measurements.

To my suprise, there were no bubles this morning and assumed it had stalled! I took the SG and found that it had not stalled out, but hit FG, just shy of 1000. Not good as this was meant to be semi sweet!

A few questions...
1) Is it normal using the TOSNA method that fermentation is over in a week.
2) As I blended air in and the yeast up yesterday, will I have ruined the final product? Looks like it's settling back to the bottom slowly, however massively cloudy.
3) As the orange and ginger pieces were steeped in the mix for only 1 week, is that enough time for flavour. I was meant to stop at FG-1015 which would have been far shorter.
3) I have a basic desert mead on the go which is on the sweet side with FG looking to be at circa 1040.
This leaves me 2 options.
A) Mix some of this with the metheglin to return it to FG 1015-1020
B) Back sweeten with boiled and cooled honey?
My thought is that (B) would keep the intensity of the orange and ginger flavour.
Mixing with a sweeter mead (A) may dilute.
Does adding fresh honey back to mead change the flavour beyond sweetness?

Thanks for any pointers. Sorry for so many questions!

 

[MightyMosin]

1) Is it normal using the TOSNA method that fermentation is over in a week.

It can be. It depends upon yeast hydration, nutrients, fermentation temperatures, etc. I et surprised by the speed that it can go at times. Generally, I try and check SG at each feeding in case I need to dump all the nutrients in... but I don't always.

2) As I blended air in and the yeast up yesterday, will I have ruined the final product? Looks like it's settling back to the bottom slowly, however massively cloudy.

At this point it doesn't matter... It is done. Chances are you are probably OK.

3) As the orange and ginger pieces were steeped in the mix for only 1 week, is that enough time for flavour. I was meant to stop at FG-1015 which would have been far shorter.

You can always add more of these in secondary if it isn't what you want. As far as stopping it at 1.015, that book is funny as it acts if you can force it to stop... sometime it will stop and other times it won't. In any case, as it is now dry, you will need to stabilize and then back sweeten after to get it to where you want it.

3) I have a basic desert mead on the go which is on the sweet side with FG looking to be at circa 1040.
This leaves me 2 options.
A) Mix some of this with the metheglin to return it to FG 1015-1020
B) Back sweeten with boiled and cooled honey?
My thought is that (B) would keep the intensity of the orange and ginger flavour.
Mixing with a sweeter mead (A) may dilute.
Does adding fresh honey back to mead change the flavour beyond sweetness?

If you are going to mix with another mead that has sugars still in it, you will need to stabilize the mead so that the yeasts do not start to ferment on that sugar. This is the same if you go with option B.

You can use a blending calculator to mix it and get to the SG that you want with known amounts instead of guessing.

Mixing fresh honey will mostly add sweetness though there are other flavors in the honey that can come through depending on what you use. Once again, if your mead isn't stabilized then your yeast will start to ferment on that new honey until they eventually hit their ABV limits.

just remember, if your mead isn't stabilized or the yeast aren't at their ABV limits, any new sugars will start up fermentation again. You really need it stabilized to start to play around with adding sugars of almost any kind... except the non fermentable ones.

 

[GTMonster]

Thanks the the help...

I think I'll blend with a sweet mead once both are stabilised to bring up to about 1025.

If I add orange and ginger back into the mix during secondry, do I need to add pectine enzymes again?

 

[MightyMosin]

Ginger should not be an issue. Maybe someone else can comment on orange juice. I believe its mostly an issue when used in primary fermentation.

You can use the blending calculator that is further down the page here:
http://meadcalc.freevar.com/

 

[Raptor99]

Last year I made some hard ginger ale. It was difficult to get the fermentation going. Ginger has strong anti-microbial properties, so I think it hindered the yeast. Next time I will start with a smaller amount of ginger in primary, and add more in secondary.

I don't see a problem adding ginger in secondary. There is probably a small amount of sugar in ginger, but at that point there is a huge yeast colony, so it shouldn't have any problem fermenting that sugar.

I don't think that ginger has pectins. I kind of doubt that orange juice does either, but you could check on that. With most other fruits, I add some pectic enzyme along with the fruit in secondary.

 

[GTMonster]

So after all this, I decided to try adding a tad honey to the orange and ginger to sweeten it last Thurs night. As it had been stabaliser previously, I was not expected further fermentation.

On Sunday, I noticed that we are back fermenting. In my excitement, I added more honey to take it to 1040, a tad of Fermaid O, then replenished the oranges and the ginger I'd previously removed.... Since Sunday we are at 1035 and bubbling about every 4-5 seconds. I'm hoping it will go for a week or 2 more, then tap out around 1025... Will see. Next time I'll apply additional honey a bit slower and in steps to reduce the risk of overly sweet mead. That's impatience for you.

One thing I will say it that the honey just sat at the bottom of the demijohn after the first addition straight from the jar. When adding the second amount, it was loosened with boiling water and cooled for easy blending into the brew.

I decided tonight also to repitch the ultra sweet mead to see what happens. After a few hours, I've noted a considerable increase in bubbles. Fingers crossed... And fingers crossed that the final flavour won't be yeasty or taste off.

Well after all this, I definitely have a better idea of how to run with the next batch. Definitly learning with every brew.

Thanks as always.

 

[MightyMosin]

Ginger has strong anti-microbial properties, so I think it hindered the yeast.

I haven't used ginger a lot... actually, now that I really think about it, I have always used it as part of a hot steeped tea to extract all that flavor out. Done in this way is has never been an issue and the amount I have used is .5 Oz per final gallon.