I just started a Caramel Apple Mead, modifying a recipe I found on here, 4 gallons of cider, 3 pounds 60 caramel, 2.5 pounds gold lme, and 15 pounds of honey. I just put my hydrometer in my sample and it is floating above the markings on the hydrometer. I was expecting a reading of around 1.15 or 1.18 not something that crazy high.
Mead OG way too high
- Thread starter ben93p
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Dilute it down to about 1.13 or you'll never get it to ferment.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Your cider is likely to be about 1.050 and the honey will add another 110 points.. I assume the LME will add about 20 points so 1.180 is what I would expect. But assuming this is for a 5 gallon batch, that in and of itself is what I would call "crazy high" ... 
Yeah just removed a bunch and saved it to rack it onto later and now I have og of 1.135 hopefully my yeast can work with that. But man this smells crazy good my whole place smells like caramel and apples. And this ended up as a 6 gallon batch.
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that is definitely an excessive amount of fermentable sugar.
Don't expect much activity when you rack onto the reserve either, unless you innoculate with more yeast, preferably a super high alcohol tolerant variety. You're looking at probably 20% ABV if you got decent attenuation.
You won't get great attenuation though, which is fine, becuase with that much alcohol, if it isn't sweet in the finish, it will likely have a "hot" alcohol taste (I speak from experience creating too many overly-boozy meads and fruit wines back when I first started fermenting).
Don't expect much activity when you rack onto the reserve either, unless you innoculate with more yeast, preferably a super high alcohol tolerant variety. You're looking at probably 20% ABV if you got decent attenuation.
You won't get great attenuation though, which is fine, becuase with that much alcohol, if it isn't sweet in the finish, it will likely have a "hot" alcohol taste (I speak from experience creating too many overly-boozy meads and fruit wines back when I first started fermenting).
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
116 or 118 would be decent choices, and if you pamper them as you describe, I'd guess you'll get them up to 16-18% ABV.
Wow, the yeast definitely seems to like the way I'm treating it. I just checked the gravity and it had dropped from 1.135 to 1.120. Degassed it and added a cup of 50% mix of reserved must and water with fermaid and foamcap added then added o2 for a minute. can't wait to see how this turns out.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
I suspect that this will be very hot.
You think it will have a strong alcohol taste?
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
Yes, and a "hot" alcohol taste (i.e.not smooth and mellow like a fine vodka, but more grain alcohol).
But, it may have enough sweetness to balance the alcohol. I'm guessing your FG will be at least 1.030.
That's the drawback of super-high alcohol mead - it tends to be hot and not smooth without years of aging. I generally won't make any mead above 15% ABV for that reason.
But, only time will tell, and even if it isn't great right away, age always improves mead up until it gets oxidized.
oh okay, I think it will end up on the border of that since if I remember right 116 has a tolerance or 15-16%... unless of course the yeast decides to stick around and ferment to a higher percentage. And it will probably be aging for about year before I bottle it, or keg it depending on how it tastes carbonated.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Yup. It's a wine - not a spirit, and you want to be able to drink the wine and coat your tongue with it, to savor the aroma and the flavors. If it's too "strong" then you will drink it like whisky or vodka but it won't have the balance of flavor to offset the alcohol content.
I'm thinking this will make a good desert mead once the alcohol flavors mellow down. Although if this is as sweet as I suspect it will be I may have to put a warning on the bottle since the samples I've tried so far taste like a very sweet caramel apple.
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
Yes, and don't be discouraged by us speculating either. It could very well come out perfectly balanced and delicious, even young. It happens, and not all meads need to age to taste good.
For all any of us know, despite our speculation, you could have a damned fine drink on your hands there!
Unfortunately, mead requires patience, so you won't know for a while.
For all any of us know, despite our speculation, you could have a damned fine drink on your hands there!
Unfortunately, mead requires patience, so you won't know for a while.
Lol thats very true, I normally stick my meads in a carboy and leave it in a corner for 6 months to a year to bulk age and clear before I backsweeten if needed and bottle. And especially I won't be able to touch this one for a year, even if I wanted to.
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
Wow, the yeast definitely like being pampered like this its already dropped down to 1.029 and still bubbling away and the sample I took today had a good head and no harsh boozy taste yet.
Nice!
Keep us posted.
Yep, I think I may be at the max tolerance for the yeast its at 1.020 and slowed way down. Although I haven't noticed much in the way of flogulation yet. Figure I'll give it a week or two then rack out of my fast ferment to another carboy to age.
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
You could always cold crash it to accelerate flocculation.
what is the Carmel 60? I'm trying to figure out if that added any sugars or not. I'm in the 1.180 range on my calculations. Off hand, I would have done 1/2 the honey knowing that the cider gives so much itself. - Juice sold in the store typically has a gravity around 1.050
Caramel 60 malt, I really had not expected the og to be that high with only 3 extra pounds of honey, although I have 7 gallons of mead now. Still sweet at about 1.018 head like a beer and still blowing the sanitizer out of my airlock real quick. Thanks for the normal og out of the store.
Ok I'm glad I racked off and reserved all that must now, Since its down to 1.010 now from 1.135. I think I'm going to track down my Camden tablets to keep it sweet. Shouldn't the yeast have died by now since I thought 116 died at 16%.
Cavpilot2000
Well-Known Member
Probably, but you may have some extra-tough survivors in there. If that is the case though, that the yeast have died off, you shouldn't really need campden.
Have you sampled it? Is it still sweet, or are you planning to back-sweeten it with the reserve?
Oh the yeast is still going strong when I degassed this morning it was at about 2 or 3 bubbles a second. And still a little sweet, plan on racking onto the reserve once the yeast dies. Definitely plan on putting a warning on it, a 16 to 18% brew that has no real alcohol taste and is sweet.....
I just racked to fresh/frozen/thawed cranberries in tertiary so it's stll got a ways to go. In addition, I plan on hibiscus and orange peel, and then oaking with Hungarian Med toast. It's in it's 3rd month and does have an alcohol taste to it, but rocket fuel? absolutely not.
I made this batch as an experiment actually. I wanted to see how high I could coax the ABV without a rocket fuel taste. And I wanted to backsweeten without using sulfite/sorbate. I used cranberry because I thought the tart/sweet would help mitigate the possible taste from the high alcohol.
I did 3 things to address unwanted fusel production. I halved the amount of cranberry juice in primary and buffered with potassium carbonate. I kept the ferment temp below 62* to inhibit rapid fermentation. And I step fed, starting at 1.088 with 5 additions to an adjusted OG of 1.165. It died around 1.006 - I back sweetened to 1.015.
It's held stable at 1.015 for the last 3 weeks waiting to clear. I then racked to 60 oz of cranberries and lost less than a 1/4 cup blowback through the airlock - I'm chalking that up to a change in volume or maybe even a nucleation reaction - I haven't checked the gravity yet. It wasn't completely clear, I still might have some yeast in suspension. It didn't look like fermentation, it looked like a CO2 release. I stirred down the cranberries and have had no further evidence of possible fermentation for the past 2 days, so I'm hopeful.
Hope this was helpful.
I made this batch as an experiment actually. I wanted to see how high I could coax the ABV without a rocket fuel taste. And I wanted to backsweeten without using sulfite/sorbate. I used cranberry because I thought the tart/sweet would help mitigate the possible taste from the high alcohol.
I did 3 things to address unwanted fusel production. I halved the amount of cranberry juice in primary and buffered with potassium carbonate. I kept the ferment temp below 62* to inhibit rapid fermentation. And I step fed, starting at 1.088 with 5 additions to an adjusted OG of 1.165. It died around 1.006 - I back sweetened to 1.015.
It's held stable at 1.015 for the last 3 weeks waiting to clear. I then racked to 60 oz of cranberries and lost less than a 1/4 cup blowback through the airlock - I'm chalking that up to a change in volume or maybe even a nucleation reaction - I haven't checked the gravity yet. It wasn't completely clear, I still might have some yeast in suspension. It didn't look like fermentation, it looked like a CO2 release. I stirred down the cranberries and have had no further evidence of possible fermentation for the past 2 days, so I'm hopeful.
Hope this was helpful.
That sounds awesome, Looks like the yeast finally are slowing down, barely getting bubbles in the airlock now and I'm starting to get a lot of floculation. going to give it a few days toss in a campden tablet let that sit for a while to be sure the gravity is stable then rack onto the reserved must in a new carboy to bulk age. Definitely thinking if I have a kegging setup when this is done aging I'm going to carbonate it.
Okay the gravity has been pretty stable at 1.005 for a while now so I just added in the campden tablets and started the vanilla beans soaking in a cup of store boaght cinnamon moonshine. and right now it still has that yeasty taste to it and very mild alcohol flavor to it. hoping the yeast taste goes away after aging for a while. Probably going to try carbonating a liter or two of it and see how it tastes like that. But heck its alright to sip on a warm glass of it right now.
