Mead SG .09?!

[Drinksahoy]

So I started a blackberry mead on February 15.
I used 16 pounds of honey and a small back of frozen black berries which probably did nothing for the flavor. I plan to as a lot more black berries in the secondary.

I had 5.5-6 gallons of liquid when it was all mixed together.
My OG was 1.1
Today I checked the SG since I haven't seen it bubble in a week and it is reading .9 which I know is pretty much impossible. But that's where it's floating.

I filled a 12 oz bottle up and decided to test it out. Not worried about the taste. I made extra for this purpose since only 5 gallons will fit in the secondary.

Tastes fine just like my other meads right off the batch.

Anyway should I assume it's around 1.0 then?

Also am I hurting it's flavor by leaving it in the primary a bit longer? I won't have an empty secondary until this weekend.

I know there's a fat layer of yeast cake at the bottm and I don't want it to ruin the flavor!

 

[GrogNerd]

1st off, did you use a hydrometer? A refractometer needs conversion in the presence of alcohol

2nd, yes it is certainly possible to get a reading below 1.000. Alcohol has a different density than water, so if all the sugars have been fermented, you could get a .9 reading

You don't with beer because there are usually residual sugars leftover after fermentation is done.

Full disclosure : I've never done a mead, but all my ciders go below 1.000

 

[bernardsmith]

Not just different but alcohol is less dense than water , so the more alcohol in the mead the greater the possibility is that the gravity reading will be less than 1.000 and you should anticipate that it could easily be 0.996 or.994 or even lower. But that said hydrometers are calibrated to read the density at a specific temperature. If the temperature of the mead is significantly different the accuracy of your reading will be compromised