Question about abv

[Schwimbody]

Never took an OG reading before pitching the yeast in my first ever mead last night. Would really like to know wtf I'll have at the end. Any suggestions? It started fermenting within hours of me pitching in champagne yeast yesterday

 

[Seamonkey84]

Can’t help without at least some idea of your recipe. How much honey in the gallon?

 

[Schwimbody]

Ok thanks...3 gals water with 2x5lb cartons of Kirkland Signature honey. Added 2 large navel oranges sliced up, 3 cloves, 75 raisins and 3 cinnamon sticks.

 

[bernardsmith]

So 10 lbs of honey AND 3 gallons of water? or 10 lbs of honey to make 3 gallons of must total? If the latter then you have 3.3. lbs of honey/gallon and that will give you a starting gravity of about 1.115 and that SG has a potential ABV of about 15% (assuming that the yeast is capable of tolerating that level of alcohol and that you have provided the yeast with enough O2 and N and minerals that it needs to thrive.).
If the former, the SG will be lower as the 10 lbs will used to make 3.84 gallons of must and so your SG will be 1.096 and that will have a potential ABV of about 12.7% - but with this batch the volume will be closer to 4 gallons and not 3.

 

[Schwimbody]

Put 10lbs of honey into 3 gals of water. Mixed all the fruit and spices with my beer stirrer and a drill. (Works wonders) then pitched Red Star Champagne yeast. It's on fire right now with a bubble every 2 secs

 

[bernardsmith]

Typically , carboys are 3 gallons and 5 gallons (or 6) but I am not familiar with 4 gallon carboys. I would imagine then that you have a great deal of headroom in a 5 gallon carboy, headroom that you will need to fill in a couple of weeks. Is your plan to focus on making 3 gallons of wine (and so a 3 gallon carboy) or what?

 

[Schwimbody]

You are correct... my must total was 3 gals. Came right up to the top. Thankfully didn't need a blow off line. This is pretty mild. Will I need to transfer after 2 weeks to isolate from the rains and cinnamon and oranges? Then let sit for 4.5 months? Suggestions? I'm open.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I’d let go until it’s done/stable, then rack off the solids. If you need to, rack into a bucket, clean carboy, rack back into carboy. Then let it completely clear in secondary before racking again. Once it stops dropping lees and degassed (usually will still have some particles floating until it’s degassed), you can continue bulk aging or bottle.