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+1 at 1.010 it probably just wasn't done fermenting yet. I sometimes bottle on purpose around that SG level, in order to get some carbonation -- as you mentioned. So -- pretend that you did it on purpose, and declare victory :-)

I had a one-gallon batch last winter that did the same thing -- utterly stalled out at about 1.030. It was a traditional mead, and I had added nutrients in the beginning (SNA not TOSNA) like I usually do. I tried adding rousing it, adding more yeast, adding nutrient -- nothing worked. So I...

That's good stuff; we need more of this kind of thing. Those results are for very fast-maturing, low-OG short meads, which I've never made. Maybe worth a try though...

Much depends on what you mean by "evidence for TOSNA." Staggering nutrient addition (SNA) instead of dumping it all in at once -- that absolutely positively helps to produce mead that tastes better and matures more quickly. It's hard to imagine anyone seriously arguing that SNA is not an...

I don't use energizer when I make cyser, but I do use it when making traditional mead (honey, water, yeast, and nutrients, with no fruit at all). Different brands are probably different from each other, but I think of nutrient as being mainly DAP or other nitrogen source, and energizer as...

I did something very roughly similar a few years ago and it turned out well. I had a few small plastic bottles of apple juice in the back of the fridge, leftover from backsweetening cyser. They had been there for a while and I had no immediate plans to make more cyser, so I decided to drink...

TOSNA is a protocol / system / set of rules for adding specific kinds of nutrients at specific points in the fermentation process. Years ago, we added all nutrients at the beginning, which turns out to be sub-optimal -- it's much better to stagger the nutrient additions over the first several...

Let me second all of that: use good water (please!), don't boil the honey, rehydrate the yeast properly, use staggered nutrient addition (TOSNA or similar), and stir / de-gas it a few times every day for the first week. Brew 1-gallon batches until you're confident that you're producing something...

Thing that bothers me about this situation is 1 gallon of cider + 4 pounds of honey yielding an OG reading of 1.100. That just can't possibly be right -- not even close. And if you're not measuring SG accurately, you're going to have a hard time with this batch, and with this hobby. You might...

That hasn't been my experience. My current batch of traditional mead, using dry K1V yeast, started at 1.099; after 4 days it was down to 1.060. Ambient temperature is 64 degrees, and I've seen faster fermentation at higher temperatures. A previous batch of mead, also using K1V, started at 1.096...

If it has preservatives in it, then they have to be listed in the ingredients on the label. (You do have to read the Ingredients list, which may be in fine print in some inconspicuous place, but it has to be there somewhere.)

I see that you created a new thread for this, which is the right thing to do (especially because you're making cyser not beer). I answered in that thread -- wondering if you used cider with preservatives in it.

Are you sure the cider was free of preservatives? Most off-the-shelf apple cider has preservatives that are intended to prevent what the grocery store would call "spoilage" but what we call "desirable fermentation." My local cider mill will sell me preservative-free cider if I give them advance...

Yes yes yes what you said yes. So often with big beers, I'll brew a batch that's pretty darn good after 2 or (more often) 3 months. But by the time it's six months old, it's absolutely fan-freakin-tastic -- which almost makes me sad, because at that point I have only two or three bottles left...

1 pound less honey per gallon would be 3 pounds per gallon, which is what I generally use. (Although to be more accurate, for a 1-gallon batch I would use 3 pounds of honey plus enough water to bring it up to 1 gallon -- not 3 pounds of honey plus one gallon of water.) My OG is usually just...

That's what I was thinking too -- I think the yeast has gone as far as it can go, given that much honey.

Last month I made a batch with ingredients that I had on hand... it turned out well, but I'm not sure what to call it -- that is, what style of beer would this be? Recipe was: 4 gallons water 5# dry malt extract (amber) 1/4# light roasted barley, crushed 1/4# chocolate malt 2.5 oz Northern...

But "no bubbles" is a pretty clear sign that fermentation is *not* taking place, right?

It does sound like it might be stuck... but 4 pounds of honey seems like a lot for one gallon of water. If you had a very high OG, the 71B may be at the limit of its alcohol tolerance. A few more questions: How long ago did you see the 1.032 reading, and what is the SG now? What was the gravity...

> backsweetening is what kept your remaining bottles carbonated and fermented a bit more whereas, fermenting them dry and bottling kept them from that Pffft, when opening Yep, I expected (and got) the Pfft when opening bottles from the backsweetened batch. I used crown caps by the way, on...