2 weeks in, progress or problem?

[Borus]

Good evening,

I just started trying to make mead. My current batch is:
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 skinned kiwi
2 orange slices
~28oz honey
1 tsp of yeast food
1 tsp of KV-1116

For 1 Gallon of mead

Temperature: Between 68°-75°F (mostly about 72-75°, i chose KV-1116 instead of 1114 due to the temperature rating for 50-95° since I don't have a basement or temperature control that could keep it cooler)

I never did a gravity reading (i'll have to buy one of the readers before my next test).

Noticeable activity from the airlock and bubbling in the mead seemed to have stopped. For better or worse shortly after 2 weeks, i'm not sure if it's a good thing for that to happen so soon...

I decided to rack the mead this evening based on several things I've read about racking after 1-2 weeks in either primary or secondary fermentation if there is fresh fruit in it. It's been 2 weeks and 2 days.
There had been ~1/2" of sediment on the bottom from the looks of it. But no noticeable airlock activity for at least a day. (The mead had been bubbling slightly 2 days ago I don't think i checked yesterday, it didn't seem to be today before racking).

When I racked I decided to try the flavor and scent of some of it. It smelled of ferment and slightly fruity, however the flavor was... bitter (I was hoping to make at least semi-sweet mead). It had some slight heat to it after the sip as well but i'm not sure if that's from alcohol or possibly vinegar.

Below are pictures of it initially after making and now after it's been racked. Does this sound/look normal? Should I worry? Etc.

Regards,

 

[videojunkie1208]

Do yourself a favor and get a hydrometer kit.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MQT7Q4Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_1430RBF63838F6BQGKMP
Meads will sometimes do a quiet fermentation where there's not a lot of airlock activity, but the yeast is still chewing away at the sugars.

I'm not terribly familiar with KV-1116, you haven't got a ton of sugar in there so it's possible you might be done. The only way to be certain is with a gravity reading.

 

[videojunkie1208]

Flavor wise. You have blueberries which have a lot of tannins. Strawberries which are surprisingly bitter when fermented. Kiwi which is completely out of my experience brewing but can be bitter especially if you didn't remove any of the pith from the center.

OG wise, I am doing back of napkin, but you should use a calculator when building a recipe. The Mead Calculator

Honey, 35 pts per pound per gallon, call it 60 pts. Fruit, call it one pound? 4 cups? Maybe 25 pts? So that puts you in the 1.080 ish range. So your max potential ABV is around 10% ish. So I won't be surprised if the mead is done and very dry at this point. (Plug your values into the calculator above to get a better estimate).

You have a choice to make. Do you want to add more honey and drive up the ABV, or do you want to stabilize what you have, and backsweeten.

Either way, you're probably looking at an extended aging period. My strawberry is just becoming drinkable after 2 years of aging.

Otherwise everything looks good. Using actual yeast nutrients instead of raisins puts you light-years ahead of many amateur mead makers.

 

[videojunkie1208]

Did some homework on K1V-1116, which I think is the yeast you are using. It looks like it is viable up to 18%ABV, so you aren't going to over sweeten the mead (unless you drive it up into the high teens/low twenties ABV.) so if you want a semi-sweet mead you are pretty much going to have to stabilise and backsweeten using sorbates and sulfates. I am not an expert in those techniques so I'll let others chime in on how to do that (or search the forums, there are tons of threads).

One of the reasons I started making bigger batches of meads is that I got tired of waiting so long to drink something and then having only a couple bottles of it if it was disappointing. We all have to start somewhere. Welcome to mead making, it's a lot of fun.

you might check out this that I wrote that explains a lot of the basics. So you've had your first mead...

 

[Borus]

You have a choice to make. Do you want to add more honey and drive up the ABV, or do you want to stabilize what you have, and backsweeten.

Either way, you're probably looking at an extended aging period. My strawberry is just becoming drinkable after 2 years of aging.

Otherwise everything looks good. Using actual yeast nutrients instead of raisins puts you light-years ahead of many amateur mead makers.

Thanks for the input, I do plan on grabbing one of those hydrometers, so i'll check it out. Back-sweetening seems to be what I have to do then. I didn't realize all the fruits i added were essentially really bitter when it came to mead making. But it makes me feel better knowing that it may not have been a loss after all.

Did some homework on K1V-1116, which I think is the yeast you are using. It looks like it is viable up to 18%ABV, so you aren't going to over sweeten the mead (unless you drive it up into the high teens/low twenties ABV.) so if you want a semi-sweet mead you are pretty much going to have to stabilise and backsweeten using sorbates and sulfates. I am not an expert in those techniques so I'll let others chime in on how to do that (or search the forums, there are tons of threads).

One of the reasons I started making bigger batches of meads is that I got tired of waiting so long to drink something and then having only a couple bottles of it if it was disappointing. We all have to start somewhere. Welcome to mead making, it's a lot of fun.

you might check out this that I wrote that explains a lot of the basics. So you've had your first mead...

I'll have to look up different ways to stabilize then. I know sorbates and sulfates are usable, however I had been hoping to share some with my mother, and she says she can't have some of that kind of stuff. So i'll see if there's some other methods. It seems backsweetening is generally done "after" fermentation, so i'm going to wait another 2-3 months for "secondary fermentation" before I touch it to do so.

I agree, i'd love to do bigger batches, sadly i don't quite have the room so i'm stuck doing smaller 2 - 1 gallon batches. Thanks for the tips and info!

 

[videojunkie1208]

When you are making a low alcohol mead, your yeast selection becomes important especially if you want residual sweetness.