A confused newbies first batch

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ftonz

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Hi All

I'm new here, a Kiwi and have been reading these forums for a few weeks now.

I love mead , so much I decided to start making it . ( the $18 a bottle price tag had something to do with it also )

I didn't have a hydrometer when I started, but got one yesterday to check my batch as it looked to have stopped fermenting.

Here is my recipe , ( I hope you dont all hate the metric system :p )

500 grams premium liquid clover honey
500 grams wildflower with manuka honey
Added to enough water to fill a 4.5 Litre Carboy , ( 1 gallon )
7g Lalvin DV10 yeast ( all I can really get my hands on here )
9g GO-FERM Protect

So, I didn't heat anything, added the honey water into the carboy, hydrated the yeast and Go-FERM , pitched and put it in the pantry.

Here is where I am confused as I've been reading ALOT about mead from this forums and various other places .. It looked to have stopped fermenting 6 days later, I thought ... this doesn't add up , got myself a Hydrometer, and it read 1.001

I didn't have a reading from when I mixed it all , but I used the mead calculator and it says this should be just above 8% at 0.998

I figured it must be rackng time ( slap me if I just failed ) , So I racked it and it's clearing up allready, tasted good and has alcohol in it for sure .

Can someone enlighten me as to what made it happen in 6 days? or have I just made a big newbie mistake or something?

Thanks!
Dean
 
No mistake made that I see, 6 days to ferment dry @8% abv sounds about right...just be sure to stabilize your mead as you have a low abv. I recall reading somewhere that mead/wine isnt self stable until 12%abv, but even then Its recommended to stabilize even at 12%+
 
No mistake made that I see, 6 days to ferment dry @8% abv sounds about right...just be sure to stabilize your mead as you have a low abv. I recall reading somewhere that mead/wine isnt self stable until 12%abv, but even then Its recommended to stabilize even at 12%+

Just out of curiosity, I have read that some mead yeasts are good for ABV of 10-11%, would they need to be stabilized?
 
Yes, It's a good practice to always stabilize. I would hate to spend all the time, effort, and money only to have a batch/bottle go bad for not using a few cents worth of chemical(sulphite/sorbate)
 
My blackberry melomel also took 6 days at primary fermentation and it's surprised me because it taste good and also clear. Actually the yeast I used is good for AVB 18%.
I think there is not enough sugar for them so they stop eating, that's just my opinion :D
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys.
Ok,, so to stabilize it, do you recommend I crash chill it? Or use some potassium sorbate?
If the latter is about an eighth of a teaspoon correct? (Got that off the sticky)

I dont have any sorbate, I do however have potassium metabisulfite , i'm reading I can use this?
Will it make my mead taste bad ? I certainly dont like the smell of it :p.
 
My husband and I never stablize our mead. I'm not even sure what that means. Mead takes years to age properly. After the first wracking we leave the mead to age in another carboy for at least a year. We tend to be a little bit more chaotic in our brewing than most. Since we are not selling the mead we don't really worry even about the gravity since we don't care what the final alchohol content is. If the batch doesn't taste good we just let it sit and usually it mellows and tastes better afterwards. Sorry if this goes against convention but we get great batches most of the time. Mead is a lot more tollerent than any other brewing as far as I've seen.
 
Oh, and my husband also keeps all the leftover sludge so he can siphen off the rest of the liquid to have a mixed mead batch. It usually ends up too dry for me but many others have actually loved it.
 
Ftonz, DV10 is a beast of a yeast and is quite able to ferment 8% ABV in a week. It may not be completely done yet, as the gravity might still drop a couple of more points and end up below 1.000. It would be best to leave it under airlock and check the gravity again in a few weeks. You can certainly rack it now if you like.

You do not need to stabilize dry meads, so no sorbate is needed unless you want to sweeten it up. Sweet batches are different, and generally need stabilizing unless you plan to bulk age them for a considerable period to insure they do not restart fermentation.

Mead does not behave the same way as wine. It is generally much more stable, especially a traditional mead such as you have crafted. Meads do benefit from aging but an 8% ABV mead will often be ready to drink quickly, and DV10 makes for fast drinkers as well (some taste great coming out of the primary).

Can a mead age without sulfite? Yes. Meads are nutrient poor, and you apparently didn't add much, so there is very little to feed a spoilage organism except the slow death and break-down down of the yeast cells. As you rack it off the lees, there will be even less available for them. Wines have things like malic acid, that bacteria can feed on, and so protecting a wine is more challenging. A traditional mead also is much, much less likely to suffer from oxidation. As a result it is quite possible to age a dry, 8% ABV mead without having to add a lot of chemicals.

With that said, I usually do like to add sulfites. They work as an anti-oxidant, and they may add an additional layer of protection for my meads. Sulfites do not bother me, nor do they have any effect on aroma and flavor when dosed properly, and I'm quite comfortable measuring and adding them to suit my purposes. So it really becomes a matter of personal preference.

I hope that helps.

Medsen
 
Thanks all , Solid advice.
You've been very helpfull

I'll let you know how thism one turns out :)

Cheers
 
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