Abv and storage

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I read somewhere that 10% is the minimum abv for the safe storage of grape based wine. However my first mead has slowed right down at 7%. I'm worried that if fermentation dies off soon I may not be able to age for long as alcohol levels may be too low to preserve it. Do you think I'm being paranoid? I plan to age in screw top wine bottles for six months after about a month in a second dimijon with an airlock.
 
I was told 12% abv was the level for self preservation, but I could be wrong... Just hit it with some k-meta aka potassium metabisulphite before bottling and you should be ok
 
it still may be salvageable, have you been aerating, following SNA (staggerd nutrient additions), maintaining temps? how far along in fermentation are you? yeast type and recipe?
 
It's a 1 gallon batch just water and honey with about 200g blueberries and 50g raisins. Used a champagne yeast (given to me as a gift) I airiated once a week. Og was .068 it's sitting at about .030 I racked it yesterday and took out the fruit. Thinking of putting in some fresh stuff.
 
It's a 1 gallon batch just water and honey with about 200g blueberries and 50g raisins. Used a champagne yeast (given to me as a gift) I airiated once a week. Og was .068 it's sitting at about .030 I racked it yesterday and took out the fruit. Thinking of putting in some fresh stuff.
The problem with racking at this stage, is that you will have reduced the size of the yeast colony, leaving it behind.

If you have a read of various bits around here, you'll see that to achieve the best fruity flavour, it's usually best to put the fruit in as either like a secondary fermentation, or just rack a finished mead onto the fruit (all this is "if possible" as sometimes it's not and the fruit has to go into primary).

I'd just give it a good stir and add another pack (or 2) of the blueberries, plus get a tin/pack of bread yeast and boil a couple of teaspoons of it in 100mls of water, and simmer it for, say, 5 minutes, let it cool and then mix it in.

If you do the above with the fruit and give it a good stir, in theory, it should then ferment out fine. Then leave it on the fruit for a week or two - plus you want too see 3 identical gravity measurements taken at intervals across a week to make sure it's finished fermenting (a champagne yeast would normally take it dry i.e. less than 1.000)

Then it can be racked onto stabilising chems (wine stabiliser/potassium sorbate and sulphites a.k.a. campden tablets - usually crushed), then it can be back sweetened, or you can age it/clear it first - if using honey to back sweeten I usually do that before clearing, because honey can cause a bit of a protein haze and it's a PITA to have a cleared mead only for it to haze again. Clearing ? Well you can either do that with age or you can hit it with finings for speed and then get it bottled - then age it in the bottle.

Up to you how you want to progress.

Campden tablets, wine stabiliser/sorbate and finings should all be available from the local home brew shop....
 
The good new is that I threw in some raisins last night because I hoped it might keep the colony ticking over. It seems to have done the trick. Fruit will need to wait until I make tips on the bar today! I made a few mistakes mainly due to impatience but hopefully I can fix it!
 
Sounds like you might have been low on nutrients.

Also, at that OG, you're not going to get a very high ABV to begin with.
 
The good new is that I threw in some raisins last night because I hoped it might keep the colony ticking over. It seems to have done the trick. Fruit will need to wait until I make tips on the bar today! I made a few mistakes mainly due to impatience but hopefully I can fix it!
nay bother!

Here's a link to the Gotmead NewBee guide. It's worth the read as it explains a load of stuff that you mightn't have thought about. Yes, it alludes to yeast and nutrient/energiser that's more easily available to US members, but with a bit of digging, you can either get the same stuff or equivalents here.......
 
Gave up on my all natural approach. Took a long trip to the nearest brew shop and got some yeast nutrient powder. Some visible activity. The recipe I was following called for less honey than I used. I put about another 25%. It's all part of the learning process. Next time will be better! Great link cheers!
 
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