% Alcohol cant be right?

[Blakey]

Hi

Total novice here. I found an idiot mead recipe. I'm not sure it was idiot proof enough!
Dried Apricot, Cinomon stick 5ltr Demi, and bread yeast. (I was impatient) about 1 kilo honey. Left it 3/4 months. Tasted rank. Really strong alcohol smell.
Decided it would need back sweetened. Left it a few more weeks. Found the fermentation stopper put in as per instruction. Left it a week. Back sweetened 450g honey, 250 wasn't enough. Tasted it, seems ok. Tested with refractometer says 45. The bottom as I look through says:
20deg C
Alchohol
Right hand side 0 up to 80
Left side 10,30,50,70
Top left % right v/v

I realised too late I was supposed to do specific gravity etc but too late now.
My question is am I reading right that its 45% Alcohol? I'm assuming thats totally wrong from what I understand its way too high. I'm not sure show else to read the refractometer! I know I'm not really responsible enough to be playing with Alcohol given the above. But any guidance would be great!
Thanks
K

 

[bernardsmith]

I Blakey - and welcome. Here's the problem: refractometers measure the refraction (bending) of light as it passes through water. If you are using it to measure the refraction through alcohol (mixed with water) then without some quite complex math, your refractometer is useless. A more simple tool is to use an hydrometer. Hydrometers measure the density of a liquid in relation to water. Alcohol is less dense than water and water is given the nominal density (specific gravity) of 1.000. Water in which sugar is dissolved is more dense than water and so knowing your starting density and your finishing density you can determine how much alcohol you have.
That said, you have kept secret the total volume and the weight of honey you added to the water. If we know that we can give you a good idea of the POTENTIAL amount of alcohol your yeast can POSSIBLY produce, but 40% is way, way , way, beyond the tolerance of any yeast... fermentation is not distillation. (and 40% ABV = 80 proof)

 

[Blakey]

Thanks very much for the reply. At least I know I’m not going mad. I just added 1kilo of honey to just under 4.5ltr maybe I should have measured something else. I literally just wanted to see how it went to decide if I should invest some more money and time.. I’d really like to make a cider type mead. I’ve seen the name for it somewhere I forget what it is now. Anyway. If I can do anything else to help work out possible % would be happy to hear it.
thanks again

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Not trying to sound mean, but make your first investment in time. Spend that time reading. There are many good sites on the internet (and a lot of crappy ones too) about mead and beer and cider and so many other fermented drinks. A simple recipe is fine if it works, but as soon as it doesn't you need to find out why, and you don't have the data to start. I spent weeks just browsing sites, following threads to topics i didn't know I would even need to know about. All good, learned a lot.

Mead is not for the impatient. It is better to age years on the high gravity ones. I usually age my 9% batches a year before kegging.

A hydrometer is always a good investment. Usually more than once. They break easy. Last time out I bought 3, 1 to use and two spares. I haven't broken it since I bought spares....

A strong alcohol smell is bad, usually means fusel alcohols. You don't want that, often caused by stressed yeast from too little nutrients or too high a temperature.

A thermometer is a good investment too.

If you didn't add potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulphite after the fermentation finished, then you didn't back sweeten, you just added more fermentables, the yeast will wake up and chew through that.

Don't get discouraged, I have dumped batches before, many of us have. The rest are liars (JK) If you want to play with meads, that can be expensive. Stay with the small batches, Look up TOSNA for nutrient schedules, watch temperatures, and be patient. What you have may even be nice given time. Just watch the airlock, the damn things dry out over time.

 

[bernardsmith]

Thanks very much for the reply. At least I know I’m not going mad. I just added 1kilo of honey to just under 4.5ltr maybe I should have measured something else. I literally just wanted to see how it went to decide if I should invest some more money and time.. I’d really like to make a cider type mead. I’ve seen the name for it somewhere I forget what it is now. Anyway. If I can do anything else to help work out possible % would be happy to hear it.
thanks again

Thinking as an American , 1 Kg of honey is about 2.2 lbs. Two pounds of honey dissolved in water to make 1 US gallon will have a maximum SG of about 1.080 (assuming 1 lb of honey will raise the density (gravity) of water to 1.035 when added to make 1 US gallon, and that has a potential ABV of about 10%. So we are talking about a maximum of 10 percent alcohol by volume when 100 percent of the honey has been fermented.