Can't complete dry

[mrbibs350]

Hello. I'm on my third batch of mead and the last two have stopped fermenting at around 1.020 and refuse to go lower.

My first batch was 6 lbs of honey in 2 gallons of water with 6 ounces of raisins thrown in. One packet D47. Sg 1.085. I bottled at an sg of 0.999 65 days later.

Since then none of my runs have ended dry.

Batch 2 was 7.5 lbs honey in 2 gallons of water, one packet D47, 6 ounces of raisins. Sg 1.106. It stalled at 1.039 so i added a packet of ec-1118. After another few weeks i bottled at 1.019.

Batch three was 7.5 lbs honey in 2 gallons of water, two packets of d47, no raisins, and 1.5 tsp of fermax year nutrient. It's stalled at sg 1.015.

What am i missing? I strongly dislike how sweet these batches are finishing.

 

[Jag75]

Welcome to HBT!

I've only done 2 meads so I'm a rookie but 1 thing is feeding the mead at intervals. Maybe a mod can move this to the mead section where you may get more help.

 

[bracconiere]

i don't make mead either, but i know with sake you feed it more as it goes along, so that you can get higher ABV......maybe try adding the honey in half, add like 4 lb's, then add the other 3.5lb's when the first half goes dry?

 

[Transamguy77]

I Made some years ago and I added yeast nutrient in staggered increments over 3 or 4 weeks. I also added fruit so I also had to degas so maybe that also helped.

 

[mrbibs350]

Hello. I'm on my third batch of mead and the last two have stopped fermenting at around 1.020 and refuse to go lower.

My first batch was 6 lbs of honey in 2 gallons of water with 6 ounces of raisins thrown in. One packet D47. Sg 1.085. I bottled at an sg of 0.999 65 days later.

Since then none of my runs have ended dry.

Batch 2 was 7.5 lbs honey in 2 gallons of water, one packet D47, 6 ounces of raisins. Sg 1.106. It stalled at 1.039 so i added a packet of ec-1118. After another few weeks i bottled at 1.019.

Batch three was 7.5 lbs honey in 2 gallons of water, two packets of d47, no raisins, and 1.5 tsp of fermax year nutrient. It's stalled at sg 1.015.

What am i missing? I strongly dislike how sweet these batches are finishing.

 

[S-Met]

So...
Many questions...

1st, hydrometer or refractometer.

2nd, raisins. Semi-controversial arguments, but they are essentially useless for nutrients as very little is bioavailable. Really, you need to look into tosna with an appropriate nutrients. I'd say, fermaid o, but probably others that would work too.

 

[Jag75]

i don't make mead either, but i know with sake you feed it more as it goes along, so that you can get higher ABV......maybe try adding the honey in half, add like 4 lb's, then add the other 3.5lb's when the first half goes dry?

You dont need to add honey in later . I cant remember what it's called but it's a interval feeding of nutrients at 24 hrs then 48 hrs later then 72 hrs after that . It has to do with sugar breaks and all that . Apparently honey doesn't have a lot of nutrients in it . So that's where the feeding comes in . We did 2 batches . I didnt feed mine and my son n law fed his. However we misinterpreted the 24 - 48 and 72hrs and fed 3 days in a row . His was so strong you could have ran a jet off of it . Mine took for ever and even 2 months later was too sweet . So I gave it some fermaid O and it kicked off again and got to where I wanted it . We just made a 5 gallon batch monday and were gonna feed it right .

 

[Transamguy77]

Here’s a good video, used this for the info when I made mead.

 

[mrbibs350]

So...
Many questions...

1st, hydrometer or refractometer.

2nd, raisins. Semi-controversial arguments, but they are essentially useless for nutrients as very little is bioavailable. Really, you need to look into tosna with an appropriate nutrients. I'd say, fermaid o, but probably others that would work too.

Hydrometer. And crazy as it is, the only batch I've had complete to dry only had raisins.

 

[Seamonkey84]

So...
Many questions...

1st, hydrometer or refractometer.

2nd, raisins. Semi-controversial arguments, but they are essentially useless for nutrients as very little is bioavailable. Really, you need to look into tosna with an appropriate nutrients. I'd say, fermaid o, but probably others that would work too.

Agreed...
Wow...

Stalling can be caused by several things, most of can’t be fixed just by adding more yeast. Things like pH being too low, not enough nutrients to let the yeast finish the job, not enough yeasts to get a strong colony going in a stressed environment, the list goes on. Without adding more nutrients, either commercial additives or with fruit, it’s hard for yeast to consume all that sugar. As you go higher in gravity, you need a strong yeast colony that has all the absorbed nutrients to combine with the sugar (meat + potato’s type of thing) especially towards the end, since nutrients don’t get absorbed much past 10%abv. The higher alcohol present stresses the yeast as it is, add to it that it’s “deficient” and being fed nothing but sugar. that’s the reason tradition style leads can be difficult, possibly take a long time to finish, and most likely will take close to a year to be drinkable. Check out the post pinned at the top of this form in called Brays one month mead, or his website
Moder practice or technique https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/post/mead-making-practices-mistakes/One month mead recipe (the BOMM)
https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/post/brays-one-month-mead/