Elderberry mead advice

[alane1]

Hi all, I'm currently brewing an elderberry mead that is fermenting very slowly. It's dropping about 15 gravity points per week( O.G. 1.095). I'm not too worried about the fermentation but what concerns me the most is that I have 5lbs. of elderberry must (in a grain bag) sitting in the primary. Does there come a point where there's too much leeching of tannins from skin and seed, or is it safe to leave in through the entire ferment?

 

[Wyrmwood]

tannins are extracted by ph and temp. fermentation temp should not be high enough to increase tannin extraction. Mead yeasts are notorious for being slow or even stuck. Drop a little yeast nutrient and de-gas will help, but so will time.

 

[alane1]

currently it's at 1.020 and dropping but is the must ok to leave in for 4+weeks?

 

[Wyrmwood]

currently it's at 1.020 and dropping but is the must ok to leave in for 4+weeks?

It's probably not going to hurt anything. If it's been on the fruit for 4 weeks, it's likely anything in it is fermented, so racking it might help with clarity, but I wouldn't worry about it

 

[alane1]

Great, thank you for the advice and your reply. By the way, I shot this thing with everything I had in my fermentation arsenal I.E. yeast nutrient, pure o2, boiled bread yeast. But at least it's dropping...

 

[WVMJ]

You probably want to remove them, you probably got all the good stuff out. What kind of yeast are you using? Is it warm enough? I dont think adding any more nutrients is going to help now that the SG has dropped.

We love making elderberry mead, but freaking fruit flies came and destroyed them all this year.

WVMJ

 

[alane1]

I used a generic wine yeast, lavlin I think and ferment temp is around 68. What variety do you grow? I grow Adams elderberry, even at 1.020 I can taste strong anise and licorice.

 

[fatbloke]

I used a generic wine yeast, lavlin I think and ferment temp is around 68. What variety do you grow? I grow Adams elderberry, even at 1.020 I can taste strong anise and licorice.

Well, I dunno about the varieties etc, I just use wild elderberry, but lalvin don't produce anything thats marketed as generic wine yeast that I'm aware of.

After all, if you're one of the planets biggest suppliers of "typed" and declared strain type yeasts why would you dumb down your offerings ?

Knowing the yeast type is important so correct/appropriate ideas and suggestions can be offered.

Similar to grape wines i.e. a more northern european stylie white using say D47 would need lower fermentation temps (below 70F in this example), whereas something "red" might use RC212 or even BDX and be fermented higher even allowing spikes in the mid 80s and much higher levels of nutrient requirements. ......