Fermentation after Potassium Sorbate and Campden Tablets??

[LANWrench]

Hi guys, long time lurker, new poster kinda.

I have been through a couple brews but this is my first mead.

I followed Curt Stocks recipe for Triple Berry Melomel (but reduced for three gallons).

Everything seems to have gone will until I decided to back-sweeten.

After aging a month or so I decided to begin my back-sweetening regiment.

I added the recommended dosages of potassium sorbate and campden tablets to the melomel, and decided to cold crash as well to help clarify a bit faster. FYI, I am cold crashing at 2.2 degrees centigrade (36 degrees Fahrenheit).

What has me concerned is after adding the honey for back-sweetening and the ingredients above (1.5 tsp potassium sorbate and 3 campden tablets), and at 36 degrees Fahrenheit, fermentation started back up (yeast is 71B-1122).

This has me completely confused.

What could I be doing wrong? Is this normal?

Why on earth is my melomel fermenting? lol

I dropped the temp tonight to 1.5 c to see if that would help.

What do you guys think?

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[IJesusChrist]

It may be the sorbate and campden haven't dissolved properly. You should boil a little water and put them in, cool, and then add to the mead. I'm guessing if you shook it vigorously to dissolve the tablet and everything, it would stop fermenting in day.

 

[fatbloke]

Nucleation caused by the additions ? Showing as gaseous CO2 ?

 

[LANWrench]

Thanks so much for the replies.

I will shake more this evening and see if that gets it to stop.

Thanks again!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[RegarRenill]

Don't shake, you may oxidize you mead. Gently stir with a sanitized spoon or just let it bulk age for a few months. any dissolved CO2 will slowly off-gas over time (aging in the 60s-low 70s will release more gas. The colder it is, the more CO2 will remain dissolved for longer periods.)

 

[JustinCider]

I am running into this same problem. I have a cyser and a bochet cyser that i racked and stabilised and back sweetened last weekend. They had reached the target gravity i was aiming 4 but fermentation was still active...a bubble every 30 seconds or so. I am still getting bubbles in my airlock but it is only one every few minutes. I have what i think is a CO2 blanket covering the top of the mead. I added the correct amount of sorbate but I have concerns that i have mucked this up. Does anyone have any wise words for this issue I am having?

 

[RegarRenill]

What does your hydrometer say? Airlock activity isn't a sure guarantee of fermentation. 3 consecutive identical hydrometer readings are an accurate measure that it's not fermenting. That being said, your yeast could have bulled through the stabilizers and started on your new sugars. If thats the situation, just Wait til your hydrometer says its stopped and try again.