Got rasp?

[ejs262]

started a new batch,

21lbs of honey
60 oz of raspberry
juice of 8-10 lemons
rinds of said lemons
~5.8 gallons of spring water
3 packs of EC1118 yeast, with nutrient
initial gravity, about 1.100.

 

[Glenn H]

Sounds EPIC! Cant wait to hear how she turns out

 

[ejs262]

I'm pretty stoked, it'll be a long while before I get to taste it though, I just started it a week or so ago. the airlock was going nuts on the thing the first 4 days or so, it's starting to calm down a bit now.

 

[Blacksmith1]

why so much yeast? one pack is supposed to do 5 gallons.

 

[ejs262]

to be honest, I'm not sure why I used so much, I didn't even really give it any thought until you just said something... oh well, hopefully it just finishes up faster...

 

[Blacksmith1]

can't hurt. just a little nitrous of the starting line.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I worry that you have too much acid in that with all the lemmons. raspberries are by themselves pretty acidic. I know the two acids are different, but just not sure you are going to like that much acid.

 

[ejs262]

I've made a similar batch before, and it turned out pretty damn good, I'm hoping for a similar result, but we won't know until it's done.

 

[Shine0n]

Was thinking about all that acid, have you checked your ph?

The ph will drop naturally and with the acids will go maybe lower than you'd like so keep an eye on it. You like to address it before a crash rather than kickstarting a stuck ferment.

On a 5 gallon batch with an OG at 1.1 it's recommended to use 10g (2packs) of yeast, 3 definitely won't hurt anything. 1118 is a work horse and should chew through it like nothing. That is if you are using nutes and degassing like you should.
When I have a mead with 1.1 and higher I normally go 3g yeast per gallon.
If doing a one gal test batch I still use the entire 5g package of yeast.

Using less yeast is far worse than too much!

 

[ejs262]

I didn't check PH, just kept it in a dark closet after racking it over to glass. I bottled it last night it turned out to be around 14%,and it hits like a sledgehammer. I'm calling it "Wrecker Wraspberry". pretty good overall, I'm going to try a different yeast for the next go, KV-1118 supposedly allows the mead to retain more of the flavors of the honey and fruit than the EC-1118. I was expecting it to be redder than it turned out, but I'm still very happy. I may try it again and force carb it. I also bottled to smaller batches that have been going for about a year, I don't really have any info on them though I just threw them together on a whim.