Hefty Braggot

[Gnarboots123]

I started a Hefty Braggot from "The Complete Mead Maker". It has been fermenting for about 4 weeks. I just racked to secondary last night (7/14/11) and check the gravity while doing this, it was already down to 1.018 which is the recommended FG for this recipe. It is still fermenting so my question is, do i try and stop fermentation or just see what happens and hope for the best. Any advice would be awesome, im still quiet new to this.

 

[malkore]

How do you know its still fermenting?

Do you think the airlock is for gauging fermentation? If so, why do you own a hydrometer?

But to answer your question, you never really truly 'stop' a fermentation. You can do a good job stunting it, but unless you filter out the yeast completely, it might wake up someday and renew fermentation.

 

[Gnarboots123]

How do you know its still fermenting?

Do you think the airlock is for gauging fermentation? If so, why do you own a hydrometer?

But to answer your question, you never really truly 'stop' a fermentation. You can do a good job stunting it, but unless you filter out the yeast completely, it might wake up someday and renew fermentation.

ok

 

[calicojack]

i'm pretty much new to this as well, but through some of the research i've done, you could try "cold crashing" and then racking to a secondary. that will help "kill" the yeast to the point to where very little will be left in the secondary.

 

[Gnarboots123]

Cool thanks for the input calicojack. I'll do a little research on "cold crashing" and see what i find

 

[olllllo]

Any advice would be awesome

Here's some.

RDWHAHB

Also: It's tough to read intent sometimes on the internet. Don't draw the first ****** card.

 

[Gnarboots123]

Woah i'm not trying to start anything here, I understand he knows a great deal more than i do about making mead. Maybe i read what he had said wrong but to me it sounded as if he was talking down to me for asking a simple question. All I'm trying to do is get a little information

 

[bob1852]

No worries, I deleted my post...

It's really hard to stop fermentation. Even with cold crashing and racking, you could very well get a re-start when temps warm back up if the yeast haven't hit their alcohol tolerance.

I'd let it ride, and see what the FG winds up at...

 

[Gnarboots123]

What I'm curious about is if the recipe in "The Complete Mead Maker" is calling for a FG of 1.018 is it going to end up dry if it continues to ferment beyond that.

 

[Rahahb]

It would have to ferment quite a bit more to go dry. It won't be as sweet if it goes below 1.018, but if it's still in the teens, it will still be sweet.

I'm a newbie too but from what I gather, a recipe that gives you a fg is to be used more for a guideline. Just to give you an idea of what you are making. There are variables that recipe doesn't account for so you are going to have some variance.

Let it ride and if it's too dry, you can always backsweeten.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

If you used a different yeast, they could have a higher tolerance, even then some yeast can surprise you and go much further than their supposed "limit".
Cold crashing can make the yeast go dormant and settle to the bottom then by racking to secondary your reducing their population and inhibiting fermentation, but others were right in it does not guarantee no restart.
If it goes to dry to your taste, the easiest answer is to back sweeten with something that is not ferment-able, or just change your taste buds and help decrease your sugar intake.

 

[Gnarboots123]

Thanks for all the input! This website rocks!