High gravity mead

[Akustaka]

So on a whim I decided to try making mead for the first time. I used a single 5g packet of red star baking yeast with no nutrients or energizer in a 5 gallon lowes bucket, 3.5 gallons of water to 6-8ish pounds of honey. I watched a video or two on youtube and decided to just give it a whirl. I have racked the mead after 4 1/2 weeks of fermentation time into 3 single gallon bottles and am letting it age. I stirred the mead every single day (gently) but on the last half week (3 days roughly) left it alone to let the heavy suspension fall, it's been sitting in the gallon jugs with airlocks ontop for about a month now and I decided to take a taste only to find it kinda... like vinegar? I wouldn't say the flavor profile was exclusively vinegar, like it was not super harsh to pallet and had a pleasant feel on the tongue. I guess the best way to describe it was SUPER acidic or dry? I'm not really a wine drinker and have never tasted mead before so I don't have a reference to come from but the best I could say is it did not taste soured or like is rotten.

My concerns though is I now just got a hydrometer and tested the gravity, it is coming off 3 ticks under 1.0 gravity signaling, 2 ticks above "10" 1.006 at 70ish degrees ambient temp (the glass and the mead itself is colder to the touch) and with the small level of sediment that has fallen from suspension after racking there is still small bubbles going up along the inside of the glass. It's not a lot of bubbles, imagine a glass of coke that's been open for a few minutes after the initial rush of C02 escapes from the pressure change of opening the bottle, it's just bubbling up along the inside and when I place the hydrometer inside it forms bubbles on it. (Hydrometer is calibrated to 60 degrees F)

Does it sound like anything may be wrong with my mead? Should I back sweeten it after I've finished letting it age for 3 months (it's only been a month since racking)? Does it sound spoiled?

ALSO, I've started a second fermentation in the meantime! I've gone on the complete deep end this time though and purchased energizer, nutrient, loaded 15 pounds of honey to 3.5 gallons of distilled water and with a 5g packet of ec-1118. I did a staggered use of the nutrient and energizer, added .5 tsp energizer and 1 tsp nutrient for the first every other day totaling a full 3 tsp nutrient and 1.5 tsp energizer after the first week. I'm stirring every day still without aerating it, and it has a gravity of "1.091" @ 66.6 fahrenheit as of TEN days into fermentation. What should I look for and do differently with this second batch or is it going fine?

Thanks in advance!

Picture below is of the first batch fresh after being racked.

 

[Maylar]

Did you measure starting gravity? Be aware that yeast can't use nutrients after 9% alcohol, which s about .068 gravity points from start. After that whatever nutrients you add will remain in the mead, and some of them (DAP) taste nasty.

Also, don't use distilled water, use spring water. Yeast needs some of the trace minerals that are in spring water.

Let it continue.

 

[Akustaka]

Did you measure starting gravity? Be aware that yeast can't use nutrients after 9% alcohol, which s about .068 gravity points from start. After that whatever nutrients you add will remain in the mead, and some of them (DAP) taste nasty.

Also, don't use distilled water, use spring water. Yeast needs some of the trace minerals that are in spring water.

Let it continue.

I only just got the hydrometer like a day or two before posting this so I didn't get an initial reading sadly, but it's only been fermenting for 10 days on the second batch, how quickly does yeast usually eat the sugars and produce alcohol? Like I said I let the first batch ferment for 4 1/2 weeks.

 

[Maylar]

EC-1118 is a very aggressive yeast. Should be done in a couple weeks max.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Akustaka - and welcome. Even without an hydrometer wine makers can determine fairly easily starting gravity when we know two pieces of information, Hydrometers are more useful for monitoring fermentation - THAT is not anything we can estimate or guess. The two pieces of information are
1. The total volume of your batch and
2. The total amount of fermentables in that volume.
You say 3.5 gallons of water and 6-8 lbs of honey... OK so 1 lb of honey dissolved in water to make 1 US gallon will raise the gravity of the water (1.000) to 1.035. Let's call your total amount of honey 7 lbs so that would raise the gravity of that water by 7* .035 or .245 Divide that by 3,5 and we have a starting gravity of around 1.070 . And THAT means the potential ABV (alcohol by volume ) is about 9% . If you used 8 lbs of honey the gravity would have been .035 higher and if you used 6 lbs it would have been lower by .035.

 

[Akustaka]

Hi Akustaka - and welcome. Even without an hydrometer wine makers can determine fairly easily starting gravity when we know two pieces of information, Hydrometers are more useful for monitoring fermentation - THAT is not anything we can estimate or guess. The two pieces of information are
1. The total volume of your batch and
2. The total amount of fermentables in that volume.
You say 3.5 gallons of water and 6-8 lbs of honey... OK so 1 lb of honey dissolved in water to make 1 US gallon will raise the gravity of the water (1.000) to 1.035. Let's call your total amount of honey 7 lbs so that would raise the gravity of that water by 7* .035 or .245 Divide that by 3,5 and we have a starting gravity of around 1.070 . And THAT means the potential ABV (alcohol by volume ) is about 9% . If you used 8 lbs of honey the gravity would have been .035 higher and if you used 6 lbs it would have been lower by .035.

so for my 15 pound honey batch using the nutrients and energizer, that would mean my starting gravity for 15p honey to 3.5g water is 1.0785, and now it's at 1.091?

 

[bernardsmith]

so for my 15 pound honey batch using the nutrients and energizer, that would mean my starting gravity for 15p honey to 3.5g water is 1.0785, and now it's at 1.091?

Your arithmetic is not good. Assuming the figures you are posting are correct. If 1 lb of honey raises the gravity of water by .035, then 15 lbs would raise the gravity of that water (1 US gallon) to 1.525 (the 1 is 1.000 , the density or gravity of water) - 15 * .035 = .525, and if this was in 3.5 gallons total volume , then you divide the .525 by 3.5 = 1.150 - which is a very high starting gravity and may be too high - too concentrated for the yeast. They have to be able to transport sugar through cell walls but yeast are a single cell fungus. When the density of your liquid is very high the yeast suffer from what is called osmotic shock ... A gravity of 1.150 nominally has a potential ABV of 19.65. I am not sure any yeast can handle either that amount of sugar in solution or that amount of alcohol should the yeast not succumb to osmotic shock.
Typically, wine makers aim for a starting gravity of about 1.090 - 1.100 or about 12 to 13% alcohol by volume. With mead that's about 2.5 - 3lbs of honey for every gallon. You might want to add some water to dilute the concentration (say 3lbs and 3.5 gallons = 10.5 lbs of honey in 3.5 gallons, not 15 ... That could be done if your total volume was equivalent to 5.5 gallons (so add another 2 gallons ) and if these measurements are US and not imperial (imperial are larger gallons) then your gravity would drop to 1.095 which is perfect... 12.5 % ABV.
This would finish dry and unless you like dry mead you would want to stabilize the mead (remove or kill the yeast) and then add more honey to "back-sweeten" the mead. (often you can add about 4-6 oz per gallon of honey or sweetener to sweeten a very dry mead or wine. BUT if you add sweetener without ensuring one way or another that the yeast cannot ferment that added sweetener, the yeast WILL and if you have bottled the mead or wine corks will fly off and worst case scenario the bottles will explode because of the pressure the carbon dioxide the yeast produce will be too much for the glass - and flying shards of glass can be deadly. Which is why wine makers call that mishap "bottle bombs".

 

[Dan O]

Do yourself a HUGE favor...get rid of the Lowes bucket. For fermentation, if you're going to be using a bucket get yourself a food grade bucket with this label. Both Home Depot & Lowes carry them.
Usually in the paint aisle.
Lowes & Homer buckets from home depot aren't safe. They will leech nasty things into your meads.

 

[Maylar]

and if this was in 3.5 gallons total volume , then you divide the .525 by 3.5 = 1.150

You have to include the volume of honey as well. The .035 per pound per gallon is the total volume of the batch.
15 lb. of honey is about 1.25 gallons (12 lb. per gallon typically), so it's 4.75 gallons total. .035*15/4.75 = 1.110 SG.

 

[Akustaka]

You have to include the volume of honey as well. The .035 per pound per gallon is the total volume of the batch.
15 lb. of honey is about 1.25 gallons (12 lb. per gallon typically), so it's 4.75 gallons total. .035*15/4.75 = 1.110 SG.

That's prolly why my math was coming back weird, I misunderstood your original formula you posted, thanks for clearing that up!

 

[ajmetzger]

Random thought: the vinegary taste, could it be soured from too much oxygen in the initial fermentation (in the bucket)? Advice I've heard is 1) try it out on other people -- some folks like sours (and t'ej, for instance, is typically a bit sour), and 2) let it ride and see what happens after some more age on it. I've made only small meads so far, so low honey/water ratio, and I get a nice gentle spritz that develops after about a month fermenting in a jug and an additional month or two bottled (resting in the refrigerator, and still throwing some sediment because I don't care). I have no idea what would happen if I let it go longer in bottles -- it's all drunk up by then!

 

[Maylar]

Mead is less prone to oxidation than other brews. When I transfer to a secondary or when I bottle there is inevitably some air in the siphon and it has never affected the outcome of my mead.

Sour maybe just "tart" or lack of sweetness. Maybe "dry" isn't what the OP likes. Sweeten up a sample and see if that's better.

 

[ajmetzger]

Mead is less prone to oxidation than other brews. When I transfer to a secondary or when I bottle there is inevitably some air in the siphon and it has never affected the outcome of my mead.

Sour maybe just "tart" or lack of sweetness. Maybe "dry" isn't what the OP likes. Sweeten up a sample and see if that's better.

True that! Ditto on the transferring. I'm fond of dry meads, so there you go ;-).

 

[Akustaka]

Welp took another gravity reading of the second mead run and now it's down to 1.030 gravity, I went ahead and racked it since I was worried about the lowes container potentially contaminating it as a previous poster said. The mead is in 3 seperate gallon containers and during racking I got rid of the accumulation that was at the bottom of the lowes bucket. The bottles are still fermenting it would seem, airlocks are bubbling consistently every minute or so. Should I add a little more yeast or energizer to ensure they can finish the fermentation in the new containers? This is the mead that had a starting gravity of 1.110 with 15 pounds of honey to roughly 3.5/4 gallons of distilled water. I let the must sit for 3-4 days prior to racking to let the heavy nasties fall out of suspension, I'm just not sure how much of the still 'alive' yeast went with it.

 

[Maylar]

Should I add a little more yeast or energizer to ensure they can finish the fermentation in the new containers?

NO. At the amount of alcohol already in there the yeast will not be able to assimilate any more nutrients. Whatever you put in there now will be there when you bottle the mead. Yuck.