Highest starting gravity

[billingsbrew]

What would be the highest starting gravity you can use for mead. My yeast is good to 18% however, some people have said they have gotten well over 20%. I don't want it to Finnish too sweet. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Don't start to high. You can add your honey in additions so your yeast aren't stressed and pucker out. Use 3lbs per gallon and add a pound in a week and another pound the next week (per gallon) etc. until you are at the abv / sweetness you want. It is called step feeding and there should be a wealth of threads about it.

 

[fatbloke]

Don't start to high. You can add your honey in additions so your yeast aren't stressed and pucker out. Use 3lbs per gallon and add a pound in a week and another pound the next week (per gallon) etc. until you are at the abv / sweetness you want. It is called step feeding and there should be a wealth of threads about it.

Well done MmB. The only thing to remember for the OP is that with MmB's suggestion, is termed "step feeding" and that to prevent problems, it's worth working out nutrition requirements for the tolerance level which should prevent problems from that point of view.

Good monitoring of the ferment will tell you when its finished and when the added steps are sweetening.

I like my meads at 1.010 or so, which is plenty sweet enough. Don't mistake sweetness with flavour/mellowness. Sweetness will mask some of the "young mead" sort of taste but smooth/mellow aged sort of taste will (IMO) stand out......

 

[billingsbrew]

My last mead was 1.135 and Thought it finnised way to sweet, .021. It is 11months old

 

[billingsbrew]

My last mead was 1.135 and Thought it finnised way to sweet, .021. It is 11months old and after trying a bottle it didn't seem sweet at all. It went from pancake syrup to a tasty mead