How long to keep mead with D47 yeast at low temps?

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TandemTails

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I've had a blueberry hibiscus melomel that I pitched with D47 fermenting at 60'F for the last 15 days. I'm obviously going to leave it in as long as I can, but is there a time when I move to long term aging and don't need it to be at these low temps? I'm assuming it's once the fermentation is complete but I'm not totally sure.

Any advice would be great.
 
I too would like to know. Just pitched some cherry melomel, it's in a water bath with an ice pack. Send yeast d47. How long is the active primary normally?
 
From what I've read and from experience over the last year, i think it's ok to move from temperature control to ambient temps after fermentation ends. I usually leave my meads / ciders in the fermentation chamber for about 3 weeks before fermentation is complete.
 
The sweet spot temp for D47 is between 59 and 68, so your current fermentation temp of 60 is good. I've heard anything over 70 definitely produces a noticeable undesirable taste. So while your mead is fermenting your temp should remain within this range.

That being said, I believe that if you've provided your yeast "5 Star" accommodations from the beginning (i.e. SNA, rehydration, temp control, pH, etc.) they should be more tolerant of less than stellar accommodations later on in the ferment when the uptake of nutrients is significantly reduced. So if you rack at SG 1.02 in ambient temperature for example, you should be ok. As long as your ambient temp isn't 75 or 80, you know?

D47 alcohol tolerance is about 14%, sometimes more, depending on how happy your yeast is. That's a starting gravity of at least 1.106, assuming your ferment goes dry to 1.000. If you use more honey it may never get to 1.000, so it's good to know your yeast tolerance so you can plan before the ferment and know what to expect during and after the ferment.

My target is always 1.000, but never beyond 3 weeks, but I'm just being cautious, especially if I have fruit in the primary. I haven't heard that lees from D47 produce a bad taste if you don't rack for a long time. 71B I heard was bad if left beyond a couple weeks.
 
D-47 is notorious for producing fusels at higher temps, but this is during active fermentation. If you want to increase the temp, I'd wait till active fermentation is over & rack to secondary (or tertiary) before increasing the temp; just to be on the safe side. Take a hydrometer reading & go from there. The closer to 1.000 (or below) you are, the better to rack. Here's some info on D-47:
http://www.scottlab.com/product-53.aspx
Regards, GF.
 
Agree with Gratus

Would also add that if you are doing a melomel and adding fruit after primary in secondary i would continue to keep the temps down while on the fruit. Those little "buggers" will eat through the sugars in the fruit as well and at this point (very near alcohol tolerance) are likely pretty stressed.
 

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