Hydromel! Please help me ♥

[Siara]

Oh my this is so complex.. @MightyMosin how much yeast am I supposed to use with the new 4 liters of water? I can't figure it out

 

[MightyMosin]

If your current batch is 5L and you add another 4L of water you will cut the current alcohol from ~8% to ~4.4%.

If this was a fresh fermentation, you would only need a couple of grams, but you have alcohol already there. For myself, I would use the remainder of your 10g packet of yeast. Definitely rehydrate the yeast ahead of time.

 

[MightyMosin]

Has this been resolved?

 

[Siara]

Has this been resolved?

Hello!! I did as you said and it restarted to bubble a lot. I just came back from a one week vacation and I will be able to test it with the hydrometer again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow! I will keep you posted!

Since I added 4 more liters of water and I had to split the hydromel in 2 jars (so it is 2 additional liters of water in each one), should I add something like 0.05/0.1 grams of metabisulfite?

 

[MightyMosin]

For now, just leave it alone and let it finish fermenting.

 

[Siara]

For now, just leave it alone and let it finish fermenting.

I just tested the hydromel and this is the result!

It is going much better now and I'm feeling positive and hopeful that the fermentation will get to the end! Should I test it again in about 10 days?

Since I now have almost double the amount of what I had initially, I feel like that I should experiment with adding some flavor to a few bottles. When can I add the flavor though? I was also wondering if I can use dried cherries for example like these in the spoiler. Please let me know!!!

Spoiler: Dried cherries

 

[MightyMosin]

It will likely continue fermentation until it gets to 1.000 or possible a bit lower like 0.998.

Check it again in ~4 days. If it is at 1.000, then it is likely done though I might wait another 5 days and check again to ensure that it hasn't continued to ferment. You can let it sit like that for several weeks to allow more of the yeast to drop to the bottom and clear up some.

Many mead makers will transfer it to another container to get it off the lees (dead/inactive yeast) once fermentation is completed and then let it settle and clear in the secondary container. The choice is up to you, though for many yeast, leaving it on the lees for months can cause unwanted tastes; there are exceptions but I wouldn't worry about those at this point.

Stabilizing:
Potassium Metabisulfite - This is added to help avoid oxygenation as well as making an environment that is not health for bacteria. You will want this for shelf stability. I generally always use this; there are plenty of others that will pasteurize to avoid adding this and its personal choice.

Potassium Sorbate - This will inhibit yeast from budding and creating more yeast cells. This does not stop an active fermentation. This is important to use if you will want to add any fermentable sugars to the mead when it is done. If you decide to add fruit or more honey for sweetness you will need to use some of this. A non-fermentable sugar like lactose doesn't require you use this. If you pasteurized, you will have killed off the yeast and you don't need this.
Important note: If you use this, then you should consider the Metabisulfite as mandatory as there are some bacteria that will eat the sorbic acid as food and leave bad flavors behind and the Metabisulfite should take care of those if present. Again, pasteurization is also an option.

When you transfer to another container, you can/should stabilize. I don't know your pH (affects how much K-Meta to use) but I'll assume a pH of 3.5 and for the 10L batch I would use .68 grams or .068 grams per L.

Assuming 10L is your total and you ferment all the sugar out, you should be at ~8% ABV which would require 200mg/L of Potassium Sorbate to stabilize.

Add your stabilization chemicals to your secondary container and go ahead and siphon your mead right on top of it. You will have to divide the stabilizers up based on the size of containers you are siphoning into.

 

[Siara]

It will likely continue fermentation until it gets to 1.000 or possible a bit lower like 0.998.

Check it again in ~4 days. If it is at 1.000, then it is likely done though I might wait another 5 days and check again to ensure that it hasn't continued to ferment. You can let it sit like that for several weeks to allow more of the yeast to drop to the bottom and clear up some.

Many mead makers will transfer it to another container to get it off the lees (dead/inactive yeast) once fermentation is completed and then let it settle and clear in the secondary container. The choice is up to you, though for many yeast, leaving it on the lees for months can cause unwanted tastes; there are exceptions but I wouldn't worry about those at this point.

Stabilizing:
Potassium Metabisulfite - This is added to help avoid oxygenation as well as making an environment that is not health for bacteria. You will want this for shelf stability. I generally always use this; there are plenty of others that will pasteurize to avoid adding this and its personal choice.

Potassium Sorbate - This will inhibit yeast from budding and creating more yeast cells. This does not stop an active fermentation. This is important to use if you will want to add any fermentable sugars to the mead when it is done. If you decide to add fruit or more honey for sweetness you will need to use some of this. A non-fermentable sugar like lactose doesn't require you use this. If you pasteurized, you will have killed off the yeast and you don't need this.
Important note: If you use this, then you should consider the Metabisulfite as mandatory as there are some bacteria that will eat the sorbic acid as food and leave bad flavors behind and the Metabisulfite should take care of those if present. Again, pasteurization is also an option.

When you transfer to another container, you can/should stabilize. I don't know your pH (affects how much K-Meta to use) but I'll assume a pH of 3.5 and for the 10L batch I would use .68 grams or .068 grams per L.

Assuming 10L is your total and you ferment all the sugar out, you should be at ~8% ABV which would require 200mg/L of Potassium Sorbate to stabilize.

Add your stabilization chemicals to your secondary container and go ahead and siphon your mead right on top of it. You will have to divide the stabilizers up based on the size of containers you are siphoning into.

Thank you very much for the explanation!
It seems that pasteurization might be simpler than adding more chemicals, how do I do it though? Will it change the flavour?
My hydromel already has 0.35 grams of Metabisulfite that I added when it was only 4 liters of water and 2Kg of honey.
Should I still add .68 grams (splitting the amount in two since the hydromel has been split evenly in 2 jars)? Is this amount the same both if I add or not add the fruits?
As for the fruit, can I use the dried fruits like the ones I linked in the previous post? And how much per liter?

 

[MightyMosin]

Someone else will need to answer about pasteurization. I think there isca write up in the cider group.

Fruits don't generally change the amount of sulfite, unless it changes the overall pH.

I have read that tart cherries are preferred over sweet, but I don't have experience with that.

Generally, the more fruit, the more flavor. For fresh or frozen fruit I generally use about 2Lb per US gallon... Which should be about 240 grams per Liter.

Maybe someone else can comment on dried fruit.

 

[MightyMosin]

more info:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-with-pics.193295/

 

[MightyMosin]

So ~30 days later, did you end up with something that is working for you?

 

[Siara]

So ~30 days later, did you end up with something that is working for you?

I'm really sorry! In between vacation, little time and other issues I've not found the time to update!

After the last test with the hydrometer I waited one week and tested again, it was at 1.000 so I decided that it was time. I syphoned the 2 jars of hydromel into 2 jars of the same size, filtering the hydromel through a fabric (cotton?) funnel. Since the last time I had added lots of yeast in order to salvage the mead, the bottom of the first 2 jars was all cloudy.
I tasted a bit of hydromel and I definitely didn't like the flavor so I back-sweeted it adding honey (I made one with less honey and one with more honey).

I had watched multiple videos on pasteurization, so at this point I put the entire jars (one at a time) inside a very big pot, raising the bottom of the jars from direct contact with the pot. I brought the temperature of the mead at 60-65C (140-149F), I removed the jars from the stove and let them cool slowly for a bit (then I helped putting the jars with some water and ice because it would have took all day and night since we have 30C inside the house).

I waited 1 week and half or 2 weeks and there was again a deposit on the bottom of the new 2 jars, though not as bad as the first ones.

At this point I was ready to put the hydromel into some bottles. I decided to syphon the jar with more sugar as it was, while for the jar with less sugar I decided to add, in each bottle, some fruit flavor. I bought a package of mixed forest fruits, made them boil for a bit with water and sugar, then I ran all of it through a colander with a very tight net and divided the liquid into 4 bottles. Then I syphoned the hydromel into them.

Now I have 4 bottles of hydromel, 4 bottles of hydromel with fruit, and one half empty bottle. I tasted a bit of both versions and I wasn't really happy with the flavor. I have no idea of how much the flavor changes with aging. I wish that I could have degassed them more but it is the first time that I do this and I really didn't want to wait any more time. This fermentation already went on for three times the time that it should have.
Can the half empty bottle be stored and kept the same way as the others?