Mead Help!

[joshb1]

So I put on 1 gallon of blackberry melomel.
2.2lbs of honey, and roughly 1.1lbs of blackberries, and a cup of OJ for the yeast
It has been just over a week and my air lock stopped bubbling! so i took a sample out to measure the gravity, and got 0998! It tastes like wine. does anyone know what is going on??
I have been shaking it up daily to ensure the berries werent drying out on the top.
Thanks!

Also, i used this yeast. https://www.nationalhomebrew.com.au/beer/beer-yeasts/mangrove-jacks-craft-series-mead-yeast-m05
put the whole packet in

 

[nitack]

Your looking at roughly 10% ABV if I remember the numbers right. Not surprising that the yeast would chew through that so quickly, the first ten percent always go super quick. Nothing wrong, now you either age it as it, do a secondary ferment by adding more honey or berries, or stabilize and backsweeten it.

 

[joshb1]

Awesome! thanks so much for your help!

 

[bmwr75]

Mead is wine. A wine that uses honey as the fermentable sugar instead of white table sugar. Your description of the taste sounds spot on.

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

So I put on 1 gallon of blackberry melomel.
2.2lbs of honey, and roughly 1.1lbs of blackberries, and a cup of OJ for the yeast
It has been just over a week and my air lock stopped bubbling! so i took a sample out to measure the gravity, and got 0998! It tastes like wine. does anyone know what is going on??
I have been shaking it up daily to ensure the berries werent drying out on the top.
Thanks!

Also, i used this yeast. https://www.nationalhomebrew.com.au/beer/beer-yeasts/mangrove-jacks-craft-series-mead-yeast-m05
put the whole packet in

What was the Original Gravity reading? You say you've shaken it up daily. My concern is if you introduced oxygen (aerated) it prior to introducing the yeast and nutrient. Start to finish fermenting in a week sounds odd. A low gravity after so short a time is equally suspect.
I'm not saying it's wrong, but those usually send up red flags with me. The wine flavor: is it kind of acidic? If yes, then the yeast is probably stressed out.

 

[joshb1]

Hi! My OG was 1066. I did not start shaking it up until the yeast was in and airlock was on. It really just tastes like strong wine!
thanks!

 

[bmwr75]

With an OG of 1.066, the % alcohol can't be all that high, approximately 8.7%.

http://www.meadmakr.com/abv-calculator/

The typical ABV in wine is 12.3-14.5%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_by_volume

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Tastes like wine, that's a really good sign. It is true when using fruit for a melomel you do not want the fruit above the liquid to become a mold farm. For future, you can use a bag for the fruit or gently swirl your fermentor, shaking once fermentation starts may encourage some oxidation of your wine. Keep us posted!

 

[nitack]

With an OG of 1.066, the % alcohol can't be all that high, approximately 8.7%.

http://www.meadmakr.com/abv-calculator/

The typical ABV in wine is 12.3-14.5%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_by_volume

Most of the mass market wines seem to be in the 7-10% range. Although it wouldn't surprise me to see smaller wineries go into the low to mid teens. Larger wine makers are all about consistency year after year with little to no variation. Much easier to dilute down to a lower but easy to achieve ABV. If your current crop comes in at 10% potential and your product has always been 14%... Well adding other sugars is frowned upon, and adding something like vodka gets expensive when your talking a few million bottles.