mead newbie

[rcreamer0713]

So i made a 1 gallon batch of mead.

4lbs honey
1 gallon water.
d47 yeast
boiled up some bread yeast(read its an easy way to add nutrient to your brew)

I got an OG of 1.15. Add a note I wrote this down im not sure if it was correct now that im looking at it.

Just racked it first time and got an FG of 1.057(12.2%)

Does this seem right? It taste SUPER sweet. almost juice like. Girlfriend loves it. Personally i love it too. just checking if things went well or i royally ****ed it up and now have alcoholic juice.(Either way im drinking this onces its in bottles.)

Note: I understand I used alot of honey, I had 4lbs so i used 4 lbs. this was my first go and i just wanted it really simple. Any advice is great. Also this is my first post on brew talk...ussually make beer but this was more pressing.

 

[CKuhns]

One pound of honey in a gallon of water with a SG 1.000 should yield roughly .035 Gravity or 1.035 when added to the water (Depending on the honey the range is about 0.032 to 0.038)

0.035*4= 0.140 (Then 1.140 including the water at 1.000) Pretty darned close to your OG of 1.150 so looks like you wrote it down correctly.

That is a pretty large starting gravity and unfortunately I have no experience with using boiled bread yeast so not sure if a 12.2 is expected. A DAP / Fermaid K Staggered Nutrient Addition (SNA) in my experience can push D47 to an ABV of 15+%.

At 1.057 would be VERY sweet.

The yeast may take off again after the first rack. Keep an eye on it as introducing a little air and some agitation with this much remaining sugars could "kick start" the buggers.

I absolutely would not bottle this until all lees drop and crystal clear (Read a newspaper through it clear) and SG does not change for two weeks to a month. I do not use sulfate or phosphate to inhibit the yeast but if the SG stays up there you may want to consider it prior to bottling. If you have bottled beer you understand about bottle bombs. Not fun at all!

 

[FrodeM]

D47 is slow, so it will problably still be going for a bit. I'd guess it might end up at something like 1.010 to 1.020 given the D47's alcohol tolerance.

As of sugar, it can balance out quite a few of the offtastes. While many comercial meads tend to be super sweet, a drier mead can easily be a more enjoyable in the long run, though.

Most meads benefit from being stored for some time, to round some of the sharp flavours a yong brew often has. My suggestion is to store it untill the gravity doesn't change for some time, and rack again if there is too much lees (more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch or so).

 

[rcreamer0713]

Thanks ill keep ak eye on it. And begin checking the gravity every 3 weeks or so till it stalls. Ipl then rack again hope to get some clearity.

But it is very very good. It tasted it and i wouldnt have any issue if it stays as sweet as it is.

 

[MarkKF]

One pound of honey in a gallon of water with a SG 1.000 should yield roughly .035 Gravity or 1.035 when added to the water (Depending on the honey the range is about 0.032 to 0.038)

This is the second or third time I've read this. But I just did a Cyser. Started with one gal. Apple Juice approx. S.G. 1.055. I then added 3 pounds honey to reach 1.100. Was my honey weak?

 

[Maylar]

This is the second or third time I've read this. But I just did a Cyser. Started with one gal. Apple Juice approx. S.G. 1.055. I then added 3 pounds honey to reach 1.100. Was my honey weak?

Seems like a lot. Typically it's 35 - 40 points per pound per gallon.

3.75 lbs of wildflower in 1 gallon of water was 1.127 for my JAOM. 1.25 lbs of orange blossom in 3 qts of 1.000 cider (for a cyser) was 1.040. It varies depending on water content of the honey.

 

[CKuhns]

This is the second or third time I've read this. But I just did a Cyser. Started with one gal. Apple Juice approx. S.G. 1.055. I then added 3 pounds honey to reach 1.100. Was my honey weak?

Sorry for the confusion. I should have been more specific. The note is for a gallon of Must after sugars have been added. (My fault for not wording it correctly)

Edited
Think of it this way a given volume of water at 60 Deg F has a SG of 1.000 your volume of material (Apple Juice, Water and Honey) is 1.25 gallons and regardless of the volume the SG will always be 1.000 in water at 60 Deg F. The sugars brought to the party in the same volume of material (1.25 Gallons) add the remaining .103 SG gravity points. Sugars from the apple juice provide 0.041 and 0.072 from the honey to the total volume of material.

It gets a bit complex if you did not account for the volume swell the honey brought with it to the gallon of water. 3 pounds of honey = about 4 cups volume (0.75 Pound or 12 oz per cup of honey). Your Must is now 1 gallon and 1 quart volume or 1.25 Gallons.

As a result:
If adding 3 pounds of honey to 1 gallon apple juice then your volume is 1.25 gallons. Three pounds of honey bring with it roughly 0.032 gravity points of sugars per pound to ferment or in this case 0.096 per gallon gravity points to the 1.25 Gallons. Thus 0.096 - 0.024 = 0.072 the difference is due to the .25 gallon volume addition and has to be accounted for.

As well your apple juice gravity due to the volume swell will be slightly lower as the 1 Gallon 0.055 - 0.014 now brings the gravity to 1.041.

Finally 0.072 sugars + 0.041 apple juice = 1.103 (Just about exactly what you measured)

Additional info:
Honey is mostly sugar, it's only about 30 percent glucose and about 40 percent fructose, with about 20 other sugars in the mix, many of which are much more complex. It also has a small amount of dextrin and it all is suspended in about 18% water.

Due to the water content and other trace non-sugars of Honey 1 pound of Honey is the equivalent of roughly 0.80 pound of sugar.

1 lb of Honey in a gallon of water will provide a gravity of 32 to 38 points (0.032 to 0.038) and if 32 points of sugar when fermented out results in about 4.2 % ABV (0.032 * 131 = 4.19).

I hope this helps - If not let me know.