My first mead with insane OG

[callemann]

Hello!

I started my first mead yesterday. It was supposed to be a medium OG (1.104, 13% abv) relatively dry traditional mead from fresh raspberry raw honey and WLP 715 champagne yeast made with starter on stirplate for 3 days.

Yesterday I mixed, with the no heat method, 8,75 kg of honey with water to 25l and 6 tsp DAP and 1 tsp wyeast nutrient blend. everything went smooth, but after mixing and shaking I was taking OG and got a bit surprised. According to the calculator it should be around 1.10, but I read 1.122! So I thought it had to be too poorly mixed, so I shook some more, waited and took another reading. Still the same: 1.122.

According to the calculator this would have to mean a honey carbohydrate concentration of 91%, so I did not believe it was possible. So I let it stand over night and took another reading today: still 1.122! I then thought i should add more water to avoid a too high sugar (eventually alcohol content) and added 2 l water to the must. And as expected, the gravity now dropped to 1.116. This means that if the yeast ferments it out to say 1.000 I would over 15% abv and am looking at a bit longer aging than I hoped for.

So my question is as follows: what happened here? Is my hydrometer broken? Can my honey possibly be this high in sugars? Should I trust the calculator or my hydrometer?

Thanks for you help in advance!

 

[AsianMead]

Why don't you put your hydrometer in other liquid to check the differrent?
In case your hydro is broken it might show the same gravity in other differrent liquid which it not sweet like your honey.

 

[fatbloke]

Your hydrometer should have a temperature calibration marked on it, so if you fill a test jar with water at that temp, then it should read 1.000, or vvv close to that. Which will verify it as good or bad.

Honey varies widely with given water content, so any calculators can only give approximate numbers.

In any case, most champagne yeast have a tolerance of about 18%ABV, so it shouldn't be an issue.

You can also leave it on a stir plate for the whole fermentation, and it should be fine.

Which will help it ferment out quicker etc and you just need to monitor the gravity numbers so you know how its progressing.......

 

[callemann]

Thanks you for you replies!
I have checked the hydrometer with 20 deg C water and it shows 1.00, so it should not be too bad.

It is not the yeasts ability to ferment it out I am worried about, more the high abv which in turn requires a longer aging period than I have patience for. I addition I feel uncomfortable not knowing the correct OG and hence the true abv of the mead.

But can it be true that my honey really has a sugar concentration of 91%? In Ken Schramms complete meadmaker, he lists a table of different honeys, and the highest has a concentration of 85%...

 

[fatbloke]

It would be an impossible task for Ken to measure all honey everywhere, so you should really use his info as a guide, afterall, his tests would vary from year to year.

Myself, I used between 1.3 and 1.5 kg per Imp gallon (4.55 ltrs). So maybe calculate for 1.5 kg per 5 ltr, mix then test, as you can add more honey for you target SG.

I suspect that if your hydrometer tests ok, then you can go with those numbers you already have. Plus if you ferment on the stir plate, its likely to finish dry. The difference between a dry, fresh off the lees/sediment, is different from a dry, aged mead. Obviously, once its had the time aging that you want, it cafn be modified with fruit, honey, sugar, acid, etc. So I wouldn't worry so much and just run with it.

 

[tweake]

honey water and sugar content can vary all over the show.
10 points out is nothing.
thats why you always put honey in bit by bit and check with hydrometer as you go.

 

[Onihige]

thats why you always put honey in bit by bit and check with hydrometer as you go.

Every mead is a lesson learned.

 

[callemann]

So I should trust my hydrometer then? Seeing it is accurate on water.. That would give me a honey moisture content of only 9%, but if you say it is possible, then i'll believe you