Need a little guidance

[dchulleman]

I'll start by admitting I'm very new to this whole business and rushed into it without doing much research. What got me interested in this at all was some random youtube video so I'm very green when it comes to fermentation and mead making.

On the 15th of Febuary I started fermenting my first batch of mead, it was 1.6 kg of honey to 4 gallons with a starting SG of 1.132.

I used kveik ale yeast and went off the data sheet that said that around 7 days of fermenting at 77 degrees the fermentation would be done.

Here's where I think I messed up, I racked on Feb 23 without even stopping to look for signs of finished fermentation. I measured an SG of 1.083 and realized I was way to early. I split the mead into 3 separate containers.

In these 3 containers I decided to try and be fancy and placed, smoked oak chips in one, diced up strawberries in another and left one plain.

Now as of writing this on March 9 and having read into it a little more, I'm worried I've stalled the yeast.

All three containers are still bubbling but are having very different results (at least visually).

The strawberry mead looks great, it's cleared up quite a bit and has started to take on a nice flavour, the other two taste fine but are super cloudy, they also seem to be much sweeter (leading me to think they haven't fermented nearly as much).

I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do here, should I rack again? Should I add more yeast to the cloudy two? Should I just leave it?

I've included pictures of the three bottles. The one on the left being strawberry, middle being oak chips, left being the unaltered one.

Admittedly I should have researched and planned out my steps better but I'm here now and hoping I haven't screwed up too much. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I doubt your gravity readings. I typically use 3lb of honey to 1 gallon of mead for ~1.112 and 14%.

The strawberry looks done. The oak is visibly fermenting. The plain looks like it might be done, just needs time to clear. Or, maybe it's slowly fermenting with a smaller amount of yeast.

I might rack the strawberry to another vessel and top off with some of the plain. Taste the oak, if it's oak-y enough (probably is), do the same.

Take a closer look at your gravity reading methodology. Hydrometer? Refractometer?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Any nutrients?

 

[dchulleman]

Thanks for the replies so far, to the hydrometer comment I double checked my notes and realized I wrote 1.6 kg to 4 gallons when in actuality it was 4 liters, which is far more comparable to the ratio you said you use.

On the topic of nutrients, so far the only thing I've added was the oak chips and strawberries in the separate containers.
Is that something worth pursuing?

 

[DBhomebrew]

Excellent.

As to nutrients, it's a thing to look at for the next batch. Honey doesn't have any of the nitrogen and other good stuff that yeast need to survive and make good mead. But, yeast will only take in nutrients to a certain point. Once the ABV gets to ~9%, the yeast stop absorbing it. Hence, next batch.

Kveiks in particular might need extra attention in this regard. They usually get a ton of nutrients in typically high gravity worts. Unlike honey must, barley wort has all the nutrients yeast need.

BOMM, TOSNA, TANG. It's a rabbit hole, but doesn't need to be incredibly complicated.

 

[DBhomebrew]

And you are using a hydrometer, not a refractometer?

 

[MightyMosin]

I would also suggest targeting no higher than 10% to 12% as your final ABV for your first meads. That range can tend to turn out meads that are drinkable with less waiting and usually have enough body and mouthfeel to them. Proper nutrients are very key to faster fermenting and faster drinkability. You can dump all the nutrients in up front or you can stagger them out as the TOSNA protocol calls for; it's up to you but the general consensus seems to be that staggering the nutrients end up with a nicer product. There are commercial meaderies that don't bother with staggering though that may be to make the work flow streamlined.

All of the items related to nutrients basically come down to yeast health. The better you start there, the better your meads will come out and the quicker it will be drinkable. That means things like rehydrating your yeast with Go-Ferm, using nutrients to feed the yeast and making sure that you have really gotten enough oxygen into the must prior to pitching the yeast.
Once your Original Gravity gets above 1.092, using pure oxygen through a .5 micron stone should be considered mandatory and anything above 1.083 will benefit from another oxygen dose 12 to 18 hours later.
As you have just jumped in to the deep end I would say to make sure your next batch is very well stirred/shaken for at least 5 minutes to help get the oxygen in there... or you can purchase a small airpump with inline filter and aeration stone that you can use to get oxygen in there. At the least get a stirred that you can put onto a drill and whip the air into it for 5 minutes or more before adding your yeast.

5.5% to 8% meads are nice if you want something that's not going to hammer you as fast. The biggest suggestion for these is that you want to provide all the nutrients up front and not stagger them out as other protocols would have you do. You will find that many in this ABV range will be force carbonated as it can provide a better mouthfeel. I know there are others on here that never carbonate, but I really enjoy the melomels carbonated as well my Blueberry Cyser.

 

[dchulleman]

Thanks for the guidance so far. I'm using a cheap hydrometer I found on Amazon. As for the nutrients, I'll definitely read up on them more before starting my next batch.

For now, I plan to rack all three bottles either today or tommorow and monitor them for a bit longer. Basically following the original suggestion by DBhomebrew.

I appreciate the help everyone, I'll post a followup on how it goes.

 

[bernardsmith]

I would also suggest targeting no higher than 10% to 12% as your final ABV for your first meads. That range can tend to turn out meads that are drinkable with less waiting and usually have enough body and mouthfeel to them. Proper nutrients are very key to faster fermenting and faster drinkability. You can dump all the nutrients in up front or you can stagger them out as the TOSNA protocol calls for; it's up to you but the general consensus seems to be that staggering the nutrients end up with a nicer product. There are commercial meaderies that don't bother with staggering though that may be to make the work flow streamlined.

All of the items related to nutrients basically come down to yeast health. The better you start there, the better your meads will come out and the quicker it will be drinkable. That means things like rehydrating your yeast with Go-Ferm, using nutrients to feed the yeast and making sure that you have really gotten enough oxygen into the must prior to pitching the yeast.
Once your Original Gravity gets above 1.092, using pure oxygen through a .5 micron stone should be considered mandatory and anything above 1.083 will benefit from another oxygen dose 12 to 18 hours later.
As you have just jumped in to the deep end I would say to make sure your next batch is very well stirred/shaken for at least 5 minutes to help get the oxygen in there... or you can purchase a small airpump with inline filter and aeration stone that you can use to get oxygen in there. At the least get a stirred that you can put onto a drill and whip the air into it for 5 minutes or more before adding your yeast.

5.5% to 8% meads are nice if you want something that's not going to hammer you as fast. The biggest suggestion for these is that you want to provide all the nutrients up front and not stagger them out as other protocols would have you do. You will find that many in this ABV range will be force carbonated as it can provide a better mouthfeel. I know there are others on here that never carbonate, but I really enjoy the melomels carbonated as well my Blueberry Cyser.

I would add that if all the flavor is in the honey , then a lower ABV mead would have very little flavor strength. Sure, hydromels (session meads) are fine to make - their lower ABV suggests shorter shelf life - but if you carbonate these - either by adding a controlled amount of sugar after all the fermentables have been fermented, or you force carbonate, the added carbon dioxide heightens the flavors as the bubbles "explode" in your mouth. But note, you cannot use regular wine bottles and corks if you are making a sparkling mead. Beer bottles with caps, champagne bottles with proper stoppers and wire ties or corny kegs (if you are force carbonating - ie pumping in CO2) are the ways to go.