Need help newbie here

[Zakk Linton]

I need help so made mead did everything then I put the Campden tablets, and sorbate but I'm still getting stuff in the bottom can I get help please YouTube can help only so much, it does have a vinegary smell already to I need help what am I doing wrong?

 

[Maylar]

That's not enough info for us to know what you did. Give us your exact recipe and the process that you used. The more you tell us the better we can help you.

 

[Zakk Linton]

3 pounds of honey to 1 gallon of water
Lalvin d47
8 raisins
Fermented for 2 weeks then I put the stuff in it went to work came back and racked it once then it still had a lot of sediment after two more taste so I racked it again and it still getting more and I know I'm not siphoning it out to

 

[Maylar]

The only way to know when your mead is ready for racking is to make specific gravity measurements. You need a hydrometer.

 

[Zakk Linton]

Ok and what should the readings be like? To rack?

 

[Zakk Linton]

Like I said I'm a newbie dont know a lot only a little didnt know I needed to have one, I thought long as I put in the tablets and sorbate it would stop it all, btw I did cold crash it is thats something I forgot to say

 

[Maylar]

Campden and sorbate can't stop an active fermentation. I don't cold crash, so I can't comment on how effective that is - maybe someone else will chime in here.

3 lbs of honey in a gallon would have a starting gravity of about 1.100 with a potential alcohol of about 13%. D47 would be able to ferment that completely, to 1.000 or a bit below. That's how you know that the ferment is done, and you can rack off the gross lees and give the mead a chance to clear. Even after racking off the yeast there will be some sediment as the proteins clear, and sometimes that takes a while.

 

[Zakk Linton]

But if it ferments it all wont that be a very dry mead?

 

[Zakk Linton]

I thought that the sorbate an Campden was to stop it tho?

 

[Jako]

it takes a while to drop clear. if you ask me 2 weeks is not enough time. my 12% cyser finished and still had some cloudiness. this was after a month.

just let it sit for a few weeks and forget about it. it will be dry but if you wanted a sweet mead you should have used a different yeast or killed off the yeast sooner.

 

[Zakk Linton]

I mean I'm trying anything right now, testing what works good or not. What yeast do you think I should use so it' not dried up?

 

[Zakk Linton]

How long for it take for the sorbate a Campden tablets to take affect?

 

[Jako]

i planned my cyser to ferment to alcohol tolerance then added in more honey so it stopped at 1.010 naturally. this way i could bottle and let it age as natural as possible.

i also used tons of yeast nutrition so it would ferment healthy and clean. it was drinkable after days in the bottles. its only getting better.

 

[Zakk Linton]

Ok thanks, it' hard to find stuff besides talking cause everything i find doesn't go into details of what to do like some let the yeast go as long as it can then they don't don't anything but bottle it but then it will be dry. Im trying to avoid having to back sweetening but I want a good happy medium, and I don't like to wait very long.

 

[Jako]

if you don't want to wait long, staggered yest nutrient additions keeps the yeast healthy. honey and water is not the best environment for yeast so this helps greatly.

to avoid dry mead you could add more honey until the yeast crash out then add honey until its sweet enough for you. but at this point i would stop racking it until its done. but i am not a expert, i only made one cyser and read lots about mead. that yeast i suggested should leave about 10% sugar behind so even if you don't let it ferment to 12% it should be semi sweet.

 

[Jako]

How long for it take for the sorbate a Campden tablets to take affect?

i missed this one. i didn't use sorbate or tables, i let ferment naturally to yeast tolerance and i added enough honey to give me a semi sweet cyser. this is a easy method to make a high ABV drink without adding chemicals.

 

[Zakk Linton]

Well you know more then me lol, I'm just messing around but need the help. Cause right now it's getting a vingery taste but that's my fault cause the sorbate a Campden tablets are taking longer then I thought then I racked it and gave it more air. I'm going to mess around with it some more

 

[bernardsmith]

So a couple of quick points.
1. Raisins don't do diddly squat. Sure, folk who make grape wine don't need to add nutrients but they are dealing with bushels of grapes - not 8 wizened , oxidized raisins. Honey has no suitable nutrients. You want to add nutrients.
2. Unless you know what you are doing you DO want your yeast to ferment every last gram of sugar. You then want to stabilize the mead (by adding BOTH K-meta and K-sorbate) and then you want to add more sugar (honey or table sugar or fruit juice or maple syrup or ??? ) to sweeten the mead.
3.Unless you really know what you are doing trying to stop yeast in mid flight is like trying to catch a bullet fired from an assault weapon between your teeth. It looks good on TV when illusionists do it but don't try it at home. What you might try (and again, you need to know what you are doing) is given your choice of yeast and what you KNOW about its tolerance for alcohol given YOUR conditions and practices - you then increase (by step feeding - if you don't know what that is then you don't know enough to try this - ) the total amount of honey in the mead so that it is beyond the yeast's tolerance (beyond it's tolerance but not enough at the start to create osmotic shock in the yeast - again: if you are not familiar with that term you are not yet ready to try anything other than #2 above). But Murphy's Law says that if you think you know a yeast's tolerance for alcohol the next time your process assumes that datum that yeast will ferment another 5 points of alcohol without even blinking so you will now need to go back to #2 (above) and be faced with so much alcohol in the mead that it will no longer be in balance with the flavor and acidity etc.

 

[bernardsmith]

Well you know more then me lol, I'm just messing around but need the help. Cause right now it's getting a vingery taste but that's my fault cause the sorbate a Campden tablets are taking longer then I thought then I racked it and gave it more air. I'm going to mess around with it some more

It takes more than a few days exposure to air to create vinegar. What you may think is vinegar may simply be a mead that is too dry for your taste. Try adding some sugar to a glass and see if that helps remove the "vinegar" taste.

 

[Zakk Linton]

i missed this one. i didn't use sorbate or tables, i let ferment naturally to yeast tolerance and i added enough honey to give me a semi sweet cyser. this is a easy method to make a high ABV drink without adding chemicals.

But wouldn't that start a secondary fermentation?

 

[KTbrew]

You mentioned a vinegar aroma. This is created by a microorganism called acetobacter. In the presence of oxygen acetobacter produces acetic acid, or vinegar. If you are accurate in what you smelled I'm sorry to tell you that it won't get any better. You need to collect some better information before you try this again. You also need to be a lot more careful about sanitation and keeping oxygen out of your mead. Someone probably told you to add raisins for yeast health. This is out dated, idiotic advice. Raisins were added in the middle ages because of the presence of wild yeast on them. Today we have the ability to do healthy controlled fermentations and thats why we use domesticated yeast and yeast nutrient.


http://chopandbrew.com/episodes/chop-brew-mead-masters-steve-fletty-part-1/

Above are a couple of interesting and helpful links with up to date info. These are a couple of the top mead makers in the world currently. You should also join the modern mead makers group on FB. Use the files section to guide you through the process. Sanitation should be your number one concern so read about it even though it's boring. There's too much information for people to outline the entire process here so your best bet is to go and read about it from a trusted source with modern info.

Good luck to you

 

[bernardsmith]

But wouldn't that start a secondary fermentation?

No, not possible. Remember, you have fed the yeast (step feeding) more sugar than they can deal with given their tolerance for alcohol. So if their tolerance was - say, 14% ABV and you added enough honey so that IF - IF they could deal with the alcohol, the mead would be say, 18% ABV then all other things being equal, they would have stopped fermenting with 4 points of sugar still unfermented - and for all practical purposes - UNFURMENTABLE - in that batch. You might remove the yeast to prevent any very high alcohol tolerant yeast cells from reproducing and over time fermenting the residual sugar and you might stabilize the mead (K-meta WITH K-sorbate) to prevent any lurking cells from budding (reproducing). But those actions under those circumstances are insurance.

 

[Zakk Linton]

It takes more than a few days exposure to air to create vinegar. What you may think is vinegar may simply be a mead that is too dry for your taste. Try adding some sugar to a glass and see if that helps remove the "vinegar" taste.

It really didn't remove that taste

 

[Zakk Linton]

No, not possible. Remember, you have fed the yeast (step feeding) more sugar than they can deal with given their tolerance for alcohol. So if their tolerance was - say, 14% ABV and you added enough honey so that IF - IF they could deal with the alcohol, the mead would be say, 18% ABV then all other things being equal, they would have stopped fermenting with 4 points of sugar still unfermented - and for all practical purposes - UNFURMENTABLE - in that batch. You might remove the yeast to prevent any very high alcohol tolerant yeast cells from reproducing and over time fermenting the residual sugar and you might stabilize the mead (K-meta WITH K-sorbate) to prevent any lurking cells from budding (reproducing)

Oh ok right gotcha

 

[Zakk Linton]

You mentioned a vinegar aroma. This is created by a microorganism called acetobacter. In the presence of oxygen acetobacter produces acetic acid, or vinegar. If you are accurate in what you smelled I'm sorry to tell you that it won't get any better. You need to collect some better information before you try this again. You also need to be a lot more careful about sanitation and keeping oxygen out of your mead. Someone probably told you to add raisins for yeast health. This is out dated, idiotic advice. Raisins were added in the middle ages because of the presence of wild yeast on them. Today we have the ability to do healthy controlled fermentations and thats why we use domesticated yeast and yeast nutrient.


http://chopandbrew.com/episodes/chop-brew-mead-masters-steve-fletty-part-1/

Above are a couple of interesting and helpful links with up to date info. These are a couple of the top mead makers in the world currently. You should also join the modern mead makers group on FB. Use the files section to guide you through the process. Sanitation should be your number one concern so read about it even though it's boring. There's too much information for people to outline the entire process here so your best bet is to go and read about it from a trusted source with modern info.

Good luck to you

Thank you

 

[Jako]

It takes more than a few days exposure to air to create vinegar. What you may think is vinegar may simply be a mead that is too dry for your taste. Try adding some sugar to a glass and see if that helps remove the "vinegar" taste.

i wonder if it could have a infection? the ABV should driver off most but who knows. never toss it out bottle it once its done and give it time to get happy in some bottles.

 

[TrubDude]

I'm new to mead (brewed beer up until recently). I have a melomel in secondary now. I've racked a couple times, still sediment, but the taste is amazing at 10.5% ABV. I used 3lbs honey, 1 gal water, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup frozen blueberries, and a large orange.

It's been in process for a few weeks now and I can tell it will need some transfers to clear it up and get rid of sediment. I added yeast nutrient before pitching a champagne yeast. As this is my first melomel I was mostly winging it but there's a local home brew store with a very helpful owner. I bought pectin enzyme and added before transfer to seconday, that should clear it up for me over the course of a week.

Your's is just a straight mead? If so, maybe a bunch of transfers with a few days in between to get the sediment to settle, then add whatever chemical to clarify (if needed).

If you want to back sweeten you can add a non-fermentable sweetner like xylitol, so I've heard. I don't know what to do about the vinegar taste. As other people stated, maybe some wild bacteria got in. Seems like it's easy to do with many transfers. I have a spray bottle of diluted, per manufacturer's instructions, starsan. I've sampled many times, took gravity readings, and transfered, with no contamination....so far.

 

[fossilcat]

Not sure if this is what you're talking about but.... My meads consistently taste and smell BAD from about 1.040 on. It lasts for a period of about 10 to 14 days. And it worries me EVERY time, I don't know why. You'd think I'd be more confident by now. But at the end of this period it starts to clear and I'm planning on racking to secondary, and it always starts to taste and smell better.

 

[Zakk Linton]

Not sure if this is what you're talking about but.... My meads consistently taste and smell BAD from about 1.040 on. It lasts for a period of about 10 to 14 days. And it worries me EVERY time, I don't know why. You'd think I'd be more confident by now. But at the end of this period it starts to clear and I'm planning on racking to secondary, and it always starts to taste and smell better.

Yea that's kinda what's happening, but right off the bat it doesn' have that taste or smell but I've let it sit for maybe another 2 weeks and it only got worse

 

[Zakk Linton]

Btw does anyone know how to clear up a mead?? Sometime it just doesn' clear up

 

[KTbrew]

Btw does anyone know how to clear up a mead?? Sometime it just doesn' clear up

Research fining agents for mead

 

[Zakk Linton]

Research fining agents for mead

Alright thanks

 

[JimRausch]

tw does anyone know how to clear up a mead?? Sometime it just doesn' clear up

And Time. Sometimes many months. Also helpful if you can cold crash/chill it for a while before racking off lees. I'm mostly a beer brewer, but my wines, meads, acerlyns tend to take 2 or 3 rackings over a period of 3-4 months to clear.

 

[Zakk Linton]

Thanks lol I'm deffenitly not a patient person but I'm doing anything I can to learn