Need help with first mead

[Spooky]

I picked the Nectar of the Gods mead kit from homebrewheaven.com. Mead Kit, Nectar of the Gods from Homebrew Heaven
We've followed everything in the directions and was good up until time to bottle. Took an ending gravity of 1.015. The directions say it should be approx 0.098 - 1.003. What does this mean? Is the mead now FUBAR? Can I still bottle it? Help! Thanks.

Mike

 

[jezter6]

It's good to see that mead n00bs have the same fears and frustrations beer n00bs do. First, please don't take anything negative in being called a noob - it's just my way. Welcome to HBT by the way!!!

Second - it looks like the recipe is brew to bottle in ~6 weeks. Honestly - that's REALLY young to bottle. If your ferment temps were a little cooler - it could take slightly longer to get all the way down to super dry.

Third - it's likely that that you had a slightly stalled ferment - or it may not have been completely finished. No biggy though, because you added sorbate and killed off any yeasties and there's not going to be any refermentation in the bottle.

Looks like it will just end slighty higher and sweeter than you expect it to.

If you haven't sorbated yet, you may just want to let it sit a little longer (I think most of us mead types don't even think of bottles before ~5-6 months, and even then some of the mead gurus would say don't bother touching it for 9-10 months), however I'm not 100% sure how your clarifying agent may have pulled any suspended yeast out of the brew - it may not ferment any longer anyway.

As ol' Charlie would say: Relax, don't worry. Have a homebrew.

If you sorbated it, then bottle it up a little sweet.

 

[Yooper]

I agree.

Where are you at in the process? If you haven't added the sorbate and campden, I'd wait a bit. 1.015 is pretty sweet, and way too sweet for my tastes.

 

[Spooky]

I think all noobs freak out on whatever they're a noob at. I've done a few batches of beer but mead is a first. I just wasn't quite sure what that high gravity was going to do. It tasted alright so I went ahead and sorbated/campden and bottled it. Hopefully I'll have something tasty at Thanksgiving. That'll be the earliest I can open. I started everything in April. Your batches don't even get to bottling until 5/6+ months? Have t try that for the next batch. Thanks for the tips. Looking forward to enjoying this board.

Mike

 

[jezter6]

I'm considering bottling a mead I made back in November this weekend.

I did bottle one that I made in February about a month ago, but I haven't touched a bit of it since bottling day and the only reason I bottled it was to get something that tasted good in the bottles so that I kept my grubby hands out of the other 4 batches that were aging.