Need....More....Attenuation!

[FishinDave07]

I made a variation of JOAM using strawberries instead of oranges. (isnt this stuff 'technically' Melomel?)

Pretty much the crappy bread yeast left it Ridiculously sweet.

What would be my best bet:

Pitch some dry champagne yeast

Pitch some dry mead yeast

Pitch some ________

Thanks people

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Champagne yeast is kind of the Terminator of yeasts.

If you do want to pitch more of it, I think it's best (and this is just a theory) to rack it into a new container before adding the new yeast.

The basis for my theory is a little footnote in Papazian's book where he talks about how yeast in the presence of other, dormant yeast, will sometime just give up without even trying and nobody knows why.

 

[BigKahuna]

What is your gravity?

you can use EC-1118 or Premiere Cuvee. Both will bail you out, just hydrate and pitch.
I'd say to give it 6 months before you decide that it is then too dry.
Mead has a way of tasting sweeter than it is.

 

[FishinDave07]

Og: 1.160
Fg: 1.070

 

[BigKahuna]

OH my CraP!

Re-pitch with some re hydrated Premiere Cuvee.

You're going to be Christmas 2009 with this one! 20%?
Hope you've got something else in the works for between now and then.

 

[FishinDave07]

OH my CraP!

Re-pitch with some re hydrated Premiere Cuvee.

You're going to be Christmas 2009 with this one! 20%?
Hope you've got something else in the works for between now and then.

Yeah, lol. I told ya it was too sweet! This is my first whack at mead so i think i'll fare fine drinking my homebrew while i wait.

 

[BigKahuna]

Yeah, lol. I told ya it was too sweet! This is my first whack at mead so i think i'll fare fine drinking my homebrew while i wait.

Get another batch going with 2# of Honey...You can drink it for Christmas. It'll still be young, but it'll be good.

 

[malkore]

1.160.....

I think we have a new winner for highest OG on a mead

EC-1118 is good for restarting fermentation. it goes dry, but not as dry as champagne yeast,k and you can always backsweeten later.

my two cents...

 

[impulsoren]

You should be able to pitch on top of the old yeast. I had a strawberry mead that stopped at 1.060 from 1.090 after a couple of weeks. I tossed in a packet of dry champagne yeast, it took it down to 1.001 in a week.

 

[tooomanycolors]

1.160.....

I think we have a new winner for highest OG on a mead


^^
Beats my highest of 1.157 and I used 21lbs of honey in that one

 

[Cugel]

On Gotmead they recommend using only lavlin and other quality wine yeasts. Rehydrate said lavlin using GoFerm and use Fermaid K as yeast nutrient.

Meads are notoriously slow fermenters as many aspects of fermentation management are ignored... search the gotmead fora for staggered nutrient additions.

If I were you, I'd rehydrate some lavlin wine yeast and add nutrients at various stages during the fermentation - the staggered nutrient additions. Your mead should ferment out dry unless you stop fermentation at 1.020 or so to produce a sweet mead.

 

[BigKahuna]

Eh...You could...but I don't think its worth that much effort. Just hang loose, add some good yeast (and Nutrient if you feel like it) and chill out for a few more months.