Need some help with my first batch of mead

[Dan_the_DJ]

Hello everyone!

Im new here, please excuse my ignorance as it is my first time taking a shot at home brewing other than accidental fermentation of unwashed jars of honey

I finally got around to actually try and make some mead and I bought an unknown wine yeast which was sold to me as an "universal yeast for wine making".

After a lot of research and a few conversations with a couple of companies, I found that I bought Lalvin's v1116 wine yeast which has an alcohol tolerance of 18% which is quite high for my measly 0.92kg of honey for a 3L batch.

To my understanding, with this particular yeast, my mead would go bone dry, with a final alcohol percentage of about 12 (I got this information from meadmakr.com/batch/buildr).

Also, if I want a tad sweeter mead, not completely dry, do I need to add more honey(0.45kg in my case), to reach that 18% and then add just a bit more honey on top, or could I just leave it at 12% and then back sweeten?

Im still reading about both of these processes, back sweetening and step-feeding if Im correct?

I have to admit, I am pretty scared I will mess everything up by trying any of these on my own, so I wanted to consult with some of you on how to proceed. The ferment is in its 4th day, so I have plenty of time, I think.

What is your opinion, which route is easier for a newbie to try?

Thank you for your time and help, cheers

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Feeding honey until the yeast quit from alcohol poisoning is one way to have sweet mead, the other is to let it finish as you have planned at 12% they add the correct amount of potassium sorbate for the volume of mead you have and then add honey to backsweeten.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Dan_the_DJ]

Im more comfortable with letting it finish at 12% I think. I might do just that.

Thank you very much!

 

[JimRausch]

Hi Dan, and Welcome!
Yes it would be much easier and more consistent to let it ferment to completion (which likely will be a SG below 1.000). Then you rack it multiple times over a period of several months to clear (add 1 camden tab per gallon at every other racking to control oxidation). When it stays clear, then add sorbate to prevent any further fermentation, and backsweeten to taste.
Continue to do your research by reading through this section of the forum. There's also a Meadmaker FB page that is pretty handy- lots of world class mazers on there.

 

[Dan_the_DJ]

Thank you.

One question though, instead of using sorbate, can you simply heat the mead enough to kill the remaining yeast inside?

 

[JimRausch]

One question though, instead of using sorbate, can you simply heat the mead enough to kill the remaining yeast inside?

Interesting question, which I don't know about with mead. But, I have very successfully used the cooler pasteurization method for ciders and grafs, that is described in the cider section of this forum. But that is after backsweetening and priming and bottling.

 

[dwhite60]

Thank you.

One question though, instead of using sorbate, can you simply heat the mead enough to kill the remaining yeast inside?

I expect you could but it will probably change the finished product.

Stabilizing with sorbate and backsweetening isn't hard to do.

I've heard mixed reviews on feeding it more honey until it stops. All yeasts are not created equal. There is a window of quite a few percentage points of ABV yeast will work under. Just because it says "up to 18%" doesn't mean all the yeast just suddenly die then. Some will die off at 14% but others may survive and keep on working, slowly, well above 22% . If you bottle you can still have bottle bombs.

Stabilize it. It's the easiest, safest thing to do.

Welcome to homebrewing!!!

All the Best,
D. White