New Mead guy needs some help

[Vintage Iron]

Quick question from a mead newbie.

We made a one gallon batch of this recipe on Dec 9:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/joes-ancient-orange-mead.49106/

Only variation is we got all fancy and used Lalvin D47 yeast and some Fermaid K (or was it Wyeast beer nutrient?). LOL .

Anyway, original gravity ended up @ 1.12. She bubbled until just last week, so I racked it into a secondary today and checked for final gravity. Because of the bubbling lasting for nearly two months I figured it would be very low, but it is at .1020 right now.

So, the question is, should I add more yeast nutrient in hopes that the yeasties go back to work, or is it done? Also, any ideas how long it should sit in secondary? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

[bernardsmith]

After about 9% alcohol yeast are not able to absorb the nutrients so any you add will provide a salty tang to the mead and can encourage bacterial growth... That said a starting gravity of 1.120 (gravity is read to three figures after the decimal point) has a potential ABV of almost 16% so that is very high if you don't know what you are doing... but if the yeast quit (and do you know that it quit? That is to say: did you take two or three readings about a week apart or just a single reading after you failed to see any action in your airlock?) at 1.020 then your mead is at , say 13% ABV which is not chopped liver. A residual sweetness of 20 points is about a half pound of unfermented sugar so that is , I think, semi -sweet. If you prefer a dry wine you might need to blend this with a second batch that finishes brut dry but 20 points of sugar in a wine at 13% is not very sweet. Have you tasted it yet? You might find that the alcohol burns hot and the mead needs at least that amount of sugar to make it drinkable.

 

[Vintage Iron]

After about 9% alcohol yeast are not able to absorb the nutrients so any you add will provide a salty tang to the mead and can encourage bacterial growth... That said a starting gravity of 1.120 (gravity is read to three figures after the decimal point) has a potential ABV of almost 16% so that is very high if you don't know what you are doing... but if the yeast quit (and do you know that it quit? That is to say: did you take two or three readings about a week apart or just a single reading after you failed to see any action in your airlock?) at 1.020 then your mead is at , say 13% ABV which is not chopped liver. A residual sweetness of 20 points is about a half pound of unfermented sugar so that is , I think, semi -sweet. If you prefer a dry wine you might need to blend this with a second batch that finishes brut dry but 20 points of sugar in a wine at 13% is not very sweet. Have you tasted it yet? You might find that the alcohol burns hot and the mead needs at least that amount of sugar to make it drinkable.

Great response! Thanks for the thoughts. As a beer brewer, the initial 1.120 gravity was shocking to see, but I'm plenty happy with a semi-sweet mead at a 13-ish%. I haven't done any other readings, so we'll let it sit for a bit and recheck it. Once it's done, should I cold crash it and bottle? I don't want a carbed beverage, so still is fine. Do I treat it with anything to shut down the yeast? I don't know much about mead, but am willing to learn, so any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[CoreyD]

I racked mine 3 times to get it clear. At that point it had been around 3 months (don't have my notes with me) so the yeast was very much done, with no treatments. It did not carbonate at all, bottled in swing tops.

 

[bernardsmith]

It's possible that the yeast can become active again, and it's possible that the yeast is still active.. I would "cold crash" and then rack and repeat this several times of the next, say, month - this ain't beer: wine and mead take a little longer to ferment. Each time you rack you will be removing more of the yeast and so after a few cold crashes and a few rackings there should be a small enough colony of yeast in the carboy for you to prevent refermentation by adding K-meta WITH K-sorbate. You need to add both together. However, if the colony is large enough this will not prevent the yeast from refermenting after months of slumber. There is still enough sugar left to create bottle bombs...

 

[ElijahPeteeQ]

In my experience, which is just around a year of mead making, I don't like to add anything. Rack a second time once you see a good bit of sediment. Time is key with mead. All things improve with time. As long as there isn't too much head space at the top of the carboy your fine to let it sit. If it has a layer of bubbles at the top, that kind of protects the mead. Wait for sediment, wait a week, then rack. Wait a while for more sediment, if there isn't much carefully bottle. If you want it still, you might de-gass on the second racking, but even that will happen on its own with time. That's just my thought though, there are so many great minds on here that have tons more experience. Cheers and good luck.