newbee mead maket

[mn_brewer_stpaul]

Hello,

Started with 15lbs of honey 1gal of cider and 3.5gal of water. My OG is 1.200. I also used a nutrient and a sweet mead wyeast. I have heard at this gravity level I could have a slow or a ferment that will end too soon. Can anyone give any insite to this?

Thank you.

 

[fatbloke]

Hello,

Started with 15lbs of honey 1gal of cider and 3.5gal of water. My OG is 1.200. I also used a nutrient and a sweet mead wyeast. I have heard at this gravity level I could have a slow or a ferment that will end too soon. Can anyone give any insite to this?

Thank you.

Too high a gravity to start.

Which sweet meed yeast ?

Did you bother to find out the tolerance of the yeast ? As the unbelievably finicky Wyeast sweet mead is tolerant to about 11% ABV and the white labs one about 15%. Either way your likely gonna have an excessively high FG if it doesn't stick and it will at least be cloyingly sweet probably like watered down honey - hell if you stressed the yeast with that SG you may even have some bad flavours too....

Even if you used a yeast that has the cojones to do 18% and it reached its tolerance (18% is a total gravity drop of abour 133 points) youd still have nearly 70 or a bit less points of residual sugar. With dessert wines, sherry or port you only have between 30 and 40 points max (presuming finished at 1.000). So back to the overly sickly sweet result there......

Higher gravity starts are notoriously difficult ferments if you put too much fermentables in all at once. All but a few just dont work as there seem to be only a few speciality yeasts that can manage much over 18%......

 

[mn_brewer_stpaul]

Any suggestions on what I could do to save? I used wyeast 4182.

 

[viocot]

You could always add more water to bring the gravity down. How is it doing? Is the yeast fermenting? Sometimes if i have a high gravity brew i'll make a yeast starter with some of it watered down instead of straight water, and let it go longer before pitching. So the yeast have good healthy colony and you're less likely to throw them sugar shock. Though your gravity seem really high, even for a sweet mead.

 

[Golddiggie]

Any suggestions on what I could do to save? I used wyeast 4182.

You could pitch a stronger yeast. But, you'll want to make a mead starter for that (different process/ingredients than a beer yeast starter). Look on the Got Mead? forums for how to handle the ultra high gravity must you pitched into.

You'll also want to degas/aerate the must until you hit the 1/3 break. That's IF you added enough nutrient at the start. If you didn't, then you'll add more until the 1/3 break. At that point, you sit back and let it go as it needs.

 

[VictorNiss]

...I have heard at this gravity level I could have a slow or a ferment that will end too soon.

I would suggest cutting the batch in half, if you've got another brewing container about, and perhaps adding some (pasteurized) water. I'm a novice brewer myself (and from St. paul, no less!), but in my experience I would suggest adding your honey in segments next time.

In the current batch of Mead my brew bro and I are working on, we've added all the components, but only half the honey; as to not have our yeast stall from a high gravity. It's formally known as osmotic pressure, when the yeast is introduced to an environment with too much sugars. So far this is having a desirable fermentation rate, and once the batch starts to loose gravity, we'll add the rest of the honey to max out the ABV limit the yeast can live in.

As the other pros above me stated, taking a clean utensil and opening your fermentation Vessel to aerate your product can help. Racking the container can also give you a chance to aerate.

 

[mn_brewer_stpaul]

I want to thank everyone for the advise. Correction to the hydrometer reading. The initial reading was 1.120. Just noticed the error. PH at 3.2

 

[Golddiggie]

I want to thank everyone for the advise. Correction to the hydrometer reading. The initial reading was 1.120. Just noticed the error. PH at 3.2

That's cutting it close on the PH (3.2 is the recommended lowest to have a must). At an OG of 1.120, if could go to dry at ~16% (depending on the yeast).

I use the Rooftop Brew site to figure out where an OG will take me.

I still say to go over to the Got Mead forums and read up... The main site has older/dated information on it, but the forums are more current in methods to use.

 

[mn_brewer_stpaul]

Update.....

did a yeast starter with the same yeast I am using, wyeast sweet mead.. added nutrient and booster. Yeast are going nuts. Degassed, and gravity dropped to 1.11 overnight.. looks like this might work after all. Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[fatbloke]

Update.....

did a yeast starter with the same yeast I am using, wyeast sweet mead.. added nutrient and booster. Yeast are going nuts. Degassed, and gravity dropped to 1.11 overnight.. looks like this might work after all. Thanks again for everyone's help.

It's quite likely that you'll end up with a very sweet mead.

From memory wyeast sweet mead has a tolerance of 11% ABV and even with the amended gravity info there will likely be a fair bit of residual sugar.

What the hell eh ? Let it run and see where you end up......

 

[mn_brewer_stpaul]

Fatbloke... Did a reading today down to 1.030. Gives me about 12% abv, and yeast are still going strong!