Newbie here freaking out

[kristofaaah]

Hey everyone. In this batch of mead, I used tea in place of water for my must. I’m afraid I didn’t cool the tea down enough before adding to my carboy. I’m thinking it was somewhere around 95f to even possibly 100f. Silly mistake, I know...

In the picture below I’m hoping you can see this cloudy mass sitting at the middle and bottom of the carboy. Is this a sign of a failed attempt? Is it dead yeast? Is it perhaps from the tea?

 

[NineMileStyle]

How long ago did you pitch?
what yeast did you use?

 

[JimRausch]

Picture looks normal to me. Now, my question is how much hot tea did you add to how much honey, and what was the temp of the honey? Most likely you diluted any excessive heat down to a safe temp. As Papa P. would say RDWHAHB.

 

[kristofaaah]

How long ago did you pitch?
what yeast did you use?

Ugh, sorry. I’ve been horrible at explaining myself of these forums.
My recipe was
-3.5 lbs honey
- 1 sachet lalvin 71b
- ~1/2 gallon of tea
- nutrients and fermaid

It is about 18 hours old at the moment

 

[NineMileStyle]

My prediction is that it'll ferm out just fine, I'd bet you'll end up with some ester, but that's not always a bad thing with mead.

71B-1122 stays pretty happy up to 90*F.
95 should be fine...estery, but fine.
100...well, I'd say wounded but probably fine.
just make sure you degas every day to lighten the CO2 burden on your babies.

Did you add all of your nutrients and energizer at once or are you doing it incrementally? Either way degassing will most likely help you produce a more predictable fermentation.

 

[kristofaaah]

My prediction is that it'll ferm out just fine, I'd bet you'll end up with some ester, but that's not always a bad thing with mead.

71B-1122 stays pretty happy up to 90*F.
95 should be fine...estery, but fine.
100...well, I'd say wounded but probably fine.
just make sure you degas every day to lighten the CO2 burden on your babies.

Did you add all of your nutrients and energizer at once or are you doing it incrementally? Either way degassing will most likely help you produce a more predictable fermentation.

Just degassed, it smells wonderful. Fingers crossed, trying not to freak out

 

[NineMileStyle]

Ahh...you'll be fine.
Try to remind yourself...Mead is a patient man's game.
I've got some ginger mead in the cellar from 18 months ago that still isn't quite ready.
Your tea based straight mead shouldn't take that long, but i promise you it'll be 10x's better in 6 months than it will be in a month and 10x's better than that in a year.

Did you ever say what your OG was?

 

[kristofaaah]

Ahh...you'll be fine.
Try to remind yourself...Mead is a patient man's game.
I've got some ginger mead in the cellar from 18 months ago that still isn't quite ready.
Your tea based straight mead shouldn't take that long, but i promise you it'll be 10x's better in 6 months than it will be in a month and 10x's better than that in a year.

Did you ever say what your OG was?

OG was 1.107.

 

[bernardsmith]

Whoa Nelly, kristofaaah - You say you dissolved 3.5 lbs of honey in a half gallon of water, OK , tea? Did I get that right? That's the equivalent of 7 lbs of honey/gallon and that would give you a starting gravity of 1.245. No yeast on Earth can ferment in that kind of concentration of sugar. It causes osmotic shock. It's like you trying to eat 100 hotdogs in 15 minutes.

The "potential" ABV from such a mixture is more than 32%. So you are talking about a level that requires distillation not fermentation. Are you making mead or rocket fuel?

 

[NineMileStyle]

Well...at 1.107 I'd say you're good.
I'll assume you added a half gallon of water to your half gallon of tea.
I see success in your future!

 

[ShareBrewing]

It looks like you’re all good to go. Assuming you used a hydrometer for the reading and not just a calculation, it should make a good mead!

What kind of tea did you use? How did you make the tea?

The cloudiness on the bottom could be a mix of yeast and the tannins/proteins from the tea, which just needs to settle over time. Good luck!

 

[kristofaaah]

Whoa Nelly, kristofaaah - You say you dissolved 3.5 lbs of honey in a half gallon of water, OK , tea? Did I get that right? That's the equivalent of 7 lbs of honey/gallon and that would give you a starting gravity of 1.245. No yeast on Earth can ferment in that kind of concentration of sugar. It causes osmotic shock. It's like you trying to eat 100 hotdogs in 15 minutes.

The "potential" ABV from such a mixture is more than 32%. So you are talking about a level that requires distillation not fermentation. Are you making mead or rocket fuel?

Well...at 1.107 I'd say you're good.
I'll assume you added a half gallon of water to your half gallon of tea.
I see success in your future!

Ok, forgive my wishy washy recipie, I'm really, really new at this. I say 1/2 gallon of water becasue of this. I brew in 1gal carboy's, as its what I have for now. So, the 3.5lbs of honey filled the carboy a little less that half. I realise it's an oxymoron, but if I'm trying to guess specific amount in the carboy, I'd say maybe 1/3 or possibly a teeeeny bit less was filled with honey at the start. So, given that i hydrated my yeast and nutirents in about 6oz of water, I'd venture to guess my actual amount of tea was about 2/3 of a gallon. I have very little headspace in the carboy now.

Also, I'm 100% sure my OG was 1.107. Checked twice. Maybe thats another giveaway of more tea? Again, forgive my silly begginer knowledge haha.

It looks like you’re all good to go. Assuming you used a hydrometer for the reading and not just a calculation, it should make a good mead!

What kind of tea did you use? How did you make the tea?

The cloudiness on the bottom could be a mix of yeast and the tannins/proteins from the tea, which just needs to settle over time. Good luck!

I did use a hydrometer! By the colors and smell alone, I have hopes that this will be the best batch I've prepared so far! I used CS Bengal Spice tea, about 10 teabags. It's like a decaf chai, I suppose? Lots of exotic spices like cinnamon and cardamom. I've heard from other people have done this tea have found that the black pepper notes become very pronounced in the later stages. I'm really interested to see what happens!

I think you're right on the nose with the cloudy stuff at the bottom. It seems to be settling a little bit even now.


Good news! Got my first bloops today! It seems like all my worrying and stressing was ill placed, because I think I have an active and for all intents and purposes healthy fermenting brew on my hands! Thanks so much for your input guys. I'll keep in touch with this guy over the next few weeks and cheers a glass in your honor when the time comes.

 

[NineMileStyle]

We were all stressed out for our first brew. Its part of the deal...the resulting success, however, is highly addictive...