novice needing help

[terencemeadnovice]

I staryed 2 gallins of mead in july and 2 in august im wanting to bottle I have a reading on hydrometer 1.010 and 1.020 I lost my start readings and have no idea now how to work out what the percentage is. I want to bottle for christmas presents but worried its not finished. The bubblings done and its crystal clear. Should I add stabiliser and bottle? But what percentage I just dont know and need a little help

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

If you know how much honey you used in the beginning, the gotmead calculator is fairly accurate in getting an SG.

But yeah, I've bottled meads that early. If they taste good, and are clear enough to read a newspaper through, you can stabilize and bottle. (But a little age will go a long way).

If the gravity isn't changing between 2 weeks, it's probably done and safe to stabilize.

 

[terencemeadnovice]

Thank you ever so much i used to make mead all the time and just getting back into it, its a pain but i love it

 

[terencemeadnovice]

I have tested my wine and it tastes a litlle fizzy ive never had this problem and now reading about degassing, ive got to the end of fermentation and dont know what to do, ive been looking on sites and there has been mention of poison im really confused as what to do, my wine is crisp and clear and smells like it has a high alcohol content. ive made mead many times from a really old recipe where you dont look at temps or guages you just make it in sterile demijohns, leave it three months it goes clear you rack it off and away you go pretty much foolproof now i have this to manage, im very confused and really dont want anyone harmed by my mead.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

You won't be, could you link to this website (we all need a good laugh)? What you;re likely getting a whiff of is the CO2 in / coming out of your mead. It'll burn your nose, but that's about it. Higher alcohol taste is from fermenting at too high a temp and making fussel alcohols.

In regards to the "bad" alcohol that could possible kill you. That's methanol, Which is broken down by ethanol (what you made), so even if methenol somehow was produced in your mead (so unlikely you should just stop worrying about it now), the ethanol would beat it out.

Methanol production has more to do with distilling than anything.