now what

[greenspider]

Hey group!
I know, I know; go read the archives!
But this IS a little different.
My son bought the honey so he feels as tho he has the say in this mead, but he knows little about the process other than what he has read.
I am no brewer either but I have been making beers and ciders (with honey added) for a little while now and have had good success.
First, here's the recipe;
24 pounds (2 gals.) of honey
couple oranges
raisins
5 gallons of water

Primary started on August 21; reading was 1.15 (35%)
This past Saturday, October 5, we racked off of the fruits and sediment.
Reading was 1.05 (15%)
A sample tasting indicated a very sweet mead (as I suspected it would).

As of now the ferment is very slow.
Couple of questions here.

1) would it be possible to split this into 2 or even 1 and 1/2 ( as in two 5 gallon carboys, or a 5 gallon and a 3 gallon) ?

2) should I be concerned right now with the slow ferment taking place after the racking?

3) What would some of you do if this were your project?

4) What (if anything) about those readings?


P.S.; I'm just about to yeast my first pear wine today and I am also yeasting a perry? (pears and honey).
Any thoughts before I take the plunge?

 

[Clayton]

well its will take along time nomatter what with that much honey.
but its going to take a extra time because you have racked it off the lees,
so you removed what ever nitrogen you had for the yeast to grow and repoduce to replace there fallen comrads. just plan for 6 more months of fermentaion and clearing , then bottle it with 6 more months of age minium.

or you could add a little DAP or repitch yeast and get the fermentaion over with and get on to ageing


why would you want to split it? to water it down? no no just let it go
you had pland on not have mead for a year anyway right?

 

[Matrix4b]

I have been called crazy for doing 20 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon. 24 I know is way too much. It would be good for a 6 gallon. This is why your fermentation is slow. The extra sugar in the Oranges may help. The rasins if chopped could be a good from of nutrient. Personally I would split it up into 2 carboys like you suggested. 2 5 gall will work. When you water it up you should have 12 pounds of honey in each container. So it would be best to add 5-8 pounds to each carboy bringing up the total a bit. Also I would add a teaspoon of yeast energizer and yeast nutrient just in case. Repitching yeast may be good.

Ofcourse if you have a 6 gal carboy around just switch it up to that and water up to 6 gal and let it rip. I still would put in some yeast energizer and nutrient too. This will get it jump started. Oh, And Areate, that is get some air into it by stirring vigiously for a bit.

 

[greenspider]

First, here's the recipe;
24 pounds (2 gals.) of honey
couple oranges
raisins
5 gallons of water

Primary started on August 21; reading was 1.15 (35%)
This past Saturday, October 5, we racked off of the fruits and sediment.
Reading was 1.05 (15%)
A sample tasting indicated a very sweet mead (as I suspected it would).

This mead was very sweet and had slowed fermentation after racking it off the lees.
I repitched with MONTPELLIER K1V-1116, Alcohol tolerance 18%, on Aug. 21.
This thing has been fermenting gang busters since Aug 21 with no hint of slowing down yet.
What did I do by repitching this. Do you think I messed this up?

Any thoughts?

 

[greenspider]

First, here's the recipe;
24 pounds (2 gals.) of honey
couple oranges
raisins
5 gallons of water

Primary started on August 21; reading was 1.15 (35%)
October 5, we racked off of the fruits and sediment.
Reading was 1.05 (15%)
A sample tasting indicated a very sweet mead (as I suspected it would).

This mead was very sweet and had slowed fermentation after racking it off the lees.
I repitched with MONTPELLIER K1V-1116, Alcohol tolerance 18%, on Oct 7
This thing has been fermenting gang busters since Oct 7 with no hint of slowing down yet.
What did I do by repitching this. Do you think I messed this up?

Any thoughts?

 

[hightest]

First, here's the recipe... Any thoughts?

Yes, why did you duplicate this post in a new topic...? It's exactly what you posted in the other topic"

 

[TipsyDragon]

no you didn't mess it up ... it may dry out some ... little confused it is sill fermenting that 3% alcohol. but you will be ok.

 

[greenspider]

I didn't want to add the first part of the October post, I had shortened it so that the old info wouldn't confuse anybody but here we are. Sorry for the confusion, just what I was trying to avoid.
The replies say that there are 6 replies but in reality there were only 2 replies and 1 of them asked why I posted twice, so in essence I got 1 reply and I'll take it.
I was just wanting to know that it was alright.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'd add yeast nutrient/yeast energizer, maybe a little extra DAP. Not much in the way of nutrients in honey & odds are the yeast has used up any in the raisins. With that much honey, you will likely still end up with a very sweet mead, even with the K1V-1116; which can go as high as 20% ABV with added nutrients. Maybe you're wanting something that sweet, but that's going to be REALLY sweet. I think I'd thin it a bit with water, add nutrients & try to dry it out a bit so it didn't end up tasting like syrup. Regards, GF.

 

[Tusch]

You actually got more then 2 responses and I think hightest made a good point haha I was confused why I saw the same post 3 (kinda) times.

Anyways I have actually made one mead with 5 lbs of honey per gallon netting me an OG of 1.155 So I can say this honestly, bad move haha. I was going for a strong yet quite sweet product to counter a spiciness (its a habanero/serano capiscumel) but it was still sweeter then I wanted. For that high of an OG or target OG anyways you should (and I should) have stepped the honey, as in adding in most of it but not all and then add it in two or three more stages.

Your yeasts' have pretty much eaten all that they will. You are at a very high alc level already and fermenting (not distilling) will not net you much more than that. And to get about 18 or maybe 20% you have to be very good and precise in your methods to get another few percent out of it. So basically you are almost if not already at the end of fermentation and will have a very very sweet brew. This is beyond dessert wine level at this point.