Oops Miscalculation and Bad Information

[Arneba28]

So I decided to start a mead a 2 weeks ago. now right off the bat I messed up. no nutrient or energizer added. one large starter of wyeast4184 pitched. almost 1/2 gallon starter. 10lbs honey, 3# ExLight DME, 5.5gal batch...So when I am checking out guy at LHBS says
"Starting a 10gal batch of mead huh?"
No...
"well thats alot of fermentables for 5 gal"
I want it high abv.
"what you should do is after 2 weeks it should almost be done. so split the batch, repitch 3#DME and champagne yeast. that will kick it up"

So what do I do, I do it without taking anythought about what this will do to a new OG after split and top off. So the OG at 5gal was 1.073, after two weeks bubbles almost stopped, FG 1.049...my first thought is damn it stopped, def not done. well might as wekk split and pitch.
So I did that tonight. New OG is 1.032...now I am screwed. I wanted a high abv, not this time I guess!!!
Damn my brain.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Assuming all your numbers are correct, when you split the batch, you were already at 3.14% ABV. If the champagne yeast takes your mead down to 1.000, you'll wind up with another 4.16% ABV. Because the original 3.14% was diluted by about 1/2, the resulting mead should wind up at about 5.7% ABV.

Now, BeerSmith says your OG should've been more like 1.095. It's not uncommon to get a low OG reading when using a lot of honey and DME since they tend to settle to the bottom of the must rather than mixing completely. If that's the case, your mead was already at the 6% mark by the time you split the batch. So, you're potentially looking at an ABV of over 7%, which is still on the low side for a dry mead.

All is not lost! Since meads can take forever, and you're using a very alcohol tolerant yeast strain, just add some more honey! Another 5 lbs in a 10 gallon batch should net you about 2% more ABV.

 

[Arneba28]

thankyou. thats more then I know about mead thats for sure. I did some research but apparently was not thinking clearly tonight. its a good thing you guys are here

 

[CBBaron]

You started out with a moderate gravity for a mead so there should have been no reason to split it. Your lack of nutrients was somewhat made up for by the use of DME. Malt extract has alot of the nutrients the yeast needs which is why you normally don't add nutrients to beer wort.

As Yuri mentioned you can always boost the gravity of the must while the yeast are still fairly active by adding additional honey. Also consider adding the nutrients at the same time to help the yeast out.

Craig