Our first meads and more

[Smom1976]

Good evening. Have been reading these threads for a while filled with ideas and aspirations. My husband and I decided to begin with mead and melomels (mead with fruit?) We are doing 1 gallon batches for ease and if we mess up we are not out a whole lot. First and foremost thank all of you for all the input on what everyone has done and all the information. We have started 4 meads on January 26 2019.

Regular mead in a a 1 gal. glass carboy
3 qt water
3 lbs honey 1/3 pack lalvin d47 yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Beginning specific gravity. (Is this OG?) 1.114

Started bubbling yesterday 1 27

Apple juice ciser
In a gallon (apple juice) container with airlock
3 lbs honey
3 liters apple juice/water to top off
Lalvin d47 yeast
Yeast nutrient
Beginning specific gravity 1.15

Has not bubbled yet. I gave it a little shake tonight created a small mess. But not sure what is wrong.

Strawberry mead melomel
In a 6 gallon plastic brewing bucket
3 lbs honey
1 gallon plus a little maybe 1/4 gal of water
3 lbs strawberries
D47 yeast 1/3 packet
Yeast nutrient
Beginning specific gravity 1.096

Started bubbling yesterday 1/27

Began on 1/27
Lime coconut mead melomel
In a 3 liter water bottle with airlock
2 liter coconut water plain
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 lbs honey
1/2 pack d47 yeast
Starting specific gravity 1.120

Started bubbling within 7 hours after mixing and is bubbling away.

Not sure if giving the apple juice one a little shake was the right thing to do but any advice would be lovely. I picked the d47 because I want to finish with a more sweeter mead at the end but not too sweet. Not sure when to remove the strawberries will they be ok until the first racking 2 or so months from now? Should I put more in when I rack for the second time?
Looking forward to something good to drink and anticipate starting several more while waiting.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Since you used the same yeast in more than one batch I'd be looking at the rest of the cyser ingredients. specifically the ingredient list on the AJ. look for sorbate or other preservatives. If none and still no activity tomorrow, I would make a yeast starter, and wait till it was going good to pitch it in.

keep in mind this is just advice and worth every penny you paid for it

 

[Smom1976]

Is a yeast started different from rehydration? I did rehydrate the yeast per package directions. I didnt think about preservatives. I originally just wanted the gallon size container but at last min decided to use the juice so it was an inexpensive juice from target. (The water containers are shy of 1 gallon.)

 

[CKuhns]

Check the label on the apple juice, anything other than vitamin c (ascorbic amcid) juice and water should be avoided. A starter is kind of what you did to rehydrate with asmall amountnof added nutrients and more time. I go 24 hours but not absolutely necessary.

 

[Blacksmith1]

It is a type of rehydration. You just give them a little sugar (or honey) and some time to fool around and suddenly you have billions of baby yeasts who tear into your must like the Mongols crossing Europe.

 

[Smom1976]

We are going on day 3 if the ingredients aren't a problem. My guess is they are. Would I even want to pitch another yeast? I mean wouldnt the must be too old?

 

[Blacksmith1]

How warm is it where you have it? I've seen (well, read about) others re-pitching at that point. Also a strong enough starter has been successful at overpowering preservatives in several cases on this forum.

[EDIT] just looked at your original post you could steal a little (like 2 oz) of your plain mead to use as a starter. don't worry about letting air to it. during primary you can take the lid off the bucket to stir it if you want and not hurt it.

 

[Smom1976]

The d47 yeast needs it between 59 to 68 our house thermostat is reading at 65 to 67. Its winter here and sitting in the pantry.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I'm in FL and the house stays about 72F, I personally would re-pitch it here. Any thing that gets in it will have to out compete the yeast which you are going to give a head start. Worst that happens is it gets an infection which you will be able to see. As nothing from nothing leaves nothing, what do you have to lose by trying to save it?

 

[Smom1976]

We are in north florida and right now it's too cold for my liking. I protest turning on the heat to try and counter the cooling bill in the summer. I pulled an ounce of the regular mead must and added the 1/2 packet of yeast I had left from yesterdays coconut water concoction. I have it in a glass bowl in a warm water bath. To try to rehydrate and feed. I will pitch it tomorrow morning. Hoping for a European voyage!

 

[Smom1976]

Any suggestions as to when to remove the strawberries in the other batch? There is a lot of head space in that bucket we will rack to a carboy.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Haven't really worked with fruit so you'll have to wait on one of the "elders" to chime in on that. as for your headspace. it's not a problem during primary fermentation as the extra O2 will help the yeast propagate. In the secondary you want as little head space as you can get, in a one gallon, or any other for that matter, you should fill it above the shoulder at least, to the base of the neck if possible and save any extra you get in case you need to top off later. Pop on an airlock and leave it alone for a while.

 

[CKuhns]

Fruit in Primary can stay as long as primary fermentation is active. Strawberries are a little problematic as they have small seeds on the outside of the fruit and can IMO cause some unpleasant flavors if left too long. (Just my opinion of course others may differ) I would remove them from primary when you are ready to go to secondary.

 

[Smom1976]

Wonderful I have a plan for the fruit.

On second note I pitched the very bubbly yeast this morning. We shall see.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Go Mongols!
I hope this works for you.

 

[Smom1976]

It has tiny bubbles rising to the top yet nothing out of the airlock. Will keep it but I dont have high Hope's.

 

[Blacksmith1]

give it a chance and make sure there is no pressure leak or the air lock just sits there.

 

[Blacksmith1]

hopefully this is working. keep us posted.

 

[Smom1976]

Well good news the slow apple juice now is bubbling. However.

The strawberry quit.. so we opened it up tonight and took a measurement. Ummm. It registered 1.000 I dont want that. We want something a little sweeter. It did start kinda low in the first place and I thought that might happen.

It smelled of alcohol, and tasted very dry with a hint of strawberries at the end almost a smell vs a taste.

So we may have done the wrong thing but instead of racking it. We took out a few cups added about a pound and a half of honey to that liquid and then poured it all back into the bucket. We stirred it hoping to get it fermenting again. Our new reading we took is 1.03

‍

 

[Blacksmith1]

Taste it. if you like the sweetness then it's time to stop it in it's tracks. first cold crash it by putting the carboy in the fridge. once it clears rack it off the lees ( the gunk at the bottom.) add 1 campden tablet, and potassium sorbate. this will stabilize it by stopping the active yeast from reproducing. Check the SG, give it a 2-3 days and check it again. once you can take 3 reading like that and it doesn't change it should be safe.
Before you take this as gospel be aware that I am giving this advice from info gleaned here on this forum and I have been drinking so there may be some misinformation in this post. but check it to see if it is the sweetness you want and when it is start with the cold crash. by the time it clears someone will be in to either confirm or correct the info I have given you.

 

[Smom1976]

It tasted awful

 

[Blacksmith1]

A lot of brews taste awful when they finish fermenting. Mostly they need time to age and will be fine.

[edit] And I just realized your post says you stirred it. What you were tasting may have been the gunk on the bottom that is now in suspension, or, if you have been stirring, the gunk that should have been on the bottom that stayed in suspension.
Once that stuff drops out it generally tastes better.

P.S. some batches ARE awful, My first cider attempt was horrid. But give it time, what do you have to loose?

 

[bernardsmith]

Two quick thoughts, Lenora. If you simply add more sugar to a fermentation that has finished dry you are providing the yeast with more sugar to ferment. They neither know nor care that you want them to quit fermenting that added sugar and let you use it to sweeten your mead. Depending on the yeast you used and its tolerance for alcohol those 30 points of sugar should soon appear as zero once again and your hydrometer reading will record 1.000 or lower (alcohol has a lower density than water).
Before you add sugar to sweeten a wine or mead you need to do two things - remove as much of the colony of yeast as you can and add two chemicals in tandem that prevent any yeast cells still lurking from budding (reproducing) and fermenting. These "stabilizing" chemicals are K-meta and K-sorbate. Instructions for the amount you need to add come with the chemicals.
The second point I want to make is that we are used to the flavor of fruit with its sweetness. When we ferment fruit we remove the sweetness and the flavor may then be a challenge to enjoy. This, especially, if our fermentation protocols are not spot on. After all, wine making is all about balance - something novice wine makers often ignore, forget or are simply unaware of. And the balance is among the level of alcohol, the acidity, the intensity of the flavor of the fruit, the structure or backbone of the wine (tannic quality) and the perceived sweetness. What country wines often require is some sweetness to bring forward the flavor of the fruit. And the best way to determine this is through bench testing. By bench testing I simply mean you pour a number of samples of the wine of a known and identical size and to each sample you dissolve known amounts of sugar and you taste each one. You repeat this process until you find the amount of sugar that you prefer and then you use simple arithmetic to determine how much sugar you then need to add to the batch (after you have stabilized it). (if your batch size is 5 gallon and your samples 50 ccs and the amount of sugar is say 10 grams then you multiply Y by 10 grams by 378 (378 being the number of 50 cc samples in 5 US gallons)..

 

[CKuhns]

LS - By adding honey back to it without inhibiting the yeast as Blacksmith suggests you may just be restarting the ferment by adding sugars and giving yourself more alcohol. I have found with age (12 - 24 months) and carbonation it does help a lot of the flavors when our protocol is a bit off. As well, noticed you used D47 - If fermented above 68 Deg F can throw some off flavors as well. Again will age out. Don't give up on it. (I have had a few i used for blending or topping off other like meads that after enough time i was sorry i did and wished i had kept them around a bit.

 

[Smom1976]

So tasted it before stirring. Ot tasted very dry with a hot alcohol taste. After was strawberry.

I'm thinking my goal was when adding the additional honey sugars is/was to saturate the yeast. D47 should finish around 14 % tolerance. I dont think I started it up high enough to have it finish sweet. Should have figured that from the beginning however when i though about it was already bubbling away. Not sure if this is a realistic goal or if that is even ultimately how it works.

Example start with 18% potential abv. Use a yeast at 14% will ferment and in great conditions yeast will die and 4% sugars will be left and that sugar makes it taste sweet.

Yes?

 

[Blacksmith1]

In theory. In practice yeast can be petulant children and sometimes just do what they want. Not start, go well past the published tolerance, stall during fermentation, produce rhino farts, etc. most times it will finish somewhere near the posted ABV. Stopping fermentation manually and then back sweetening might be a choice for you. At least while you learn this hobby. I'm currently just going for dry and little to no Blech flavors myself.

 

[Smom1976]

I'm thinking that the back sweeting is going to be a good option for a fix. I'm going to let these children do their thing, practice hands off parenting, then give them some sugar therapy at the end. if we don't have to by the additions then great.

 

[bernardsmith]

Example start with 18% potential abv. Use a yeast at 14% will ferment and in great conditions yeast will die and 4% sugars will be left and that sugar makes it taste sweet.

Yes?

I would say, "no". Just because yeast hit their tolerance for alcohol and cannot then ferment more sugar does not in fact mean that the yeast "die". Yeast are pretty formidable little creatures. Takes a lot to kill 'em. What some of them might be doing at the microscopic level is reproducing and when those hardy little creatures with wooden legs reproduce enough and create a large enough colony of yeast cells which have greater than the average tolerance for alcohol than the main population of cells has those little critters will be noticeably fermenting the residual sugars. Bottom line? Just because your yeast have apparently "quit" does not mean that they are dead and gone. Best practice - in my opinion - is to either make sure that there is no more sugar for any residual cells to ferment OR make sure that there are no more viable yeast cells lurking.

 

[Smom1976]

Hmmmm... bad little buggers.

What can I use to stop them?