Pomegranate F*%k

[Krayton]

So I was going to do a 1 gallon batch of pomegranate wine, but the wife said why not do both a wine and a mead. (God I love her ... most days) Well we used
7.036 wildflower honey
1 packet of Fleischmanns active dry (7g)
50 raisins
2.25 quarts of Pom juice
Starting gravity 1.1....f*%k (refer to picture)
added dap and nutrient do to really high gravity
DAP 2 tsp
Fermaid K 1 tsp
I am not really sure if this will even work. I am really expecting it to fail do to that gravity. I am not sure if the DAP and Fermaid K will help it out but I hope so. I am completely open to getting told this will fail or I am an idiot lol.

 

[AkTom]

I'll bite.... You're an idiot. Ok maybe not but don't you feel better now? ;-)
It looks like you are fermenting in a bucket. Why not add a bit of water to bring your sg down? That will probably take years to mellow out enough to drink. Cheers

 

[Krayton]

I'll bite.... You're an idiot. Ok maybe not but don't you feel better now? ;-)
It looks like you are fermenting in a bucket. Why not add a bit of water to bring your sg down? That will probably take years to mellow out enough to drink. Cheers

There is some room in the bucket so I could add some more water. My worry there is that it will foam over.

 

[Krayton]

We did add another 1.4 liters of water and we got the gravity to 1.150. We will see what happens and if it goes bad I will guilt her into letting me get another bucket of honey lol.

 

[Maylar]

It'll never start. Bring it down to 1.130 if you want a chance of success.

 

[loveofrose]

We did add another 1.4 liters of water and we got the gravity to 1.150. We will see what happens and if it goes bad I will guilt her into letting me get another bucket of honey lol.

It can be done, but not with that yeast. Get some DV10 and use this recipe as a guide:
https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Fuzzynavel/

 

[Krayton]

Note about this morning "IT IS FOAMING LIKE CRAZY!!!!" so I am hoping it is a good sign.

 

[Maylar]

I think the chances are good that it'll stall.

 

[bmwr75]

Going to be really sweet is my guess.

 

[Lefou]

I used US-05 ale yeast on a high gravity mead. As a noob, I read into the alcohol tolerance level of the yeast thinking it would stop fermentation at the 9.5%ABV tolerance of the yeast. I did staggered nutrient additions and de-gassing ... and boy did I get a surprise.

Done right the yeast may go beyond the stated alcohol tolerance level. My mead hit 14% and is still in secondary, clearing over a year later. You're using plain old bread yeast ... there's no telling what might happen given the right conditions, but I would assume a very sweet mead with some fusels.

 

[Krayton]

Yeah we definitely learned that if we are going to us a juice we are going to read the gravity as we mix in the honey or sugar.

 

[bigplunkett]

Id water it down. Make sure u step ur nutrients. And switch yeast.

 

[buzzerj]

Loveofrose is correct again, your bread yeast will stall and leave this sugar concoction of yours very very sweet. Please follow his advice and use a stronger yeast.

 

[Krayton]

So if they do stall is it possible to add the better yeast to the must?

 

[schematix]

i question why you'd put that much time, money and effort into making hooch, but not bother with the $1 pack of wine yeast, or $4 pack of beer yeast from the LHBS.

 

[Krayton]

i question why you'd put that much time, money and effort into making hooch, but not bother with the $1 pack of wine yeast, or $4 pack of beer yeast from the LHBS.

Well the reason behind it was we heard good things about JAOM, JAOM is sweet and really good and they use bread yeast that is the reason we used the bread yeast. In my other batch's we have used good yeast. We messed up by not thinking of the sugar in the Pom juice and the honey. Also it was a last minute build the wife wanted to do so I said sure we will see how it works. But I brought it down to 1.150 and it is bubbling like crazy so I have hope... kinda. If it doesn't work well then we know and we learned something, that is half the fun experimenting and learning. I know everyone has messed up at least once.

 

[Krayton]

I am glad we used honey from my bucket we just got... only spent 14 on the honey, spent way more on the pom juice then anything else. I know that does not change much but it does less the blow if it does not work.

 

[Krayton]

Now that I have it down to 1.150... I really am not to worried the JAOMs recipe is around 1.130. 20 points might make some difference but I don't know time will tell.

 

[Krayton]

I opened it up to degas it and to added nutrient and I barely started to stir it and it is going crazy.

 

[AkTom]

Looks good. I've had bread yeast go to 13%+. As has been said, slightly lower OG finishes quicker and with less hot flavors. Check out "Jacks Apricot Mead" recipe. I've done several variations of it and it is my go to base recipe.
Tom

 

[Krayton]

Okay thank you

 

[buzzerj]

Problem is once the bread yeast craps out you still have residual sugar so the batch ends up really sweet (thats those 20 extra points you were worried about, the 1.150 versus 1.130 SG). And don't add more water, if you do want to "dilute it" use a dry pomegranate melomel (see my second paragraph). If you do add a stronger yeast the earlier the better. If it's been a few days since yeast addition you may have to live with it and chalk it up to an experiment in strong sweet dessert wine after 5 years of aging. But no harm in adding DV10 as soon as you can get it. It's a strong fermenter up to 18% ABV. Just remember the higher you go in starting gravity, the longer you will need to age the batch. Better to plan well beforehand. With meads for right now target a starting gravity in the 1.085 to 1.100 range so you get a 12-13% ABV and can drink it in a year. For melomels, I shoot for a 12% ABV dry mead in my batches. Or better yet check out loveofrose's thread on BOMM Bray's One Month Mead, and follow his instructions.

To try to address this one gallon batch that's too sweet and too strong, I'd try the above and make two batches more except shoot for a starting gravity to result in 10% ABV and totally dry. Start with a gravity target of 1.065 for each batch and use the DV10 or EC-1118 or Montrachet or RC212 or Pastuer Red, you pick. Just save the bread yeast for your next Pumpernickel. Then after the two batches are dry and aged say 6 months, blend the three meads to get 3 gallons (15 bottles) of pomegranate melomel at just under 13% and it still might end up on the sweet side (1.010-1.015). But at least it's less sweet. My best advice is that you can still fix this with more batches purposely made to be dry and lower alcohol and blending all three together.

 

[Krayton]

That is very interesting and I will talk to the wife its kinda her baby lol. I did degas it today and I took a gravity it is 1.120 right now. We have made 2 different BOMM's the only difference is we used safbrew abbaye yeast. They were enjoyable. The 2nd one we did had cinnamon, a pitch of nutmeg. Then we racked it to a vanilla bean (for 3 days) and the vanilla is over powering which was a surprise. But back to the pom mead it smells really good and a drop spashed up on my hand it tasted good granted it was sweet lol no guess there lol. The biggest thing is the wife likes sweeter so she may like it as it is. I do really enjoy this learning process and all of the information from all of you guys.

 

[bernardsmith]

The foaming when you add powder is because of what is called nucleation. The gas in the liquid coalesces around those particles and can, relatively speaking, form larger bubbles than they otherwise can. Those bubbles can then take with them the liquid and other particulates in the fermenting liquid and if you are using a carboy rather than a bucket erupt through the neck in a volcano of wine. To prevent this foaming you need to dissolve anything you add in liquid. Fully dissolved nutrients and the like have no microscopically rough edges to create nucleation points.

 

[Krayton]

Update gravity is 1.044 as of 20 January 2017.