problem with some honey beer - (metheglin)

[boozeboy]

hey i found an old recipe for honey beer (using honey as the only sugar source i.e no malt) however the fermentation is very very slow, after about a week it has only gained in 1% alc volume out of a total 5.5% (average)
so whats up anyone?

the recipie used 500g (1.1lb) of honey
30g of hops
yeast
and one lemon (rind and juice)
and 4.4 liters of water

 

[mosyslack]

Sounds like you've made a mead with hops essentially. If you look through the mead forums, the fermentation is much slower due to less nutrients for the yeast. If you add some yeast nutrients that may help. I just made my first mead, and the fermentation has resulted in no "krausen" (whatever the mead term is...?) but vigorous activity in the air lock.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

What you've made is called metheglin, a variety of mead. It should ferment slowly. What are the specific gravity readings (original and current)?

 

[boozeboy]

well it doesn't list one in the recipe funny enough but i checked the hydrometer before pitching the yeast and it read 1035 i also added some nutrient

 

[boozeboy]

also the recipe said honey beer so apologies for putting this in the wrong forum to start with

 

[Liquisky]

I was thinking of making mead with hops. How is yours going?

 

[hightest]

.. i found an old recipe for honey beer ...however the fermentation is very very slow, after about a week it has only gained in 1% alc volume out of a total 5.5% (average)
so whats up anyone? the recipe used 500g (1.1lb) of honey, 30g of hops, yeast, and one lemon (rind and juice), and 4.4 liters of water

Using your recipe, I calculate your OG should be ~1.034, which is very near your measurement.

Although a very low OG for a mead, it should do fine. Yet, there are a few things that are working against you. First, the lemon. If you read the Mead FAQs in this forum, you will find that fermenting honey can be problematic as it contains little in the way of nutrition for the yeast and has poor pH buffering capabilities, and yeast do not flourish in an acidic environment. Add to that the fact that the process of fermentation serves to acidify the must - a double "whamy"...

Second, you do not state what type of yeast you used. Some yeast require more nuritients than others, and not all yeast types do well at cooler temps.

 

[boozeboy]

well i bottled it a week ago and primed with half a teaspoon of sugar and shall sample next week (yes its sparkling), it was racked well and is clear but we will see for the taste test, also i used muntons gold yeast

 

[malkore]

/sigh

so you have no idea what yer doing, said it only fermented to 1% alcohol by volume...and then you bottled it with some sugar.

what was the hydrometer reading when you bottled? if it wasn't down to say, 1.010 or damn close...you're gonna have exploding bottles soon....

 

[boozeboy]

/sigh

so you have no idea what yer doing, said it only fermented to 1% alcohol by volume...and then you bottled it with some sugar.

what was the hydrometer reading when you bottled? if it wasn't down to say, 1.010 or damn close...you're gonna have exploding bottles soon....

note that i opened this topic a month ago? by now fermentation has finished and it was down to 1.009 when i bottled

 

[BBBF]

I was thinking of making mead with hops. How is yours going?

I've made something similar to this on two occasions. Once with just honey and hops and then again with honey, blueberries and hops. It's pretty good. It's very light and refreshing. It's not really beer, not really wine, but hits the spot on a hot day.

You can drink it right away, but the flavor changes over the first couple months.