Sometimes you wish you could just rewind

[billingsbrew]

Started a mead 9/13. #24 alfalfa honey, 1.5 gallons pomegranate juice, 3quarts black current juice, #3.75 raisin, 3gallons RO water, 1-tbsp gypsum, 1-tbsp calcium cloride, 1-tbsp. yeast starter, 1-tbsp. yeast nutrient. OG 1.142. Three packs rehydrated 71B-1122 yeast. After 6 days gravity was only down 40 points. Split it into two batches and continued with the 1122 in one batch which is now down to 1.046. The other batch has 1118 (which by now has 5 rehydrated packs of this yeast) is down to only 1.058. This after repitching, more nutrient and aerating both batches when they were at 1.102. Checked the PH and it was at 3.56. Added 5 tsp of calcium carbinate to each batch this raised the PH to 4.26 and I raised the heat on the 1118 to 78 degrees. Now you can see what I meant by rewind. Never formulate your Mead recipe while consuming large quantities of fermented malt grains. Further more don't attempt to fix your mistakes in the same fashion. Oh we'll I could always turn it into a port wine!

 

[bernardsmith]

This may be salvageable. Not sure I can estimate the volume of mead you have but it looks like about 8 gallons of liquor. Is it? If that is correct then you have about 3.5 lbs of sugar in each gallon (approx 1.140) . If you added another 2 gallons of water to dilute the liquor you would reduce that amount to about 2.8 lbs per gallon or the equivalent starting gravity of about 1.120 (still high but not out in the stratosphere). If you added another 3 gallons - rather than 2 (again assuming your starting volume was 8 gallons) then your starting gravity would be equivalent to about 2.5 lbs of sugar per gallon or about 1.100 which is a potential ABV of about 13 %. You may want to add more nutrient and energizer to the liquor.
Downside is that this solution will dilute your pomegranate and your black current. Upside you may be able to bottle 11 gallons of melomel

 

[billingsbrew]

It's too late for that now. The batch with 1122 is down to 1.046 and the batch with 1118 is down to 1.056. All I can do now is to ride it out. Who knows maybe they'll both work out fine. Next time though I will pay more attention to the starting gravity. I was just hoping that the 1122 would create a more rounded smoother mead with only a one-year aging requirement.