HI, This is my first batch of Mead at 5 gallons, and my second time doing this, first time on my own. I had 5 gal. of water, which I added 18 lbs of Honey too that I used 2 Packs of Lalvin EC-1118 to ferment. It has been going well, and started to slow down to about one bubble for every 10 seconds on day 7. I added 5 tsp of DAP, on day 7, it start bubbling one bubble every 3 to 4 seconds. On day 10 I checked it and it is right were I want it to be for ABV. I put in 1/4 tsp of Potassium Metabisulfite, and 2.5 tsp. of Potassium sorbate. I checked on it today day 11 and it is still bubbling around one bubble every 10 seconds. Should I give it more time to stop, or should I put more of something in it. Any suggestions would be great. Right now it seems perfect for ABV Level and not being to strong. Thanks for your assistance.
Stopping Fermentation
- Thread starter Shammarr
- Start date
-
- Tags
- fermentation
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Hi Shammarr - and welcome. I think when yeast are actively fermenting, adding K-sorbate with K-meta is a little like trying to stop a warship with a brick. Preventing re-fermentation is not quite the same thing as getting yeast to stop chomping on the available sugars. What is the current gravity? (you might want to purchase an hydrometer. That's really the only necessary tool in wine making). But all that said, one thing you might try is to quickly chill the your mead. At near freezing temperatures the yeast stop fermenting and drop out of solution. When they do you can rack your mead off the yeast so you have greatly reduced the size of the yeast colony. I would repeat this process a couple more times and then there may be few enough yeast cells re,aining for a dose of sorbate and k-meta to inhibit fermentation..
Thanks SG was 1.090, Gravity on day 10 Wednesday it was at 1.020 so the honey is almost gone from my guess. Thanks I guess I learned something new. LoL. Well I will be backsweeting it a lot more than I planned. Thanks for the information and assistance.
