Stuck during primary fermentation

[MedievalWays]

Howdy folks,

I am fairly new to the mead community. I have thus far completed one 2 gallon batch and one 5 gallon batch of mead and am currently brewing 2 more 5 gallon batches of mead.

One of my new batches appears to be stuck during primary fermentation in my bucket. So here is some background information. It is a recipe that I modified from "Cherry Berry Mead by SD-SLIM".

Starting volume: 6.5 gallons
OG: 1.124 (before adding fruit)
Yeast: Lalvin 71B-1122 (10g, 2 packets)
Energizer: 2.5 tsp
Nutrient: 0.5 tsp

Ingredients:
10 lbs strawberries
2 lbs cherries
1 quart white grape juice
1 quart cherry juice
12 lbs desert honey

I took my OG reading before adding the cherries and strawberries (in a mesh bag) to the must. At about day 3 we had an overflow through the airlock hole in the fermenter lid. I assume there was not enough head space for the bubbles that were created in the fermenter and it overflowed. After the event, the airlock was still rapidly bubbling away until today when the airlock completely stopped with activity. I checked to see if the airlock was blocked and it is not.

Is my mead stuck? What else could this be? How should I proceed?

Thank you

 

[fatbloke]

Howdy folks,

I am fairly new to the mead community. I have thus far completed one 2 gallon batch and one 5 gallon batch of mead and am currently brewing 2 more 5 gallon batches of mead.

One of my new batches appears to be stuck during primary fermentation in my bucket. So here is some background information. It is a recipe that I modified from "Cherry Berry Mead by SD-SLIM".

Starting volume: 6.5 gallons
OG: 1.124 (before adding fruit)
Yeast: Lalvin 71B-1122 (10g, 2 packets)
Energizer: 2.5 tsp
Nutrient: 0.5 tsp

Ingredients:
10 lbs strawberries
2 lbs cherries
1 quart white grape juice
1 quart cherry juice
12 lbs desert honey

I took my OG reading before adding the cherries and strawberries (in a mesh bag) to the must. At about day 3 we had an overflow through the airlock hole in the fermenter lid. I assume there was not enough head space for the bubbles that were created in the fermenter and it overflowed. After the event, the airlock was still rapidly bubbling away until today when the airlock completely stopped with activity. I checked to see if the airlock was blocked and it is not.

Is my mead stuck? What else could this be? How should I proceed?

Thank you

Well your first issue is the OG vs Yeast. 71B is a 14% yeast, and a starting gravity of 1.124 ?

Presuming 1.000 as "finished", then that is a drop of 124 points, which equates directly to 16.8% ABV.

103/104 points drop is a fraction either side of 14% ABV, so it's likely that you may have reached tolerance max.

Plus even without trying to crunch the numbers for the energiser/nutrient, I'm suspecting that may also be a little light for 6.5 gallons US.

Ergo, presuming that it reached tolerance, you'd be left with 20 points from the honey (taking it as you said about the OG reading taken before the fruit - presumably it was all the liquids so you factored the fruit sugars in the juice(s) into the measurement), plus the fruit sugars from the fruit itself.

So is it stuck ? Don't know. What's the current reading ?

 

[MedievalWays]

Upon measuring the mead gravity, I received 0.994
Of note, the original measurement was 1.120 at 90 degrees F so I added 0.004 to account for that. This new 0.994 gravity was measured at 75 degrees, so I added no compensation.

 

[Yooper]

Upon measuring the mead gravity, I received 0.994
Of note, the original measurement was 1.200 at 90 degrees F so I added 0.004 to account for that. This new 0.994 gravity was measured at 75 degrees, so I added no compensation.

It sounds about done. It may drop a few points more yet but it's close to finished if it's not quite there yet.

I think you mean your OG was 1.120(?) and not 1.200 but it's hard to say.

 

[MedievalWays]

Correct, sorry. OG was 1.120 and I adjusted to 1.124 for temperature.