Stuck(?) mead

[Bitty]

I have a mead that I thought was stuck, but my rescue attempt appears to have been either futile or unnecessary, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

OG: 1.130
Yeast: Lalvin K1V-1116
Not heated, just honey mixed with filtered water, aerated, added nutrient and pitched after properly hydrating the yeast.

Fermentation stopped at 1.038. I followed the Hightest document on restarting a stuck fermentation using some more K1V-1116, which has worked flawlessly for me the couple times I've needed it. There appeared to be reasonable activity for a few days, then about a week later it started dropping clear. I pulled a sample just now, and it's at 1.035. It's brilliantly clear and all the funky/odd aromas and flavors are gone, but they've been replaced by a subtle caramel-like aroma and flavor. It's going away a little as I let it breathe, but I get the impression that it's not going to go away entirely. What surprises me the most is that it's not cloyingly sweet. If that caramel-like attribute ages out, it will likely be a rather tasty aperitif.

The big question: Should I bother trying to get this thing going again to blow off that odd flavor, or just transfer it off the yeast and bulk age it for a while to see what happens?

 

[fatbloke]

Well using the phone so can't look up the exact numbers but tbats got to be IRO 12% or so....

If your nutrient calcs were right for about 17.5% then the most likely issue would be pH.....

 

[Bitty]

According to my test strips, it's right around 4, just a tad under. Definitely far closer to 4 than 3.

 

[fatbloke]

According to my test strips, it's right around 4, just a tad under. Definitely far closer to 4 than 3.

Litmus papers are notoriously inaccurate. Are they wine range ones ? Or standard wide range ? (I have some for kombucha that record between 2.8 and 4.4 pH.....but also have a pH meter).

If you're happy with it, just cold crash it and then rack onto stabilising chems.......

Oh and K1V isnt recommended for restarting stuckies, EC-1118 is and apparently Uvaferm 43 is king of restart yeasts but its a bit of a nutrient hog.....

 

[Bitty]

I used the wine range ones. I remember hearing about the .3 inaccuracy in the Colorphast strips, so I don't trust them too much and it's why I gave the wide range. I just use them to see if I'm in the ballpark. One of these days I'll be able to afford that bench meter...

I wasn't aware of the K1V issue, I'll have to update my sheet. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yeah, I'll probably just call it done at this point. That caramel flavor almost completely disappeared after an hour in the glass, so that's encouraging.