When and How do you know when it is time to bottle your mead?

[nate85]

I have been reading a book by Steve Platz and I am still a bit unsure of how to know the fermentation has slowed or stopped enough to bottle. This is my first batch i have made and is in secondary.

I have been taking readings every so often (every couple weeks or so) and it seem that the yeast are slowing down.

Since I am sure you will need more info:

Wild Flower Honey Mead
~3 lb per gallon (2 gallon batch)

Did SNA

Started 3/5/17
Transferred to secondary on 3/25/17
re-racked off sediment on 4/9/17
Started really clearing up after re-racking off sediment.

Starting Gravity was ~1.115
3/25/17 ~1.060
4/9/17 ~1.050
4/22/17 ~1.044
4/30/17 ~1.042

Hopefully this is enough info.

So do you continue to monitor the SG and wait until it is no longer changing?

 

[fossilcat]

First of all, kudos to you for taking gravity readings. It's the only way of knowing what's going on with your ferment. Many people count bubbles - very unreliable.

However, you racked to secondary too soon. Generally, it's best to wait until your gravity is around 1.005 or less (unless of course you've back sweetened). The strength of your ferment that you established with SNA (another excellent practice, did you re-hydrate too?) was reduced when you racked away what was probably a very healthy yeast population. This will slow or stall your ferment, or cause the yeast to go dormant. As is, this batch may not reach it's potential.

But you're at about 10% alcohol right now. If you've used a yeast with a tolerance close to that you may be done. What yeast did you use?

The only way to truly tell is if the hydrometer doesn't move after multiple readings over about a week or so. If you're close, you can bottle and let it finish in the bottle, but I'd recommend caps so the buildup of CO2 doesn't blow the corks.

However, I've got a feeling that your yeast is probably rated for an alcohol tolerance of around 14%, and that early rack has caused the ferment to slow considerably. If that is indeed the case (let's hope it hasn't stopped, 1.040 is intolerably sweet, for me at least) you should plan on storing it in the carboy for another 3, 4, .... months and check the gravity every couple of weeks until it stops.

In the mean time you should start another batch. :rockin:

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi nate85 - and welcome. Yeah, One of the problems when you rack too soon is that you can remove a very significant amount of the yeast colony and so it can take a great deal of time for the gravity to drop in the secondary. Totally, agree with fossilcat: you want to rack when the gravity has fallen close to 1.005.
I tend to want my fermentations to end within about two weeks (perhaps three at most) . Your fermentation is taking almost 2 months.
You say you added nutrients (the SNA) but you don't say that you effectively aerated the must before you added the yeast and degassed a couple of times a day after the fermentation has started.
You don't provide any data on the temperature you are fermenting at. You might want to increase the temp to about 70- 75 F to see if that might help kick start the fermentation.
Good luck

 

[nate85]

First off, thank you fossilcat and bernardsmith for your input as it is invaluable! I'll see if i can fill in the blanks here as what you are saying makes sense. In hopes this also will be read by others and help them out as well.

First of all, kudos to you for taking gravity readings. It's the only way of knowing what's going on with your ferment. Many people count bubbles - very unreliable.

I will take the kudos where i can

However, you racked to secondary too soon.

LOL, I guess you can't have your kudos and make mead too..

This was something I wondered about.. So here was my issue (somewhat comical): When I made this batch I was a bit unsure/confused as how the volume would pan out. I had both a 2 gallon bucket and a 6 gallon bucket. When attempting to plan out how much volume I would have, I soon realized that 6 lbs of honey and 2 gallons of water would not fit in the 2 gallon bucket. So I began my must in the 6 gallon. Of course I then found that after adding my additional water a little at a time to get to my target SG i ended up at 1-7/8 gallons.. My first mistake was leaving it in the 6 gallon bucket. There so much head space I never witnessed the airlock bubble once. After doing SNA (some what half-a$$ed, ill explain later) and letting it sit for 20 days in all, i began to worry about oxidation. This was the reason for racking to secondary so soon.

The funny part is that i realize (now) that if i had only taken some gravity readings I would have known..:smack:

did you re-hydrate too?

Yes. With Go-Ferm.

What yeast did you use?

EC-1118 i believe it has a tolerance of 18% (could be a while haha)

Carboy for another 3, 4, .... months and check the gravity every couple of weeks until it stops.

Sounds like a plan!

In the mean time you should start another batch. :rockin:

Great minds think alike! Already have.. this time in 2 pretty full 2 gallons. The airlocks are bubbling like mad! :rockin:
Which does bring up another question.. i may make a separate thread for, but in short how to best add vanilla, spices, and orange peel to get the most effective flavoring? and also keep them sanitary?.. this will be happening soon as these 2 new batches are going on 2 weeks in primary.

Hi nate85 - and welcome.

Thank you!

Yeah, One of the problems when you rack too soon is that you can remove a very significant amount of the yeast colony and so it can take a great deal of time for the gravity to drop in the secondary.

Duly noted!

You say you added nutrients (the SNA) but you don't say that you effectively aerated the must before you added the yeast and degassed a couple of times a day after the fermentation has started.

Aerating the must before pitching the yeast I believe I covered pretty well. However you got me on the degassing part.. my poor excuse is this; the week after first making this batch work got a lot more hectic then I had planned. As a result I did SNA but only tended to the day that feeding occurred (day 1 w/ must,3,5,8). The other days I missed degassing

You don't provide any data on the temperature you are fermenting at. You might want to increase the temp to about 70- 75 F to see if that might help kick start the fermentation.
Good luck

I did note that info as follows:
~Re-hydration temp started at 104 F
~after 18min it was at 92 F
~I did have to do 1 A tempering step to get the yeast temp down as the Must was 72 F. Ended up pitching yeast at 79 F.
~typical primary temps were between 65-70 F (which now seems low)

They were kept in my basement as this is the best place to keep a constant temperature.

Again thank you both for you input!!

 

[fossilcat]

So a couple of thoughts and then Ive got to go - I'm at work...

Your process is touching on all the important parts of mead making. You're much further ahead at the start than I was, so of course, I'm jealous.

Re-hydration builds your yeast population with appropriate nutrients for current and future cell growth. It reduces your lag time. Aeration during this period is important for cell growth (reproduction), not important for the processing of sugar to CO2 and alcohol. This is why you aerate before pitch and through lag but not after. Once the appropriate biomass has been reached, the yeast population has stabilized and they start concentrating on the honey.

If you need to atemperate after 30 min during the re-hydration process, you should add some must - maybe about 20% of your re-hydration volume - or the yeast begin to starve. DON'T add any of your SNA nutrients at this point or anywhere during the lag phase - DAP may injury the newly hydrated yeast cells. I shoot for a must temp of around 85*. That seems to work within the 30 min window without atempering. I add must anyway around 20 min to help the yeast aclimate to the must environment.

1118 is a fermentation freight train. Keeping it below 65* is a must or, if left unchecked, it will tear through your honey, blow the honey taste out of the airlock, and leave behind fusels. However, since you no longer have a healthy biomass to process the honey effectively (stress free) raising the temperature to 75* as bernardsmith suggests my inspire the yeast to begin/increase production in a temp zone it finds more aggreeable. You'll just have to age longer.

CO2 raises the acidic level (pH down) of your must and is a stess point if not mitigated. That's why you degas. Degassing also reduces stratification so you have a more even ferment, gets the lazy yeast off the bottom, and helps clear later in your secondary. Shortens your fermentation too. I've given up trying to target an exact volume. I shoot for around 2.5 gals so I have extra to compensate for racking loss, but I'm more concerned with OG. So i use 6.5 gal bucket for all my batches now. For 2.5 to 3 gals of must I probably get around 1.5 to almost 2 gals of bubbles when degassing during the first week of ferment. Head space is not a detriment during the fermentation phase, it's an asset.